Agenda and minutes

Councillor Ghani, the Cabinet Member for Enforcement & Community Safety and Chair opened the December 2022 Community Safety Partnership (CSP) Board and apologies were noted.

No declarations of interest to note.

The October 2022 CSP board minutes were approved. The following actions have been completed:

- ACTION: Daniel James to contact Stuart Bell about access to police data (COMPLETED).

- ACTION: Andy Opie and Chris Lyons to meet and create a timetable of the tasks and governance processes that need to be completed leading up to the publication of the 2023-2026 CSP Plan and share this with CSP board members, sub-group chairs its members (COMPLETED).

- ACTION: Amolak Tatter to draw up a plan of how to bring an element of the Combatting Drugs Partnership and share this in Decembers 2022 CSP board for approval (COMPLETED).

- ACTION: Chris Lyons to share the Women's Safety Comms Campaign plan with CSP members when finalised (COMPLETED).

- ACTION: Daniel Thompson to inform Chris Lyons and Andy Opie of when walk and talks take place so this can be promoted through the Women's Safety Comms Campaign (COMPLETED).

- ACTION: Chris to share the National Hate Crime Awareness Week event plan with CSP board members (COMPLETED).

- ACTION: Angela D’Urso and Chris Lyons to meet outside of the CSP board to discuss how the priorities in the VAWG group and CSP Strategy link up (COMPLETED).

• As a part of the government's new 10-year Drug Strategy, legislation states that a Combatting Drug Partnership (CDP) Board must be formed.

Ø  Three main ambitions of the 10-year Drug Strategy:

1. Breaking drug supply chains 

2. Deliver a world-class treatment and recovery system

3. Reduce the demand for recreational drugs 

·  The implementation of the 10-year Drug Strategy subsequently means there will be an increase in core funding to tackle drug misuse in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham (LBBD). 

·  Partnership working is another key component of the CDP as tackling the misuse of drugs and alcohol is ‘everyone’s business'. LBBD does well in terms of partnership working but it would be useful to also access additional intelligence that further informs how we can take this drug strategy forwards. 

·  The CDP will be renamed to include tackling alcohol abuse due to the increased alcohol use in LBBD, especially since the beginning of the Covid-19 Pandemic. This new group will be named Combatting Drugs & Alcohol (CDA) Meeting. 

·  The purpose and membership of the CDA significantly overlaps that of the Community Safety Partnership (CSP). To avoid duplication of work and increase efficiency, it is proposed to devote the CSP some strategic oversight of the CDA by creating a combined ‘Community Safety and Substance Misuse Partnership (CS&SMP) Board. 

·  The CS&SMP Board will feature the CDA Meeting as an additional sub-group whereby the majority of operational work is carried out and deliver quarterly updates to the board to ensure legislative strategic oversight. 

Nathan Singleton questioned if the funding to carry out the government’s 10-year Drug Strategy came from the Standard Public Health Grant. Amolak Tatter responded that as well as an increase in the Public Health Grant, LBBD received an additional Universal Grant last year. The Universal grant was used to commission the creation of a Complex Criminal Justice Team with an identified range of expertise across children’s and adult social care. For this year and next, the Supplementary Grant will sustain the funding of the Complex Criminal Justice Team, as well as increase the work that is being carried out to tackle drug and alcohol misuse, recovery, and relapse prevention. 

Nathan Singleton further quired how partnership working could be improved in light of partners no longer having access to police databases. Andy Opie and Stuart Bell confirmed that there is a new system being created under a new framework within the police, which partners will have access to when completed. 

Amolak Tatter informed that there is a Drugs and Alcohol needs assessment that has been drafted and is due to be circulated. Having access to police and wider partner intelligence will be crucial in the finetuning of the Drugs and Alcohol needs assessment, as this document will inform where the gaps are within the service. This will therefore influence LBBD’s 5-year Drugs and Alcohol Strategy priorities, the subsequent action plan, and the re-commissioning of providers. 

Amolak Tatter also noted the cultural competencies work will begin in January 2023. Over  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

Chris Lyons outlined the items that would be presented in March’s 2023 CSP:

• Women's Safety Update 
• CCTV Update
• Local Violence and Vulnerability Action Plan
• Substance Misuse Profile 
• Update of DHR. 
• Local Violence and Vulnerability Action Plan
• Substance Misuse Profile 
• Update of DHR. 

No sub-group updates were presented.

No sub-group updates were presented.

No sub-group updates were presented.

·  Every three years the Community Safety Partnership (CSP) Board are required by legislation to develop an overarching Community Safety Partnership Plan. 

·  The plan provides an overview of the work and priority areas that fall under the responsibility of the CSP which is informed by the Crime and Disorder Strategic Assessment which shapes and sets out activities to address local and MOPAC priorities for reducing crime and disorder. 

·  The plan is published on the council website to keep the residents of the borough informed on the progress of the CSP.

CSP Plan Timeline: 

1. Strategic Assessment priorities agreed (October 2022) 
2. CSP subgroup chairs consultation on the rewriting of the plan (Late November 2022) 
3. CSP board members workshop (December 2022) 
4. Draft plan circulated to CSP board members (January 2023) 
5. Formal sign-off of CSP Plan at the CSP Board (March 2023)
6. Paper delivered to LBBD Corporate Strategy Group (April 2023) 
7. Approval from members at LBBD Cabinet (May 2023)

Key Findings from the Crime and Disorder Strategic Assessment:

·  In Barking and Dagenham in 2021/22, all major crime types had exceeded pre covid 19 levels except for the following offence types: burglary, robbery, theft, and vehicle.

·  In 2021/22 there was a total of 20,560 offences recorded by the Police - an increase of 1,931 offences (+10.4%) from the previous year. 

Recommendations from the Crime and Disorder Strategic Assessment 2022:

Ø  Based on this year’s assessment of offence volume, cost, and estimated harm the existing priority crime and disorder types should remain priorities in 2022/23. 

This includes:

• Violence Against Women and Girls (mandatory high harm MOPAC priority area)
• Gun Crime (Mandatory high harm MOPAC priority area)
• Hate Crime (mandatory high harm MOPAC priority area)
• Knife Crime (mandatory high harm MOPAC priority area)
• Sexual Offences (mandatory high harm MOPAC priority area)
• Anti-Social Behaviour (mandatory high harm MOPAC priority area)
• Non-Domestic Abuse Violence With Injury (Agreed MOPAC high volume Priority)
• Robbery of Personal property (agreed MOPAC high volume priority) 
• Adult and Juvenile reoffending (locally set)
• Arson (locally set)

Community Safety Partnership Plan Workshop feedback:

1. Is anything missing in the plan that has been identified as a priority In the strategic assessment?

o  Group 1 – Andy 

- Burglary: This crime is down within the borough and across wider London though this continues a priority set by the Met’s Police Crime Commissioner. Is this both residential and non-residential burglary?

- Knife Crime: Reducing serious violence Is a key priority for MOPAC’s Police and Crime Plan.

- Safety of young people online:

Ø  Access to fraudulent crime due to financial vulnerability and the cost-of-living crisis through social media apps. 

Ø  Social media apps such as Tik Tok and Snapchat are being used to sell and promote the drug market and are also being used to exploit young people into county lines and gang-related activity. 

Ø  Social media makes young people more exposed to being victims of anonymised hate crimes as well as increasing the likelihood of people becoming perpetrators of hate crimes. 

o  Group 2 – Chris 

- Disconnect between the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10.

         Community Safety Partnership Board

         Wednesday 29th March, 10:00am-13:00pm

         Venue: Microsoft Teams 

         Chair: Stuart Bell