Agenda item

• The draft of the CSP plan 2023-26 Plan has been circulated through internal governance groups and engagement such as: the CSP Board workshop in December 2022, resident consultation through One Borough Voice and Scrutiny.
• The CSP Plan will go to Cabinet for approval on the 18^th April 2023.

• Community Safety Partnership Board Consultation Workshop December 2022 – High level findings:

-Women’s safety and serious violence are emerging priorities which need to feature more prominently in the next Community Safety plan.

- There is a need to increase visibility of the Police, council, and partners working within our community.

- Cost of living: concerns about the impact on local crime, in particular low level offending and the exploitation of young people.

- Tackling organised crime: Street begging is an issue within the borough and there is an organised crime element which sits behind it such as deploying people to certain areas and also filters down to lower-level crime.

- The local authority and partners should increase their support of grassroots organisations to carry out work that tackles crime and exploitation.

- Amendments should be made to the CSP subgroups to ensure they remain fit for purpose and sharing of good practice from the Barking Town Centre Meeting, Ending Gang and Youth Violence Panel.

- Priority 2 of the CSP plan - ‘Tackling Crimes that affect people the most' is vague and should to be re-named into ‘tackling safety in the neighbourhoods/community’ picking up issues such as anti-social behaviour.

• Barking & Dagenham Community Safety Partnership Plan Online Consultation – February 2023:

- The resident consultation website received 231 visits to the consultation with 37 engagements.

- Residents were in support of the community safety priorities and actions. The highest level of support was received for the following priorities:

- Dedicated approach to reduce knife crime and organised offending across the borough

- Focus on improving visibility of police, council, and partners in the local community

- Having a connected community that respect each other and celebrates different backgrounds

- Educate and communicate the issues around domestic abuse and;

- Challenge abusive behaviours

- Issues that are affecting residents the most included fly tipping, anti-social behaviour and drug use.

• Barking & Dagenham Overview & Scrutiny Committee Comments - February 2023

- The Overview & Scrutiny Committee highlighted the importance of communication between all stakeholders and praised the acknowledgement of this in the Plan.

- The committee noted the need to listen to residents’ voices through the virtual resident engagement event and encouraged the Committee to promote this event in their communities.

- Concerns were noted about the perceived increase in violence towards women and girls.

- The community is conscious about the abstractions of Police officers out of the borough to Police large scale events and the impact this has on local safety.

- The visibility of Police is felt to have reduced and needs to be improved.

- The rise in online crime and the online safety of young people online is an area which needs to have a clear emphasis through the Community Safety Partnership.

- Burglaries have not increased and the need for a continued focus on this area.

- Vehicle crime and particularly the theft of catalytic convertors are an ongoing concern to residents.

- The emergence of cannabis factories in private sector housing and how the Police, Council and partners increase the detection and response to this issue.

Cllr Ghani stated that he will take the CSP Plan 2023- 2026 report to Cabinet for approval on the 18^th April 2023.