Agenda and minutes

Community Safety Partnership Board

Wednesday 5^th October 2022, 10.00-13.00, MS Teams

Members Present:Andy Opie, Alison Stuart, Angie Fuller, Angela D’Urso, Chris Lyons, Councillor Elizabeth Kangethe, Councillor Maureen Worby, Councillor Syed Ghani (CHAIR), Daniel James, Narinder Dail, Nathan Singleton, Pip-Salvador Jones, Stuart Bell (Interim Chair), Zahid Iqbal.

Additional Attendees:Amolak Tatter, Daniel Thompson, Gary Jones, Ilirjeta Buzoku (NOTE TAKER), Simon Cornwall, Steve Calder.

Apologies:April Bald, Fiona Taylor, Jennie Coombes

1.  Introductions and Apologies for Absence

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

2.  Declarations of Interest

No declarations of interest to note.

3.  Minutes – Wednesday 29^th June 2022

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

- ACTION: Tamara Barnett to contact Andy Opie about what services Mayors London Policing and Crime (MOPAC) can offer to reinforce the PCP priorities (COMPLETED).

- ACTION: Andy Opie to invite Street Space representatives Tegan Mills and Phillipa Banister to the next Barking Town Centre meeting for a more detailed discussion (COMPLETED).

- ACTION: Angela D’Urso to set up VAWG strategic group meetings for the future (COMPLETED).

- ACTION: Martin Rolston to help Daniel James to navigate through the new police software system coming in September 2022 if required to further partnership working and the CDSA work (COMPLETED).

- ACTION : Martin Rolston to send data surrounding VAWG areas in LBBD for comparison analysis with identified unsafe areas (COMPLETED).

- ACTION: Andy Opie to contact colleagues within IVOLT to start work around doing more analysis on the types of crimes that are occurring in parks (COMPLETED).

- ACTION: Amolak Tatter, Paul Waller and partners need to present a broader update on the drugs market and emerging government drug strategies as the main agenda item in Septembers CSP meeting (COMPLETED).

4.  RESTRICTED: Crime and Disorder Strategic Assessment 2021/2022

The Crime and Disorder Strategic Assessment (CDSA) 2021/22 showcases to Community Safety Partnership (CSP) members an analysis of crime, disorder, substance misuse and environmental degradation adversely affecting the residents of Barking and Dagenham with the aim of identifying the priorities for the year ahead. The evidence of priority areas to focus on ultimately shape the Community Safety Partnership Plan that is reviewed and updated every 3 years as well as the CSP sub-groups.

•  Daniel James noted there were no significant changes to the CSP priority areas or the CSP structures.

Performance overview:

2020/21 vs 2021/22:

•  All major crime types had exceeded pre covid 19 levels except for the following offence types:

  - Burglary offences

  - Robbery offences

  - Theft offences

  - Vehicle offences

•   In 2021/22 there was a grand total of 20,560 offences reported up 1,931 offences (+10.4%) on the 18,629 offences reported in 2020/21. Of the 1,931 additional offences:

•  Violence Against the Person offences accounted for 37.5% (mainly VWOI – ongoing improvements in recording):

-Theft offences (20.7%) - ongoing improvements in recording.

  -Public Order (12.5%) -ongoing improvements in recording.

  -Vehicle Offences (12.1%) – genuine increase

  -Arson & Criminal Damage – 11.4% (CD = ongoing improvements in recording)

Statistically significant increases in:

•  Non-DA Abuse Violence With Injury

•  Other Firearms offences

•  Theft of motor vehicle

Crime Volume vs Harm vs Cost:

The crimes committed in the borough at the highest volume and rates have been ranked and analysed in order to apply the estimated costs and harm scores to Barking and Dagenham. This analysis has led to a focus on the priorities below:

Current Priorities:

 - Non-Domestic Abuse Violence With Injury (with a focus on Serious Youth Violence)

  - Robbery of Personal property

 - Domestic Abuse Offences (mandatory high harm priority)

 - Sexual Offences (mandatory high harm priority)

 - Fire Safety - Arson (low volume but high harm and current high rank within London)

- ASB (mandatory MOPAC priority)

Sanction Detection Rates:

Daniel James stated that sanction detection rates are generally areas for improvement and are low across London as well as well nationally. There are some improvements being made, but there is a programs of work identified through some of the documents that have been made available through the police like the MP’s Force management plan where it identifies the kind of actions being to increase sanction detection rates for offences.

Ward Level data:

Ward level offence figures for Barking and Dagenham continues to show Abbey ward (Barking Town Centre) as being the ward with the highest volume of crime for most crime types in 2021/22. Efforts should continue with the Barking Town Centre management meetings to address the levels of crime and disorder in this area.

Partnership Indicators:

Daniel James shared that an assessment of partnership crime indicators within the borough  are also carried out in comparison to the national average. The following crimes/ incidents recorded are as follows:

- London Fire Brigade: primary  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

5.  Plan for Community Safety Partnership 2023-2026

The CSP Planprovides an overview of the work and priority areas that fall under the responsibility of the CSP. The plan is informed by the annual Crime and Disorder Strategic Assessments (CDSA)  and will help shape and set out the activities to address local and MOPAC priorities to reducing crime and disorder.

Chris Lyons presented that the 2019-2022 CSP Plan is coming to an end. The 2019-2022 plan includes the following priorities:

·  Keeping children and young people safe

·  Tackling crimes that affect people the most

·  Reducing re-offending

·  Standing up to hate, intolerance and extremism

·  Tackling violence against women and girls

The CDSA 2021/22 assessment will aid in reviewing the priorities and consider the structure of the 2023-2026CSP Plan. The 2021/22 CDSA shows that trends of crime are similar, which likely means that the priorities for the renewed CSP Plan will not change significantly. Chris Lyons notes that there will have to be some additional focus on womens safety, the Cost-of-Living Crisis and how it will affect residents, as well as burglary as a new priority of the Metropolitan Police Service Commissioner. The 2023-2026 CSP Plan is due for publication no later than Friday 31^st March 2023.

Recommendations Approved:

- CSP board members to approvethe 2021/22 Crime and Disorder Strategic Assessment.

- For each CSP subgroup to review the CDSA and assess how each group will support the delivery of the actions and KPIs set out in assessment.

- The CSP board members approved the recommendation to hold the next CSP board meeting in person at the Barking Learning Centre on Wednesday 7^th December 2022.

- The CSP board members approved the recommendation for sub-group chairs and its members to be available to contribute towards discussions around the plan for 2023-2026 leading up to and during Decembers CSP in a workshop style session.

- The CSP Board approved the recommendation to carry out public consultation in relation to the development of the 2023-3026 Community Safety Plan.

Action: Andy Opie and Chris Lyons to meet and create a timetable of the tasks and governance processes that needs 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.

6.  Drugs Strategy and Combating Drugs Partnership

The government’s 10-year Drug Strategy has been introduced to combat illegal drugs supplied by criminal gangs to give people with a drug addiction a route to a drug free life. Over the next 3 years, a £3 billion investment will be targeted towards reducing drug-related crime, death, harm, and overall drug use. National and local partners will focus on delivering the statutory strategic priorities:

·  Break drug supply chain

·  Deliver a world-class treatment and recovery system (investment of £780 million over next 3 years)

·  Achieve a generational shift in demand for drugs

On reflection of the government strategy priorities outlined, Amolak Tatter began to describe what work was being implemented locally to tackle drug usage:

·  A substance and mis-use consultant has been brought in to carry out a needs assessment that identify what parts of the service are working well, as well as any improvements that need to be made. This assessment will provide a better understanding of what services need to be commissioned and look into how cultural factors affect substance misuse.

·  Barking and Dagenham Council are developing their own 5-year Drugs and Alcohol Strategy – with a particular focus on alcohol consumption as a widely socially acceptable drug.

·  One adult and one young people drugs and alcohol services have been commissioned.

·  A Complex Criminal Justice Team that has been created and employed by providers to work together.

·  A Shadow Trust has been formed to support people who have been released from prison with learning disabilities reengage with education through 1:1 support.

·  An agreement with our local job centre plus and Department of Working Pensions has seconded a member of staff to support with seeking out educational, employment and training opportunities.

·  Matthew Cole has been assigned as Senior Responsible Office.

·  A Combatting Drugs Partnership is in the process of being established.

Amolak Tatter asked the board if an element of the Combatting Drugs Partnership can be brought as a standing item to the CSP board. Councillor Ghani and Andy Opie advised that a more detailed discussions needs to be held outside the CSP board of how this can be implemented and to return to Decembers CSP with a plan to present to members.

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.

7.  RESTRICTED: Update on VAWG and Domestic Abuse

The East Area BCU Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Strategy 2022-2023 has been created due to the events of the last two years brought violence perpetrated against women and girls into sharp focus, with London’s communities expecting tangible action and outcomes to tackle VAWG. Daniel Thompson proceeds to present a PowerPoint outlining what has been done to combat violence against women and girls (VAWG) locally as well as the East Area BCU VAWG strategy:

Strategic Aims:

- To make EA’s public, private and online spaces for women and girls.

- To deliver the highest possible standard of care and investigation. If that standard is not reached, police will seek to learn and continuously improve, engaging women and girls in our attempt to do so.

- To act as a focal point for VAWG- related activity and align it to a single governance structure that endangers inter-strand and intra-organisational collaboration.

- To quality assure EA’s capacity to identify, investigate and achieve prosecution of VAWG perpetrators.

- To endanger an internal culture that aligns to the organisational vison set out in STRIDE, encourages the challenging of wrong-doing and stands up to public scrutiny of our standards and behaviour.

- To engage our partners third sector VAWG organisations and women across our communities to respond collaboratively to VAWG challenges.

Data on VAWG at a local level:

- The London Borough of Barking and Dagenham (LBBD)  saw 6,795 VAWG offences. 134+ or 2% on the previous reporting period (October 2020-2021).

- Out of the 6,795 offences, 66% were reported as domestic abuse.

- The sanction detection rate  stands at 6.2% which has increased by 0.3% in the last reporting period (October 2020-2021).

- The highest volume of VAWG offences out of London local authority areas was Croydon with 10,570 offences, whilst the lowest volume was Richmond-upon-Thames with 2,601 offences.

- LBBD had the 17^th highest volume of offences in the MPS.

- Since the strategy came into place at the start of the financial year, during Q1 & 2, there have been 3,435 VAWG offences, 66% being domestic abuse reports, with a total sanction detection rate of 5.8%, an +1.2% on the previous reporting period (October 2020-2021).

Victimology of VAWG in LBBD :  Age of Victims of VAWG in LBBD:

- White: 1,007 – 44.8%    - 10-17: 265

- Black: 393 – 17.5%     - 18-24: 372

- Asian: 355- 15.8%  - 25-29: 275

- Other: 11- 0.5%    - 30-39: 677

- Unknown: 482 – 21.4%

Suspects:

- VAWG suspects were 88.6% male (164), and 11.4% female (21).

- 91 suspects (49%) were committing DA crimes.

- 66% of VAWG suspects were over the age of 30.

- In terms of ethnicity, White (52.4%) was the most prevalent suspect identity code, followed by Black (20.5%), Asian (10.3%), Mixed (4.3%), Other (1.6%) and Unknown (10.8%).

Daniel Thompson to feed all information presented into LBBD’s Strategic VAWG group. The next steps for the police are too:

-  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

8.  The Probation Reducing Reoffending Plan 2022-2025

The governments national plan to break the cycle of re-offending has stemmed into the regional Probation Reducing Reoffending Plan which includes joint up work with HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS). The Reducing Reoffending Plan provides an overview of the HMPPS organisation and sets out the shared ambitions to reduce reoffending and make our communities safer.

London as a demographic has clear complexities over any other region as the largest city in the UK, with a population of 9.54 million, resulting in a caseload of 25,531 people on probation in the community and 12,821 in custody.

The priorities of the Probation Reducing Reoffending Plan 2022-2025 are as follows:

1.  Increasing education, training, and employment:

·  By July 2023, London aim to increase the proportion employed six weeks after release by 11 percentage points from 8% in March 2022

·  By July 2023, London aim to increase the proportion employed six months after release by 11 percentage points from 12% in March 2022.

·  The three-year objective is to Increase the number of people on probation utilising the 30% allocation education, training, and employment hours towards their unpaid work total allocation of hours.

2.  Reducing drug and alcohol misuse:

·  The aim is to drive up use of treatment requirements for those who are eligible through new investment, working in collaboration with the courts, NHS, and treatment providers.

·  The three-year objective is to engage more prison leavers who have a substance misuse problem in treatment within 21 days of release

·  Fully embed the new ‘dependency to recovery’ Commissioned Rehabilitative Services within London Probation and prisons.

3.  Increasing family connections and access to accommodation:

·  By July 2023, the aim is for London to increase the proportion housed on the night after release by 40 percentage points from 50% in March 2022

·  By July 2023, London aim to increase the proportion in settled accommodation 3 months after leaving prison by 23 percentage points from 57% in March 2022.

·  The three-year objective is to launch the Community Accommodation Service in London in 2023 – a 12-week transitional housing scheme for prison leavers at risk of homelessness.

4.  Ensure public security through engagement and compliance:

·  By April 2023, London aims to increase the proportion of sexual offence interventions completed by 42 percentage points from 28% in March 2022.

Councillor Ghani asked if Steve Calder could provide an update on Her Majesties Inspection service of Probation. Steve Calder thanked board members that attended the forums and that there were positive indications of partnership working overall.

The CSP board members approved Steve Calder’s recommendation to use the Probation Reducing Reoffending Plan 2022-2025 as an overarching theme for the Reducing Re-offending CSP Sub-Group going forward. The draft report of the inspection rating will be received on the 14^th of November 2022 and the final report published on the 21^st of November.

9.  RESTRICTED: Serious Violence Duty Update

The Serious Violence Duty Is a new statutory amendment that will require local authorities, the police, fire, and rescue authorities, specified criminal justice agencies and health authorities to work together to formulate an evidence-based analysis of the problems associated with serious violence in a local area, and then produce and implement a strategy detailing how they will respond to those particular issues. The expectation of Community Safety Partnerships to start carrying out the requirements below is projected to start between 2023-20424:

These partners are required to:

·  Share data

·  Produce a strategic needs assessment

·  Publish a serious violence strategy

As a part of the new Serious Violence Duty, the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 is being amended to ensure that tackling serious violence is an explicit priority for Community Safety partnerships. Chris Lyons outlines that he and Andy Opie have been in correspondence with the Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) to get a further understanding of what this new duty means for London. Currently, the VRU are working with local authorities to develop the definition of Serious Violence as well as setting up task and finish groups and this can be implemented.

10.  RESTRICTED: Prevent Update

Simon Cornwall noted an Independent review by the Home Office has been completed with their reply in October. The outcome is that there is likely to be a reduction in funding meaning the number of funded boroughs in London will change and there will be more centralized working. From the idea of Prevent funding, East London’s neighbouring boroughs may be grouped together and allocated funding as a ‘larger borough’.

The Channel Panel is still in progress and the referrals have increased since schools started term in September. At present three cases being investigated, though there has been no significant rises recently.

Currently, LBBD have commissioned Brave and Connect future to deliver workshops to LBBD staff and schools around right-wing extremism – this will especially be aimed at Special Education Needs and Disabilities (SEND) schools in particular who have children with learning difficulties. LBBD continue to maintain links with West Ham United Football Club and the Future Leaders Programme who help with managing Chanel Cases and work with individuals to rehabilitate them and re-integrate them into society.

Prevent training is resuming in schools with 4 assemblies running in one school on Friday 7^th October 2022 for pupils, as well as teachers receiving training too. This training will help students build their capacity to resist online radicalization and propaganda perpetuated in the media.

The community outreach facilitated by police is ongoing and continues to be useful as the police have increased access to hard-to-reach communities whereby the prevent dialogue can then be shared.

Simon Cornwall presents the risks that are currently in line with the counter terrorism and local profile:

·  There has been increased tensions in areas such as Birmingham after a 200-person protest took place outside a Hindu temple in reaction to Sadhvi Ritambhara’s plan to host multiple events in UK temples – this has now been called off.

·  Online risk has increased since Jim Chowdhury has been off licence and has recently been on various social media platforms attempting to stir up tensions between the Indian and Pakistani communities.

·  A nationalised Hindu group, Hindutva, have not had much outreach internationally but has recently come to light in the UK in the form of a website.

·  There have been some protests in in East London, particularly around Israel and Palestine, though nothing has embarked into LBBD as of yet. 

·  From a physical point of view there aren’t any graffitiing or stickering that has been identified in LBBD as it has reported in other London boroughs.

Councillor Kangethe questioned what the uptake of the prevent/ anti-right wing extremism training has been in schools and amongst staff and if there has been any resistance towards this offer. Simon Cornwall responded that schools are very keen to get these prevent resources and training by Brave or any MOPAC funded programmes.

11.  Forward Plan

The board reviewed the CSP forward plan and agreed the items listed for the December  2022 board. Board members identified the following future agenda items to be added to the forward plan:

·  Drugs Partnership Profile to be delivered by Amolak Tatter

·  Partnership delivery to the VRU Serious Violence Plan

·  A two-hour CSP Plan 2023-2026 workshop.

ANY OTHER BUSINESS

12.  Any Other Business

No notable updates.

13.  Sub – Group Updates

Hate Crime Intolerance and Extremism Group: National Hate Crime Awareness Week (NHCAW) is commencing between the 8^th- 15^th October. The strands of Hate that LBBD is focusing on this year is on people with disabilities and the LGBTQ+ community. The council has worked with partners to deliver a programme of activities for the week which includes some online training sessions and an information advice stall in Barking Town Centre. A press release for these events will be shared this week, along with Councillor Ghani’s opening video message for NHCAW.

ACTION: Chris to share NHCAW event week plan with CSP board members (COMPLETED).

VAWG -  The VAWG strategic group is in the proves of planning to review and refresh the violence against women and girls’ strategy which expires in 2022. The review is planned to be aligned with the priorities in the new CSP Strategy for increased cohesiveness. The plan for the subgroup in terms of its forward plan was to look at a draft in December, with approval in March.

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.

IVOLT – The IVOLT group has been dissolved and restructured into a ‘weekly tasking meeting’. A variety of internal and external partners are invited where crime and ASB data is shared along with CCTV data. This data serves as predictor as to where partnership resources need to be tasked in terms of priority areas.

14.  Details of next meeting:

  Community Safety Partnership Board

  Wednesday 7^th December, 10:00am-13:00pm

  BLC Conference Room

  Chair: TBC