Agenda and minutes

To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies for absence were received from the following:

Dr Ita O’Donovan                  -

Mary Pilgrim

Mohammed Maigag

Nims Obunge

Marion Morris

Sharon Kemp

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 15 October as a correct record.

RESOLVED:

That the minutes of the meeting held on 15 October 2008 be confirmed as a correct record.

Members of the Board must declare any personal and/or prejudicial interests with respect to agenda items and must not take part in any discussion required with respect to these items.

No declarations of interest were made.  

The Chair will consider the admission of any items of urgent business. (Late items will be considered under the agenda item where they appear. New items will be considered under Item 12 below).

No items of Urgent Business were received.

A verbal update will be provided by the Police.

The board was advised that the coding around threat still stood at severe. There was currently no immediate intelligence of a threat but there should continue to be heightened sense of awareness.

NOTED

The content of the oral report

Following previous consideration of the board’s terms of reference, these had now revised and put forward for consideration. The board noted that there would be minor amendments to changes in membership and the addition of the Community Link Forum members.

RESOLVED

Agreed that, further to amendments being made to the membership details of the board, that the Terms of Reference be agreed and a final version distributed via email to members of the board.

The board was presented with the performance information for key targets, projects and expenditure for principal targets under the Safer Communities Executive Board for the period between July and September 2008. The board noted that, in the new financial year, the scheduling of the performance reporting would be adjusted to allow consideration of the performance information immediately after the reporting period.  Key performance indicators highlighted were targets relating to perception which would be reliant on the Place survey results due to be reported in January 2009.

In considering this report the board noted that overall performance was good. The   national indicators for serious acquisitive crime rate, first time entrants to the youth justice system aged 10-17, NEETs, preventing violent extremism were on track.  The performance target for theft from motor vehicles remained challenging.  Discussions were taking place with Victim Support about how to effectively measure improvements on the local indicator for victim support services for children and young people.  There had further been a redistribution of funding to allow a post in the ASBAT team to be filled to allow some mitigation against the current red indicator shown against resources in this service. The board was pleased to note that the Government had agreed to the baseline target for repeat victims of domestic violence in the borough being reviewed.

RESOLVED

That the content of the report be noted.

Please note that this report is exempt and is not available to members of the public.

The board was introduced to the report by hearing an example of a real life story of the issues and circumstances which can lead to adult offending and re – offending. The board was asked to take account of the cost to the various systems and services and the community costs that re-offending produces and which can be prevented.  The report proposed to the board that reducing re-offending and monitoring progress should become a core part of the SCEB agenda.

The report discussed how there is a mis-match of services available for those who are statutory offenders (i.e. those under the care of probation services) and those who are non-statutory offenders and receive no support services.  It was reported that one in seven on the Probation caseload currently re-offend and noted that these people were invariably not offending for the first time.  It was suggested that a significant proportion of re-offending is likely to be committed by non-statutory offenders and that further work was required to confirm these assumptions.  The gaps in services available and the importance of the resettlement agenda indicated the need for a time-limited, dedicated Project Manager with agency champions identified and allocated from the 7 report pathways. It was agreed that consideration be given to a pilot project to identify non-statutory offenders possibly by focusing on a couple of prisons and by examining their pathways.

The board learnt that actual investigation into reducing re-offending and a focus on resettlement was a relatively new issue despite having been part of a three-pronged approach to Prolific and Priority Offenders alongside prevention and conviction.  As far as we know, only two boroughs have started any serious work on this (Tower Hamlets and Lewisham) and they are still in the process of compiling a strategy.  It was suggested that Haringey should investigate further the outcomes of Tower Hamlets’ experience so far, as this work has already been running for a couple of years.

The MPA representative announced at the meeting that the London Mayor was launching a London Youth Strategy including a stream to look at young offenders.  Therefore, it would be beneficial for accessing future funding that local authorities demonstrate an awareness of the resettlement issues.

The board discussed the shift to the prevention agenda by Government and the need to work early with identified families to ensure that the causes leading to offending were addressed early. In response to the challenge that further information gathering was required, it was important to keep in mind the information which would be produced by the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment; the wealth of information held by the stakeholders on the board and the research continuing on the 3 ‘diamond’ districts by the Home Office.  It was also important to ensure that new research is not undertaken if data already exists.

Clarification was sought on the funding for the proposed Project Manager and it was noted that there was some Area Based Grant money earmarked and available for this project in the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 87.

Please note that this report and appendices are exempt and are not available to members of the public.

The board is responsible for a number of annual strategic /needs assessments. Alongside existing strategies, public consultation and project evaluation, these findings are a driver for confirming and/or re- appraising the areas of priority for future collaboration and investment. The board considered presentations on crime and disorder and drugs as part of the strategic assessment to inform the partnership plan and guide investment priorities.

The board first noted the presentation on the crime and disorder data findings which will be distributed to board members separately. The board was asked to keep in mind that most of the percentages referred to in the presentation were measured by per thousand population based on 2001 Census data and were not an accurate reflection of absolute performance. It was further important to note that there is often a higher rate for reporting crime in the west of the borough compared to the east.  It was requested that the report author refer to the Metropolitan Police website to compare the information presented on crime and disorder so that there are not inconsistencies in the information being distributed.

The board further noted the presentation on the adult drug needs’ assessment, which is evidence-based and used for future commissioning purposes. The main challenge to the service was to provide the same quality service to increasing number of clients with the fewer resources. The presentation provided a local picture of drug treatment services, numbers accessing services, preventing drug related deaths, profile of drug users, links to crime, treatment effectiveness, probation profile, and the key actions going forward.

The board was advised that there would also be a further need to examine the work completed in the Alcohol strategy and compare findings to add further context to both presentation findings.

The board noted that it had been important to consider the presentations on drug misuse and crime and disorder together to establish common areas of concern: for example, the links to acquisitive crime, focus on the 18-24 age group, need to have more connections to the Haringey Guarantee, and recognition that there would need to be work completed in the community for growing peer leaders (e.g. in the Somali, Congolese, and wider African and Caribbean communities.

The board considered the resource/commissioning intentions for 09/10. The continued same level of funding from ABG had been assumed.  It had been announced that the BCU would not be at the originally expected higher level but at the reduced level for 09/10.  It was likely that there would be additional funding to implement the alcohol harm reduction strategy but this was yet to be confirmed.  Given the strategic priorities and the data findings, the changes to funding for 09/10 outlined were:

Ø      Additional resources to combat Theft from Motor Vehicle crime

Ø      A dedicated problem solving pot (board members recommended to complete training on robust problem solving) – although reduced from the current year

Ø      Funding to reduce re-offending

Ø      Additional funding to meet caseload requirements of ASBAT (subject to resources not being  ...  view the full minutes text for item 88.

The report set out the principal risks under the responsibility of the board. The risks were linked to the new performance framework which began in April 2008 and were based on the Safer Community Service’s objectives and targets. It is a yearly requirement to examine and agree the corporate risk register and board members were requested to consider the information carefully.

RESOLVED

That Board members consider the content of the risk register and provide comments and any proposed amendments to the Head of Safer Communities by 24 December 2008.

To note updates from the following:

• Acquisitive Crime Partnership Board
• Anti Social Behaviour Partnership Board
• Drug and Alcohol Partnership Board
• Other Violent Crime Partnership Board
• Youth Offending Service Partnership Board

RESOLVED

That the content of the sub-board reports as circulated be noted.

To consider any items of new Urgent Business admitted under Item 4.

None were submitted

To consider any items of AOB.

RESOLVED

To note the CSCI Inspection of Social Care taking place from 12^th January 2009.

The date of the next scheduled meeting is 16 March 2009.

The following dates for future meetings were noted:

·                    16 March 2009