Agenda and draft minutes

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The Chair referred to the filming of meetings and this information was noted.

Apologies had been received from Elenor Girling, Geoffrey Ocen.  

The Metropolitan Police would be submitting a presentation on Clear, Hold, Build.

There were no declarations of interest.

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 26 October 2023 as a correct record.

RESOLVED: That the minutes of the meeting held on 24 July 2023 be agreed as an accurate record.

Noted.

Presentation by Sandeep Broca.

Mr Sandeep Broca introduced the item.

The meeting welcomed the presentation and heard that:

·      The approach taken by the Home Office and the VRU was for this first iteration to understand the position currently. Over the next year, it would be possible to refine the Needs Assessment to understand work related around root causes. At the North Area Violence Reduction Group, some examination was made into root causes. Working cohesively would be key in delivering good outcomes.

·      The meeting noted the considerable work that had gone into the document.

·      The North Area Violence Reduction Group would be meeting every six weeks. The Community Safety Partnership would receive quarterly updates on the progress.

RESOLVED:

1.   That the Partnership note the contents of the report which provided an overview of the new Serious Violence Duty, Strategic Needs Assessment and Strategy.

2.   That the partners agree to ratify the Strategic Needs Assessment and Strategy Documents

Presentation by Abigail Wycherley.

Ms Abigail Wycherley, Ms Chantelle Fatania and Ms Megan Davies presented the item.

The meeting heard that:

·      In relation to responding to online narratives, this was something that needed to be considered more broadly. Work had been done with the prevent team who were linking with schools and delivering training around how to deal with problematic attitudes.  There was a recent report from Women's Aid called Influences and Attitudes which had found a correlation between those who consumed “misogynistic content” online and those who accepted and normalised abusive behaviours in intimate relationships. The work related to upskilling and raising the confidence of young children and young people.

·      There was supposed to be an online abuse bill, but further information about this was still being awaited.

·      There was good reach within various minority communities as some parts of the service had exceeded what they had been originally commissioned to do.

·      It was important to acknowledge that work had been done with the Victims Commissioner and there had been a representative from the Victims Commissioner who had been heard from. To have the Victims Commissioner related closely to the borough and to understand the issues strengthened the Council’s position.

·      There was a Violence Against Women (VAWG) Planning meeting planning meeting in early February. The findings of the hate crime consultation would be examined more specifically and looking to take follow-up action around issues exclusively experienced by women. This would be a good opportunity to link back in with the Hate Crime Strategy.

RESOLVED:

That the presentation be noted.

Presentation by Chris Anderson and Andrew Brien.

Mr Chris Anderson, Metropolitan Police presented the item.

The meeting heard that:

·      More ‘walk and talks’ with councillors could be held.

·      Certain crimes, such as indecent exposure and/or other such crimes may not have been aggressively pursued in the past. It was important for women to feel a sense of safety and crimes serious enough would be prosecuted. Crimes like indecent exposure and sexual assault would be now be investigated by the CID. These were specialist investigators and there would be some considerable oversight on the process. A recap of steps to be taken regarding how these issues would be dealt with would be submitted to Councillor Lucia das Neves.

RESOLVED:

That the presentation be noted.

Report to follow. Presentation by Beverley Hendricks. 

Ms Beverley Hendricks presented the item and that there would not be an agency that operated in Haringey that would not be affected by the investigation.

There were four thematic focus points for the serious youth violence. The first area was that the inspectors were clear that they would focus on children's social care, education, Police, youth offending and any other relevant health services and local services. They would investigate intervention, individual groups of children and the system and it worked together in in its collaborative effort to challenge serious youth violence.The second area of focus would consider the multi- agency intervention. The third area was to examine data on the crimes that had been committed outside of the home by children and young people and the last area would examine impact and the comprehension of the causes of impact.

The first week would be when all the agencies would submit their documents to Children's Social Care. The second week would be when inspectors would evaluate what had been put into an ‘annexe a’ document and feedback would start in the third week. 

The information in the annex a would be critical to success. The succinct evidence from the voices of children, potential interventions and the principles of what the Council was trying to achieve with them must be made clear. 

There would be three weekly planning meetings chaired by Ann Graham, Director of Children’s Services.

It was important for each agency to have a named individual to identify a lead person as a SPOC (single point of contact) for the investigation.

The meeting heard:

·      There was a window up until 5 February 2024 to have discussions within agencies and Ms Beverley Hendricks would be emailed the single point of contact.

·      The lead for the investigation would contact the designated SPOC.

·      The investigation should be on DMT / DMG agendas.

RESOLVED

That the presentation be noted.

Item 12 is likely to be subject to a motion to exclude the press and public from the meeting as they contain exempt information as defined in Section 100a of the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended by Section 12A of the Local Government Act 1985); paragraphs 1,2 and 3 – namely Information relating to any individual, information which is likely to reveal the identity of an individual and information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information).

Item 12 was subject to a motion to exclude the press and public from the meeting as they contain exempt information as defined in Section 100a of the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended by Section 12A of the Local Government Act 1985); paragraphs 1,2 and 3 – namely Information relating to any individual, information which is likely to reveal the identity of an individual and information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information).

Presentation by Megan Dyson.

The meeting considered the exempt item.

Superintendent Ian Martin delivered a presentation on Clear, Hold, Build.

Clear Hold build was a national programme supported by the Home Office which was adopted by the Metropolitan Police in a number of areas. It was about working together as a community to deliver improvements in safety and tackling serious and organised crime.

Serious and organised crime was not necessarily about guns and knives. It also pertained to antisocial behaviour, domestic abuse, violence against women and girls and other areas which were the behaviours of serious and organised criminals.

The purpose behind the programme was to strengthen and build communities and this could only be done by working together across a partnership.

The ‘Clear’ part of the programme was mostly Police led and was about dealing with organised criminals using arrest civil orders. ‘Hold’ was about making sure that nobody filled the vacuum left behind by criminals and ‘Build’ was predominantly about working with the community to make the area a more inviting place a safer community and to give people fresh hope. The benefits included public safety, building better communities for a long-term vision.

Moving through into the hold and build phase, it was important to make sure that there was the right governance and performance management and groups set up in relation to it.

The meeting heard:

·      The Police would be most prominently present during the ‘clear' part of the process, but were committed to working through all three phases. The increasing amount of community work existed in comparison to the build phase, but there would be support from the Police as it was a still a partnership working process.

·      Communities that were minoritised or felt disadvantaged needed to feel supported by the programme. The programme would not be called ‘Clear, Hold, Build’ where it  operated in Northumberland Park. However, the programme would still deliver on its prospective aims.  

·      The programmes would operate in Finsbury Park and Northumberland Park. For this reason, it was important to how the Community Safety Partnership members engaged and supported the initiative. Work was being done with the Police to make the programme a success.

·      Staff in Children’s Social Care would be happy to help with the communications with schools in borough.

RESOLVED:

That the presentation be noted.

To note the dates of future meetings set out below:

21 February 2024

To be confirmed.