Agenda and minutes

To receive apologies for absence.

Sharon Shoesmith,   Director Children & Young People’s Service

Mary Pilgrim,   Assistant Chief Officer, Probation Service

Samantha Evans,  Metropolitan Police Authority

Marion Morris, Drugs & Alcohol Action Team Manager

Fred Ellis; Chair of Community & Police Consultative Group

Richard Wood,  Acting Borough Commander, MPS

Kirsten Hearn Metropolitan Police Authority

Lindsey Osbourne,

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

None declared

The Chair will consider the admission of any late items of urgent business. (Late items will be considered under the agenda item where they appear. New items will be dealt with at Item 16 below).

No Items of urgent business submitted

To approve the minutes of the Safer Communities Executive Board meeting held on 25 June 2007.

Agreed that Cllr Nilgun Canver’s apologies were to be added to the minutes as were  received at the meeting  of the 25 June 2007.

RESOLVED

That the  minutes be agreed

A verbal update will be provided.

SCEB were informed by Sean Sweeny, Police Projects Officer that the warning level for a terrorism incident was still at severe with iconic sites and the night time economy considered to be most at risk.

A presentation will be made.  

The Board received a joint presentation from the Government Office for London and National Offender Management Service on reducing Re-offending in London. The presentation provided the Board with an overview of the London reducing re-offending action plan for 2007-09, details of the local delivery programme, essential information on offenders in Haringey and information on the new PSA’s and reducing re-offending through LAA's.

The information provided on the London reducing re-offending action plan provided essential context for considering details of Haringey offenders. The board further noted the aim of the local delivery programme which was to improve partnership working between prisons, probation, and Councils to reduce re-offending. The board was advised of Haringey’s work on this which was : participation on the London Resettlement Programme (LRP) pilot re Holloway Prison, providing constructive feedback to the prison and ROM office with innovative solutions. The LRP and Haringey’s group are due to start working with Latchmere house prisoners.

In relation to the issues of information sharing between partners, which is an objective of partnership working, there was concern raised at how the Prison service produced and collated information. This was because Haringey’s LRP group found that there was better information held by Probation, Hearthstone, and related projects such as the Drugs Intervention Programme and Supporting People Programme. The representative from GoL advised that this issue had been raised by other boroughs, and in London-wide meetings, and there was an awareness that the Prison service had to improve their collation of information.

The Board noted the information provided on Haringey’s offenders which included, estimates on the number in Holloway, Pentonville, Feltham prisons, length of sentences being completed, ethnicity of prisoners, Probation Service’s caseloads and headline information  of offender criminogenic needs profiles.  The Board noted the percentage of offenders with an accommodation need and queried whether the Council had a protocol with housing on this issue as was the case with other boroughs.  Noted that the key points provided on Haringey offenders should be taken into account when considering the PPO report. 

The presentation provided advice on the focus of the LAA’s to reduce re-offending. The Board commented on how the current LAA entailed establishing local baselines to support Probation and the Youth Offending Service and that this required measurable baselines which were difficult to compile. In response to this the Board noted that there was national guidance on this to be issued by April 2008.

RESOLVED

That the report from, which this information for the presentation had been extrapolated from is provided to SCEB members.

This report will be sent to follow.

The Board received an initial report on proposals for a Communications Strategy and programme for the Safer Communities Executive Board. There was felt to be a need for this strategy to be in line with national good practice to ensure effective long term investment in the development of communications and consultation activity to support partnership programme delivery, maximise existing partnership resources and to seek to reduce the fear of crime in Haringey. The Board were advised that sufficient gaps and opportunities have been highlighted in this strategy to warrant agreement to the recommendations and active participation in co-ordinated delivery.

The Board noted the findings of the report and key objectives which were listed on page 8 of the interleaved report.  The chair thanked the report authors for the report which had been useful, and the Board agreed to the model of communications that the Performance Management Group of the HSP have decided, which is that the HSP should set the framework and principals for all theme boards’ communications strategies; key messages to reflect the key priorities of the HSP and its theme boards.

RESOLVED

The Board commended the work that had resulted in the draft Communications Strategy, and noted the importance of delivering clear, partnership key messages that promoted the good work of the partnership and addressed the fear of crime.

The recommendations of the report were not agreed as this required further discussion at the HSP.

A verbal update will be provided.

The Board were informed of the publication of the CDRP Reform paper which was an essential aid for partnership working. The report contained valuable information on accountability, leadership, intelligence-led process, and national standards regarding community safety work. The Board noted that this guide would be referred to when developing the community safety strategy.

RESOLVED

That the Board note the availability of the report of which hard copies can be obtained if required from the Community Safety Team.

The Board considered a discussion paper on PPO’s and received feedback on the scheme. Noted the important strands to this work: ‘prevent and deter’ for young offenders, ‘catch and bring to justice’ and ‘rehabilitate and resettle’ which involves the Police and Probation services. The Board were advised that the work of the Drugs Intervention Programme was linked to this work, which was performing well but could still be further improved with further commitment from the required agencies. Noted that partners should be asked to provide a premium service and give tighter focus to this issue.

The Board were informed that Aiden Gibson had been appointed as DIP champion.

The Board further learned that resources for next year, to take this project forward, would require consideration. Noted that the Police had provided resources and the Probation Service would need to further consider adding more resources to this project.

The Board sought clarification on the average numbers of participants on the PPO scheme with information sought on their ages and profile. In response it was noted that there was a rolling number of 40 participants on the second two strands of the scheme. The eligibility for entering the scheme (at Prevent and Deter) was those young people who had were at risk of becoming PPO’s and had already been convicted of up to five offences.

RESOLVED

That the Board note the update.

A presentation will be given.

The Board received a presentation on the targets for 2008 local area agreement. The HSP had already identified 36 new target areas and 7 areas for safer communities had been short-listed for further work. These were:

• Reduce overall crime with particular focus on youth
• Increase victim support for children and young people
• Reduce harm cause day illegal drugs
• Reduce drug related crime
• Reduce number of entrants to the youth justice system
• Reduce premature deaths form accidents or injuries
• Reduce domestic violence

The Board noted that it was a government requirement to choose 35 indicators from the national indicators set of 200. The Board received information on the national indicators which these initial targets could be aligned to and noted the difficulties in matching community needs to the national priorities.

The Board noted that there would be technical guidance issued on these national indicators in the next few weeks.

Clarification was sought on whether there was room to negotiate and reword certain targets if necessary to meet both requirements of national indicators and local safer community’s targets; it was confirmed that these are still in draft form. It was emphasised that there would be 35 local indicators, most of which would be selected from the national set.

Noted that there was on-going work taking place by officers from the PCT, the Police and Council on the safer community’s targets.

RESOLVED

That there be a meeting to share and take this work forward involving the officer group above.

The Board were informed that the current Safer Communities Strategy expires in 2008.  The Board noted that a small steering group had been compiled to develop the new 3 year strategy. The Board were advised that the new plan would demonstrate the following:

• A contextual narrative
• Link to the Local Sustainable Community Strategy
• Assessment of the previous partnership strategy
• A  robust performance management framework
• Clear strategy for tackling crime and disorder in the area , aligned with LAA’s outcomes
• Role contribution of each partner in supporting the delivery of priorities and how this wills be resourced
• Partnership engagement with the local community
• Compliance with the new guidance to effective partnership working
• Link with other required strategic plans

The Board noted the timescale for developing the strategy which was listed in Appendix 1 of the interleaved report. The final signoff planned for March 2008.

RESOLVED

That the report be noted.

The Board were presented with the exception report on the performance of the safer communities service key indicators. The Board noted the following information:

• Domestic Burglary - close to target although there had been an increase in this crime compared to quarter 1.

• Theft from a person - noted that there was a reduction of 30.1% compared to quarter 1 results.

• Common Assault – this showed a 2% reduction from the first quarter but was not envisaged to meet the required target on current performance rate.

• Theft from a Motor Vehicle - a reduction of 10% from the first quarter figures. This was just missing the target by a 5% margin.

• The Board were informed that the main target challenges were criminal damages and burglary.

Concern was raised on the outcome of some indicators and the overall impact on the PSA target. The Board discussed how joined up working could further help improve certain required areas. Example suggested included providing notices on pay and display machines to warn motorists of vehicle theft.  This could contribute to the target on theft from motor vehicles.

RESOLVED

To note the findings of the report.

The Board, as part of their update on the evaluation framework on projects, received a presentation from Keno Ogbo and Ben Benoit (Programme Co-ordinator)   of the Peace Alliance on the progress to date on the Youth Leadership Centre. This was a partnership funded project aimed at developing the leadership skills of boys aged 8-15 to enhance their life chances. The Board noted that the project was 4 months behind schedule and this had been due to the late recruitment of a programme co-ordinator and late commencement of referral process. They explained that this had been due to an underestimation of the time required to recruit a suitable co-ordinator. They went onto explain the measures to be taken to ensure the project was back on schedule. The Board were informed that a management board had been established to monitor the project which met weekly and was attended by Jean Croot, Claire Kowolska, Sean Sweeney, Keno Ogbo and Ben Benoit.

 The Board were further advised of the planned programme of learning for the boys which included: practical life skills application, personal development programme, offsite educational visits, and optional one to one tutorial support. The curriculum was envisaged to start in November. The Board further noted the approach made to JP Morgan Stanley, Sainsbury and Barclays Bank to provide support and help underpin the work of the programme although the details and structure of this support had still to be worked out. Noted that the Leadership Centre had received 22 referrals to the programme and parents had been approached to gain further support. There were planned interviews on the 05 December for a leadership programme assistant.

The Board raised concern at the delay of 4 months to this project and noted that there was only 6 months remaining for this project to become established, proven and promoted for external funding. The work undertaken in compiling the curriculum was commended. However, there were not firm dates and a timetable for the sessions presented or information on tutors who would be delivering the programme. Therefore with lessons proposed to begin in November this was concluded to be ambitious but not felt to be achievable. The Board further expressed that the curriculum was possibly too ambitious and required further work.

The Board concluded that the project was unlikely to reach the required project milestones but recognised the work being achieved to rectify this.

RESOLVED

That the project funding is terminated in its current format. The Peace Alliance is allowed to retain the funds already advanced (£50,000).  These funds cover the wages of the Senior Development Officer and the Leadership Coordinator for the rest of this financial year and overhead expenses. 

That a new contract is drawn up which requests that the Peace Alliance spend the rest of this financial year planning for the successful delivery of a Leadership Centre in 2008/09 and securing sponsorship and funding from elsewhere to deliver this project in future years. 

That the unspent funds are redirected into projects that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 13.

This report will be sent to follow.

The Board were advised that a pilot Community Justice Court will be held at Tottenham Courthouse (subject to the results of a feasibility study) one day per week. The court will focus upon quality of life crimes such as noise nuisance, littering, fly-tipping, anti-social behaviour, and possession of drugs, prostitution and soliciting women. The initial focus for the initiative will be for the above types of crimes committed in 3 wards- Tottenham Green, Tottenham Hale and Seven Sisters. The Board noted that further wards were likely to be added once the court has become established.

The Board were informed that the pilot community justice court would begin on 29th January 2008. The Board queried the involvement of young people in the court process and learned that a sub group of the judicial group would further discuss this.

RESOLVED

That the Board note the update

The Board were informed of the key findings of the 2006 Annual Haringey Health Report and implications for future funding. The two indicators of particular concern to Haringey were life expectancy, obesity in children, and infant mortality. These indicators showed the most difference between the east and west of Haringey. 

The Board noted that the Council and the PCT would be working jointly on an interface project on alcohol and drug related health issues and would be compiling a suitable project plan for a future meeting.

RESOLVED

That the report be noted

To consider any items of Urgent Business accepted under Item 3 above.

None submitted

None considered

• Friday 14  December 2007
• Friday 28 March 2008

• Friday 14 December 2007
• Friday 28 March 2007

Partners should submit proposed agenda items for the next meeting to Xanthe Barker by 30 November 2007 at the latest.