Agenda and minutes

Please note that this meeting may be filmed or recorded by the Council for live or subsequent broadcast via the Council’s internet site or by anyone attending the meeting using any communication method. Although we ask members of the public recording, filming or reporting on the meeting not to include the public seating areas, members of the public attending the meeting should be aware that we cannot guarantee that they will not be filmed or recorded by others attending the meeting. Members of the public participating in the meeting (e.g. making deputations, asking questions, making oral protests) should be aware that they are likely to be filmed, recorded or reported on. 

By entering the meeting room and using the public seating area, you are consenting to being filmed and to the possible use of those images and sound recordings.

The chair of the meeting has the discretion to terminate or suspend filming or recording, if in his or her opinion continuation of the filming, recording or reporting would disrupt or prejudice the proceedings, infringe the rights of any individual or may lead to the breach of a legal obligation by the Council.

The Chair referred Members present to agenda Item 1 as shown on the agenda in respect of filming at this meeting, and Members noted the information contained therein.

Apologies for absence were received from Stephen McDonnell, Denise Gandy and Bev Hendricks.

The Chair will consider the admission of any items of Urgent Business. (Late items of Urgent Business will be considered where they appear. New items of Urgent Business will be considered under Item 16 below).

None.

None.

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 24^th February as a correct record.

RESOLVED

The minutes of the meeting held on 24^th February 2021 were agreed as a correct record.

Noted

The Partnership received a report which provided an update regarding the Haringey Community Gold programme 2019-21, which was approved by Cabinet in March 2019. The update set out progress made in the delivery of commitments made against the Young People at Risk Action Plan and progress made in terms of governance arrangements. The report was introduced by Eduardo Araujo, Senior Tottenham Community Safety Manager as set out in the agenda pack at pages 19-109. As part of this item the Partnership were shown a video which provided a case study example of some of the work that had been undertaken as part of Haringey Community Gold The following arose during the discussion of this item:

1. The Borough Commander asked whether officers felt that were receiving full support from the police and whether there was anything else that the police could do to provide support. In response, officers commented that they would welcome any additional support. In particular, helping to get the message out on the ground was seen as a key contribution. The Borough Commander agreed to speak to her superintendents to ensure that as much support as possible was being provided and that conversations were taking place with partners on this. (Action: Treena).
2. The Partnership sought reassurance around whether there was enough support within Community Gold for Mental Health services. It was commented that there were a number of existing community health and wellbeing pathways but that perhaps there was a lack of pathways for those that were on the edge of sliding into mental ill-health. In response, officers advised that there were pathways in place but that there was always more that could be done, particularly as more and more young people were at risk of being in that border line category due to substance misuse, for example. One of the key concerns was around waiting times for services, which had only been exacerbated by Covid.  The Leader echoed these concerns, highlighting waiting lists for CAMHS services in general and the importance of early intervention in this area. The Director of Adults Social Services advised that she was working on developing further pathways and would be happy to link up with colleagues in Community Safety outside of the meeting. The Director of Adults Social Services also advised that she was working closely with Health colleagues and could bring an update around waiting times to a future meeting. (Action: Beverley Tarka).
3. The AD for Stronger and Safer Communities set out that he would like to take the opportunity to congratulate Eduardo and the team for the work that had been done around Community Gold and advised the Partnership that he thought that the programme was key contributing factor in the reduction in criminality in the borough.
4. The Cabinet Member for Early Years, Children and Families sought further information around the Youth Advisory Board (YAB), how it was structured and its influence on the programme. In response, officers emphasised the independence of the YAB and the crucial role it played  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

The Partnership received a presentation on the My Ends Programme, which aimed to support neighbourhoods affected by high levels of violence through increasing

trust and collaboration between local communities, stakeholders and statutory partners. The presentation was introduced by Geoffrey Ocen, Chief Executive of the Bridge Renewal Trust (BRT) as set out in the agenda pack at pages 109-119.

The Partnership noted that The Bridge Renewal Trust were leading on a consortium with Mind in Haringey, Father2Father, The Godwin Lawson Foundation and the North London Partnership Consortium (NLPC). The Consortium had been awarded £750,000 funding (April 2021- March 2023) by the Greater London Authority to develop a local impactful and inclusive partnership to tackle serious youth violence in the Tottenham Hale Ward area. The Programme sought to increase sustainability of community networks, so that they were well placed to respond to local emerging needs and add long-term capacity and support to the community.

The following arose during the discussion of the presentation:

1. The Chair highlighted that this was a significant amount of money and that she was aware of neighbouring boroughs who applied for this and were not successful. The Partnership was advised that Haringey was one of eight successful boroughs funded by the GLA.
2. In terms of engagement with schools, the BRT advised that they had been in contact with a number of schools in Tottenham Hale such as the Harris Academy, Gladesmore and Ferry Lane. BRT emphasised that as part of the criteria for the MOPAC bid, partners have committed to work with a range of 10-25 year old young people.  The Cabinet Member for Early Years, Children and Families highlighted the Mulberry school as a key contact, as the largest school in the ward. 

RESOLVED

That the presentation was noted.

Verbal Update

The Partnership received a verbal update on the NA BCU Community Mapping Initiative and the Safe-to-Net scheme from Dal Babu, former Metropolitan Police officer and Sarah Castro - Chief Executive, Safe to Net. The following arose from the update:

1. The Partnership was advised that Dal Babu had been working with Victor Olisa and the Borough Commander to engage with key community members to better understand what the community wanted from police engagement and how to enhance that offer. Police colleagues had also been working with Safe to Net, the Council and sixth form students to develop an online safety intervention for children and young people. This involved the development of an app, which was available for free and was designed by sixth form pupils.
2. The sixth form pupils had been undertaking presentations in local schools as part of a pilot project to build awareness of the application and the need for online safety. Dal was speaking to MOPAC about how the offer to schools could be enhanced going forward.
3. Sarah Castro advised that Safe to Net had designed a real-time keyboard which could be placed on a child’s mobile device and so was not impacted by encryption and could be used across all platforms. The system allowed the young person to use the internet freely, however a red flag was raised if there was a concern about what a child was doing online and allowed parents and carers to monitor their online activity. Sarah Castro commented that the application should be used by all the large social media companies but their take-up to date was characterised as disappointing . Therefore, Safe to Net had made the technology available for free to all children and parents. There were also online safety courses for available as part of the pilot scheme and a number of local schools were involved. The Partnership was advised that, to date, take up from parents as part of the pilot had been disappointing. The intention was that this app should be used by young children when they got their first smart-phone.
4. The Leader sought clarification about why the take-up from parents had been disappointing and what the issues had been. In response, the partnership was advised that a part of the problem was around Covid preventing the scheduled face-to-face sessions from taking place with parents, when they picked up and dropped off their children to school. There was also a degree of parents not understanding the technology and perhaps not feeling tech-savvy enough to understand how it worked. A further issue highlighted was round digital poverty and the need for Wi-Fi and digital access in order to use this. Dal Babu advised that he anticipated better engagement from parents once the new school year started in September.
5. The Partnership enquired whether, in terms of engagement, the television channel CBeebies had been contacted. In response, it was noted that the technology had been featured on Click, specifically in relation to screening intimate images of children. A recorded  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

The Partnership received a presentation and covering report which showed Haringey’s performance against the Mayor’s (MOPAC) Police and Crime Plan key priorities in the 12-months to June 2021, including personal robbery and violence. It was noted that overall crime had reduced by 6% since June 2020, and that almost all crime categories have also experienced significant reductions. Performance in most areas has been similar to the large reductions noted across London as a whole and in other individual boroughs. Haringey had experienced larger than average year-on-year reductions in knife crime (40%) and robbery offending (43%). The Presentation and accompanying cover report were introduced by Sandeep Broca, Intelligence Analysis Manager as set out in the agenda pack at page 119 – 132. The following arose during the discussion of the presentation:

1. Partners were advised that a reduction in crime was undoubtedly affected by the Covid pandemic and lockdown, however the figures also showed a reduction in crime compared to the three year average. In the 12-months to June 2021, there was a 6% reduction in overall recorded crime in Haringey, as compared to the previous 12-months, and a 9% reduction compared to the previous 3-year average.
2. The Partnership welcomed these crime performance statistics and commented that it would be interesting to see what happened to offences following the lifting of Covid restrictions on 19^th July and the advent of summer.

RESOLVED

That the Board noted the contents of the Crime Performance Overview pack, which

highlighted the changes to crime performance in the past 12-months and 3-years.

The Partnership received a report which provided an update on the statutory annual Youth Justice Plan for 2021-22. The report was introduced by Emma Cummergen, Interim Head of Service for Young Adults, Youth Justice and Haslemere as set out in the agenda pack at pages 133-176.

RESOLVED

That members of the Community Safety Partnership noted the contents of the report and Youth Justice Plan 2021-22.

Verbal Update

Partners received a verbal update on an Ofsted thematic inspection of the Youth Justice service. The update was provided by Emma Cummergen, Interim Head of Service for Young Adults, Youth Justice and Haslemere. Partners were advised that Haringey was one of nine Youth Justice services who had been selected for a thematic inspection to identify how youth offending services understand and meet the needs of black and mixed heritage young boys in the youth justice system. The inspection took place on 19^th May, lasting for four days and involved speaking to the service practitioner, reviewing cases and meeting with the members of the Youth Justice Partnership Board. The key areas of focus were around the governance and leadership of the Youth Offending Team. 

Partners were advised that, as it was not a full inspection, there was no official grading given, but instead the findings of the reviews from the nine local authorities that were inspected would be published together as a report later in the year. The findings of the inspection would also be incorporated into delivery plans going forwards. Officers advised that overall the inspection was felt to go well and that there were several areas of good practice recognised. There was also a number of areas where it was felt improvements could be made.

The following arose in the discussion of this item:

1. In regards a question around concerns with languages, officers advised that this was about Speech and Language Therapy (SALT) services, rather than use of different languages. It was noted that the Service currently lacked any dedicated support in SALT.
2. The Cabinet Member for Early Years, Children and Families sought an update on the impact of Covid on young people in custody, as well as a comment on a recent article in the Guardian around a sanction levied by the Prisons Inspector on a private prison facility that was in the process of being shut down. In response, officers advised that they would look into the two issues and would feed back to the Cabinet Member at an upcoming CPAC meeting.

c.    Partners also sought further information around the initiative that had been set up in libraries and the extent to which libraries could become a wider hub for services with this cohort. In response, officers advised that there had been some take-up to date of the initiative in libraries and that the hope was that this would lead to a wider take-up of other services. 

d.    In response to a question, officers advised that the service had built a good relationship with the youth courts in general and that there was also some representation from them on the partnership Youth Justice Board.

RESOLVED

Noted.

The Partnership received a report and accompanying verbal presentation on the re-housing of households in urgent circumstances, which was provided by way of a further update from the last meeting of the CSP in February. The report was introduced by Simon Eversley, Interim Head of ALMO Client and Fidelis Ukwenu, Housing Client Manager as set out in the second dispatch agenda pack at pages 3-24.

The following was noted in relation to updates since the February meeting:

•         The creation of a new panel called Housing in Urgent Circumstances Panel - made up of senior officers from Community Safety, the Housing Demand Service, Youth Justice and Children’s - was being explored. It was anticipated that the Panel would be up and running in the autumn of 2021.

•         When set up, the Housing in Urgent Circumstances Panel would take an approach that was similar to strategy meetings organised by Children’s Services in response to a safeguarding issue.

•         The panel would meet when required either in person or via digital media, with the objective of ensuring that safeguarding risks posed to the individual/family were prioritised.

•         Additional enhancements to the existing service offer were also being considered such as enhancing the Pan-London Housing Reciprocal (PLHR), so that it was responsive to the urgent need to rehouse households in urgent circumstances. The suggested enhancement could look at the use of void properties across London boroughs, that could be made available at short notice to keep affected households safe.

The Cabinet Member for Early Years, Children and Families welcomed the update and noted that this was an area of casework that could be very difficult for councillors to navigate, and welcomed the availability of a route map as set out in the update. It was commented that it could be very difficult when dealing with Housing Associations and where there were mental health issues involved. The Chair commented that she would like to understand how this worked on the ground and would be picking this up going forwards. Officers agreed to share the slides with Partners. (Action: Simon Eversley).

RESOLVED

Noted

Verbal Update

The Partnership received a verbal update from Joe Benmore, Head of Community Safety & Enforcement on the third round of Safer Streets funding. Partners were advised that Safe Streets funding was released by the Home Office to support crime prevention initiatives in identified borough locations with high levels of acquisitive crime and ASB.  The first round of funding was released in January 2020 and Haringey was unsuccessful. The second round was released in January 2021 and Haringey received £350k for crime prevention and awareness in Noel Park to reduce burglaries, violence and ASB.

Following the murder of Sarah Everard, the Home Office announced £25m into the Safer Streets fund. This third tranche of funding would run concurrently with the second round up to March 2023 and had a specific focus in improving public safety and reducing VAWG. Partners were advised that bids had to specifically target public places and should ideally also have secondary impacts.  Haringey had put in several bids totally £245k, including £90k for street lighting improvements, £30k for cycle training for women and £70k for a pilot programme to provide targeted outreach support to sex workers in and around Edmonton and Tottenham Hale.  MOPAC were due to pick three preferred bids and recommend them to the Home Office by 15^th July. The winning bid/s would be selected by the Home Office on 31^st August.

RESOLVED

Noted.

Verbal Update

The Director of Adult Social Services advised Partners that the authority was looking to set up another joint meeting of the CSP and Health and Wellbeing Board, around VAWG. It was noted that the key theme would be around VAWG prevention and changing attitudes. It was commented that there was some clear links between this and the previous agenda item. Partners were asked to note the upcoming joint meeting and consider potential agenda items.

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

N/A

None.

To note the dates of future meetings:

6^th October 2021

8^th December 2021

9^th February 2022

6^th October 2021

8^th December 2021

9^th February 2022