Agenda item

[Report of the Assistant Director for Stronger Communities. To be introduced  by the Cabinet Member for Communities and Equalities.]

 

The Community Safety Strategy presents the Community Safety Partnership’s approach and priorities to achieving a reduction in crime and anti-social behaviour in Haringey up to 2023.

 

Appendix 4 Environment and Community Safety Scrutiny Panel comments   - To Follow

The Cabinet Member for Communities and Equalities introduced the report, which set out the partnership approach and priorities to achieving a reduction in crime and anti-social behaviour in Haringey up to 2023.

 

The Cabinet Member stressed that the corporate response was at the heart of the strategy, which considered all of the Council’s areas of powers in order to achieve the priorities. This involved considering ways of planning out crime including particular trades and licenses and working with wider partners such as health, education and police. The Cabinet Member underlined the importance of having a civic community response to tackling crime and in particular youth violence.

 

The Cabinet Member continued to outline the six outcome areas to be focused on, in the strategy, and provided comments on the activities to be taken forward, which were as follows:

 

• Targeting police resources at violent hotspots - this had received a positive reception from the new community borough commander and work was underway to ensure that there was a visible police presence in these areas at key times on the day.
• Stafford Scott would be commissioned to take forward a mediation role with young people potentially involved in gang retribution. A scoping paper was being compiled on this planned role and it was likely that the mediation work would take place at a local community centre.
• Increasing the confidence of young women to report sexual offences. This needed a greater focus on attitudes and behaviour of young men.
• There would be a seminar in the autumn on exploitation and reducing the criminalisation of children.

The Cabinet Member acknowledged the concerns from scrutiny panel on current levels of public confidence for the borough tackling crime; this needed to be addressed but there would not be overnight change. Assurance was provided that the Council and partners were focused on increasing public confidence together with acknowledging the issues behind the survey findings such as the historical negative experiences in the community with stop and search. The Cabinet Member would be taking forward a themed meeting with officers going through the data, looking at how policy changes have been implemented and communicated across the borough.

 

The Cabinet Member concluded by expressing the ongoing need to tackle anti -social behaviour which was a battle with the reduction of resources, and reducing re – offending by supporting initiatives that work. He highlighted that the UK had the worst record in Western Europe on re- offending which demonstrated the urgent need for better support when prisoners were leaving prison. There was some good working initiatives to replicate for offenders leaving prison. Finally, the Cabinet Member welcomed the Home Office decision to bring the Probation service back in house.

 

In response to questions from Cllr Bull, Brabazon, das Neves and Cawley- Harrison, the following information was noted:

 

 

• The Cabinet Member agreed that there was an issue to tackle with under age sale of alcohol in the borough and its connection to crime. The Assistant Director for Stronger Communities referred to the number of other strategies, including enforcement, which would be contributing to the delivering the priorities of the Community Safety Strategy. There was also a Haringey Stat meeting being organised to explore the impact of alcohol on offending.

 

 

• The Cabinet Member did not fully concur with the current national stance on tackling knife crime, which was having more ‘stop and search’. He outlined that this was not the full answer to this issue and austerity had had an impact on the recent increases of knife crime. At regional level there has some engagement at City Hall and he would take forward the recommendation from the Scrutiny Panel to meet with the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime, as well as with the Head of the Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) at MOPAC.

 

• Responding to the ‘badge of honour’ reason for young people getting involved with violent crime, the Cabinet Member reflected that  often young people were drawn into this situation through fear and cohesion and there were more ruthless methods at play. He outlined how staff in Children’s services had been to coastal towns and were seeing these issues, first hand, where young vulnerable people were being targeted. In the main, poverty and ruthless criminals working in more organised crime drove this situation occurring. The AD for Stronger Communities added, that it would be useful to refer to the Young People at Risk strategy which focussed on the complex issues around stabbings and the complicated menu of issues at play when these situations occurred.

 

• In relation to performance monitoring, the Community Safety Partnership would monitor the strategy on a yearly basis.

 

• The Cabinet Member welcomed Scrutiny’s input and would further welcome a future review of the strategy.

 

• Noted that schools had a critical role to play in tackling exclusions .The safety net provided by schools in terms of pastoral support and after school care was suffering following the consistent funding cuts to schools.

 

• The Cabinet Member concurred with the view that too many women were imprisoned and this situation had not improved over the last 10 years. There was a link between the care system and people going into care and big impact locally.

 

• Responding to the question on the sustainability of funding, there was a need for properly funded services to support initiatives and there was, currently, not the level of resource funding from the government that was required. There had been a lot of focus enforcement related activities but there equally needed to be prevention services funded by government as ultimately these services would save the local authorities money in the long run,

 

• Accountability between partners was a strong priority and there was a good culture of challenge. In terms of getting wider trust from the community, this included getting community organisations involved and, crucially, community advocacy working with young people and families and advocating on their behalf, as this will support better outcomes.

 

• There were monthly monitoring meetings with partners considering current data on criminal activities where ward and area specific issues were looked at.

 

• In relation to the increase in notifiable offences and the levels of community confidence in policing, this was noted to be part of the London pattern and not Haringey specific issues. There had also been regional discussion on this. In was also noted that the significant reductions in safer neighbourhood policing and the lack of more visible policing on the street was a factor. The Council and partners would be working hard to address this issue.

 

• With regards to ensuring achievement of the strategy outcomes, this could only be achieved through as a whole system approach with partners to tackle the response.

 

 

• Agreed that hate crime had to be addressed and at the last meeting with the borough commander there had been consideration of case studies to understand some current issues and challenge the process. The Council were further working with partners in a specific hate crime delivery group police, which included strategic lead and Homes for Haringey and senior police officers.

 

• The increase in the reporting of crime should not be seen fully in a negative light, as it was important for crimes to be reported so that appropriate resources and focus in a policy area could be  taken forward.

 

RESOLVED

 

1. To note the comments of the Environment and Community Safety Scrutiny Review Panel at appendix 4.
2. To note the Community Safety Action Plan attached at Appendix 2
3. To recommend to Full Council Approval of the Community Safety Strategy 2019-23 attached at Appendix 1, having regard to the Community Safety Strategy Equality Impact Assessment at Appendix 3.

 

Reasons for decision

 

Community Safety Partnerships are required under the Crime and Disorder Act to put in place a strategic assessment and strategy. As a partnership document listed in the Constitution, full Council subject to prior approval by Cabinet reserves the Community Safety Strategy for final decision.

 

The Community Safety Strategy 2013-17 was extended to 2019 to allow alignment with the Borough Plan 2019-23. The Community Safety Strategy 2019-23 aligns fully with the Borough Plan, and like the Borough Plan, it is a partnership plan that reflects the outcomes that partners and communities across Haringey wish to achieve.

 

This Community Safety Strategy represents a significant commitment by partners including the Council, Police, Fire, Probation and Health authorities as well as local voluntary groups to working together to improve the lives of Haringey residents.

 

The Community Safety Partnership has a clear vision: to make Haringey one of the safest boroughs in London. We want Haringey to be a safe borough for everyone who lives and works here and to remain a safe and pleasant environment for all. The Community Safety Strategy provides the partnership with an opportunity to set out how it will achieve that vision by ensuring that:

•           Levels of crime and antisocial behaviour are reduced

•           Children, young people, families, vulnerable adults, and residents feel safe in their homes and in public spaces

•           Those committing crime do not continue to reoffend

•           The public has confidence in all members of the Community Safety Partnership, particularly the Police and local authority.

 

The Community Safety Strategy 2019-23 represents a significant contribution to the collective effort across Haringey to achieve the visions of the People and Place priorities in the Borough Plan 2019-23:

•           Place – Stronger, connected communities where together we improve our environment by making it safer, cleaner and greener.

•           People – A Haringey where strong families, strong networks and strong communities nurture all residents to live well and achieve their potential

 

A comprehensive overview of the alignment of the Community Safety Strategy 2019-23 with the Borough Plan 2019-23 is set out in para.7.1.

 

As well as the high profile issues around serious violence this Strategy also addresses crime, disorder and anti-social behaviour that are less well reported but impact the lives of many people including all forms of violence against women and girls and issues of exploitation including child sexual exploitation, County Lines, extremism and hate crime.

 

The Community Safety Strategy aims to improve the quality of life in the borough by focussing partnership action on six outcome areas:

            1. Violence and high harm crimes

            2. Violence against women and girls

3. Exploitation (including child sexual exploitation, child criminal    exploitation, County Lines, trafficking, extremism, and modern slavery)

4. Public confidence

5. Victims of crime and anti-social behaviour

6. Reoffending

 

An Action Plan, attached at Appendix 2, sets out the specific actions that community safety partners will take forward in order to address the issues identified in the strategy corresponding to the six outcome areas.

 

 

Alternative options considered

 

Do nothing

 

The Community Safety Strategy is a statutorily required document so this option has been discounted.