Agenda item

Presentation by Heather Hutchings.

Ms Heather Hutchings presented the item.

The meeting noted the following points:

•     The zero tolerance policy also should apply for staff carrying out their duties who were receiving abuse. This issue needed to be highlighted and promoted internally. A discussion had been held at the staff network panel regarding what can be done to promote inclusivity add challenge hate as a workforce. This would include when staff were outside the office doing their job.

•     It was important to encourage reporting.

•     Reporting of hate crime need to have a double-sided approach. It was important to report to the Police to ensure that the offender would be held accountable, but it was also important to report to local organisations such as the CST, Tell Mama and other groups who offered therapeutic support so that victims would have adequate support.

•     There was a significant amount of under reporting particularly with hate crime. There were particular groups which suffered from hate crime which were considerably under reported this made it difficult to deploy relevant resources. It was important to be able to reach hard to reach communities. All communities need to understand hate crime and have a confident way of being able to report it and be confident that the matter would be followed up.

•     There were many individuals who were members of various sections of the community and there needed to be a more carefully considered approach to collaborative working. For example, MIND had not been invited to the Council's Mental Health Awareness Week. Members of the community should be using the services of organisations such as Rise and You v You which worked directly with many communities and these organisations were not geared to reporting hate crime. Various members of the community would not report to the Police but would report to somebody who they felt could support them.

•     There was some organisations which dealt with various forms of hate crime.

•     It was important to acknowledge the low levels of reporting for certain groups such as disabled and to see an increase in reporting.

•     Public services need to see higher numbers in reporting of issues such as domestic abuse and sexual abuse which would be generally widely underreported.

•     There were many young people who felt various degrees of safety. There were many young people who were targeted inside certain areas of the borough. Various young people felt that there were certain parts of the borough to which they simply could not travel. It was important to link hate crime to the safety strategy and offer adequate support as there were some characteristics some people had which made them susceptible to being targeted.

•     There was a segment of the training area which examined online hate and the need to report online hate, put this needed to be more explicit.

•     The tension monitoring forms were useful as this could get people to fill in forms frequently without involving the Police. However, in cases where it was obviously necessary, the Police would be notified.

•     Various schemes and training could be linked together. Initiatives such as the Broadwater Farm initiative could be a useful partnership.

RESOLVED:

That the report be noted.