Agenda and minutes

Venue: Committee Room 3A - Town Hall. View directions

Contact: James Goodwin 01708 432432 

Items
No. Item

15.

MINUTES OF THE MEETING pdf icon PDF 126 KB

To approve as correct the minutes of the meetings held on 24 September 2015 and authorise the Chairman to sign them.

 

Minutes:

The minutes of the meeting held on 24 September 2015 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

16.

Corporate Performance Report: - Quarter 2 (2015/16) pdf icon PDF 412 KB

Report to follow.

 

Minutes:

The Sub-Committee had received the Corporate Performance Report for Quarter two. Five Corporate Performance Indicators fall under the remit of the Crime & Disorder Sub-Committee. These all related to the SAFE goal. Three of the indicators were green and two either amber or red.

 

The first of the indicators, reduce violence with injury had been in the red and would not be met. The target of 20% over a four year period had been based on the old method of recording, which was no longer comparable to what was now recorded and counted as violence with injury. Violence remained a key priority for Havering, with 3 key types of violence being managed though the (Multi Agency Risk Assessment Conference) MARAC (Domestic Violence), Safe and Sound (Night Time Economy Violence) and Serious Group Violence panels.

 

The second indicator Repeat Domestic Violence cases going to the MARAC had been set locally. The target was to be in line with the national average (24.5%). A second target had been to increase the number of cases referred to the MARAC, which had formed part of a funding bid to the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (with funding being dependent on successfully meeting the target.)  Quarter 2 performance had shown that the Council would not meet the target although it had improved in comparison to quarter 1.

 

Officers had advised that reports of Domestic Violence continued to increase nationally, and with more than 1,000 additional reports received in Havering during 2014/15, the Council expected to see an increase in referrals.  The target for MARAC referrals was 216; there had been 190 to the end of quarter 3 so it was likely that this target would be exceeded as demand grew.

 

The Sub-Committee had been informed that the third target Number of Burglaries reported had been lower than target and had reduced compared to the same period the previous year. The Police were confident that MOPAC’s target of a 20% reduction over 4 years would be achieved.

 

The targets for Anti-Social Behaviour incidents and robbery were being achieved. There had been some concern at an increase in robbery compared to the same period last year, although the 4 year target would be achieved. The Havering Community Safety Partnership through the work of the Serious Youth Violence panel had been working to tackle this issue and quarter 3 had shown an improvement.

 

The Sub-Committee noted the report.

17.

Reducing Re-offending Strategy

To receive a presentation from the Community Safety and Development Manager.

 

Minutes:

The Sub-Committee had received a presentation from officers on how effective the Reducing Re-offending strategy had been to date.

 

Officers had advised that:

 

·         The total socio-economic cost of crime in havering in the last 12 months had been £100,171,414;

·         There had been 15,845 recorded crimes in that same time period;

·         Of those 15,845 crimes just 20.3% had been detected by the police; and

·         Out of those 3,141 offences which had been detected only 2,544 individuals had been accused.

 

The Sub-Committee had concurred with the concept that there must be consequences for breaking the law and supported the reforms pointed out in the ‘Breaking the Cycle’ proposal that had insisted there must be a better deal for victims.

 

The Sub-Committee had been informed that the following proposals had been implemented:

 

·         Introduction of ‘working prisons’ where prisoners were obliged to work a full working week;

·         Greater use of tough curfews and electronic tagging;

·         Making Community Payback increasingly intensive and immediate; and

·         Sentencers were making compensation orders in cases where there was a direct victim.

 

The question for the Sub-Committee was what was being done to tackle the problem. Nationally they had been looking to:

 

·         An integrated approach to managing offenders;

·         Introducing drug recovery wings in prisons;

·         Getting offenders onto the Work Programme; and

·         Liaison and Diversion services for mentally ill offenders.

 

Within Havering 819 adults whom had been accused in 2014 had been assessed by either the National Probation Service or Community Rehabilitation Company. Going forward numbers were expected to increase dramatically. In Havering with effect from April 2015 offenders who had been sentenced to over two days custody would receive a one year probation sentence. Previously only those who had received a custodial sentence of over 12 months had been subject to probation.

 

From December 2015 MTCnovo who had won the right to provide probation services in London through the London Community Rehabilitation Company had introduced a new Cohort Model which had been devised to deliver tailored services to different offender groups.

 

These cohorts were:

 

·         18 to 25 year old males;

·         26 to 49 year old males;

·         50+ year old males;

·         Women (All ages from 18+);

·         Offenders with a chronic illness, mental illness or intellectual disabilities; and

·         Community Payback.

 

Officers had undertaken an assessment of the Adult Offenders which had revealed:

 

·         85.1% of offenders were male. However, Havering had the highest proportion of female offenders in London;

·         63.9% of offenders were aged between 26 -49;

·         Havering had the second highest proportion of 21-25 year old offenders in London (Havering 18.6%, average 16.3%);

·         Violence against the person was the most frequent offence (29.7%) and accounted for half of the 2014 socio-economic costs £55,460,640;

·         Almost 1/5th of known offenders who had committed crime in Havering had been from Barking and Dagenham; and

·         Havering had the highest percentage of burglars of all London Boroughs testing positive for cocaine, more than one and a half times the regional average (27.3% compared to 15.3%).

 

The Havering Community Safety partnership had created a Reducing Reoffending Board  ...  view the full minutes text for item 17.

18.

Review of Annual Prevent Plan

To receive a presentation from the Community Safety and Development Manager.

 

Minutes:

Officers had delivered a presentation on how well the borough were progressing with delivery of the Prevent Plan.

 

Under section 26 of the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015 Havering Council had a duty to have due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism. CONTEST is the Government’s Counter Terrorism Strategy. This was encapsulated in four words: Prepare, Pursue, Protect and Prevent.

 

Prevent is about raising awareness and it is this duty which had been placed on the Council.

 

Council Officers were now Workshop Raising Around Prevent (WRAP) Trained. About 250 staff had already been trained and there was a clear referral process in place.

 

A quarterly working group with other agencies (Education, Police, Probation, Health) had been established.

 

Officers had advised the Sub-Committee that although the Council had a duty, no additional funding had been made available.

 

The Sub-Committee noted the rport.

19.

Violence against Women and Girls Strategy

To receive a presentation from the Community Development and Safety Manager.

 

Minutes:

The Sub-Committee had received a presentation on the work of the Violence Against Women and Girls.

 

Officers had informed the Sub-Committee that there had been a 12.4% rise in reported and recorded incidents in 2015/16. This had included 306 additional domestic incidents and 231 domestic crimes being reported to and recorded by the Metropolitan Police in Havering.

 

As of quarter 3 there had been 190 referrals to the MARAC, a rise from 177 to 190 compared to the same period in the previous year, with the repeat rate rising to 28.9%. There had been a significant increase in the volume of children in the households referred. When the Police attend a domestic incident if children were in the household a MERLIN was completed which would lead to a referral to social services. These cases would be dealt with at the MASH to determine the level of intervention required.

 

Whilst Havering’s arrest rate was one of the worst in London their successful prosecution rate was the highest (80% compared to an average of 65%). Additional resources had been made available with additional Independent Domestic Violence Advocates available to provide advice and support to victims.

 

In response to questions from the Sub-Committee officers had indicated that Female Genital Mutilation was not an issue in the borough. NELFT had recently introduced a new policy and maternity services were in the front line of identifying any potential cases. Female children of mothers who had already been mutilated were seen as at the greatest risk.

 

A conference had been held in November which had been well attended and the father of Clare had attended.

 

The Metropolitan Police were launching operation Dauntless which was targeting prolific offenders to act as a deterrent.

 

The sub-committee noted the report.

 

20.

Anti-social behaviour - parking across residential driveways

Report to follow.

 

Minutes:

Consideration of this item had been deferred until the next meeting.

21.

Crime over Christmas and New Year - update

To receive an oral report from the Metropolitan Police.

Minutes:

The Deputy Borough Commander, Superintendent Cheryl Burden had attended the meeting to provide an update on crime over the Christmas and New Year period. She had informed the Sub-Committee that in the period 6 December to 7 January they police had recorded 67 less burglaries than the same period in 2014/15.

 

Violence with Injury was also down compared to last year. Over New Year there had been only one incident in Romford Town Centre.  There had been no major peaks in Theft Person over the same period.

 

Violence with Injury tended to be youth on youth, but non domestic abuse violence had been down over Christmas but Violence in Domestic abuse cases had been up.

 

One of the contributors to reducing Violence with Injury in Romford Town Centre had been the use of Section 35 notices. 180 had been issued in October, November and December. Under these orders a person can be instructed to remove themselves from the area for 24 hours.

 

The Sub-Committee had asked for a breakdown of the ethnicity of those in receipt of the orders, including post codes. The Superintendent agreed to provide this information.

 

Breaches of the orders had led to 23 arrests.

 

The Superintendent advised the Sub-Committee that there had been a blip in burglary from non-domestic premises in October/November with 50 in the Hacton area. Police had since arrested the perpetrators.

 

The Sub-Committee thanked the Superintendent for her report.

22.

Delivering Integrated Mental Health Care in the Criminal Justice System

To receive an oral report from the Chairman who attended the above conference on 10th November 2015

Minutes:

The Chairman had provided a brief report on the conference he had attended on 10 November 2015. The content of the Conference programme matched the work of the Topic Group and the Sub-Committee had agreed that the Chairman give a full feedback to the next meeting of the Topic Group to be held sometime in March.

23.

Update on the work of the Topic Group looking at how the criminal justice system deals with Offenders with Mental Health issues.

To receive an oral report on the work of the Topic Group.

 

Minutes:

Officers had provided a brief feedback on the work of the Topic Group to date and confirmed that the next meeting would be held on Thursday, 25 February 2016. Officers had been asked to invite the South Essex Partnership to attend the March meeting of the Topic Group.