Issue - meetings

The Committee considered a report that provided an update on the Education Services complaints received during 2016/17.

Members noted that Maintained Schools and Academies had their own complaints procedure which were dealt with through their Governing Bodies and were not included within the report. Schools admissions and exclusions were dealt with through a statutory appeals process and were also not included in the report.

There had been one Ombudsman enquiry in 2016/17, which did not progress to investigation this had decreased from 3 in 2015/16. The number of complaints also decreased from 31 in 2015/16 to 18 in 2016/17. 

The main reasons for complaint were related to quality and reliability, late delivery or slow service and availability of the service.  This referred to delays in completing EHC Plans and implementing provision, placements at special units and general concerns about schools in particular penalty charges for non-attendance.

Of the complaints received 13 were upheld and 5 being partially upheld.

Members noted the content of the report for information.

The Committee considered a report that detailed the Children’s Services Complaints Annual report for 2016/17. Appended to the report was information about the numbers and types of complaints handled by the Children’s Service during 2016/17, as well as Members’ correspondence.

Complaints increased from 74 in 2015/16 to 92 in 2016/17, with 15 of these complaints coming directly from young people, using the Mind Of my Own (MOMO) app. One Stage 1 complaint progressed to Stage 2 with no complaints progressing to Stage 3. Enquiries that fell outside the statutory process had more than doubled in 2016/17.

Members noted the contents of the attached report and the continued efforts made by the service to learn from complaints and enable young people to engage with the complaints process.

Members also noted the recommendations identified from complaints and continued monitoring of these to ensure that actions are implemented to evidence service improvements.

Members also noted the positive feedback to services received through compliments, highlighting good practice.

The Committee considered a report that provided an update on Adult Social Care complaints

Appended to the report for Members consideration was a breakdown of complaints, enquiries, compliments and Members correspondence.

Adult Social Care had seen an increase in the number of complaints in 2016/17 of 30% from 93 in 2015/16 to 121 in 2016/17, although there had been a decrease in the number of service users from 7,684 in 2015/16 to 7,519 in 2016/17. Complaints escalating to the Ombudsman, although decreased overall from 10 in 2015/16 to 8 in 2016/17, four decisions were for maladministration injustice with no penalty, which related to charging disputes.

Increases in formal and informal complaints were reflected across all teams and particularly within the community teams who had the most notable increases.  The community teams, Adult Community Team (ACT) North and ACT South, went through a major relocation programme during 2016/17, moving into locality areas in partnership with North East London Foundation Trust (NELFT).  This had impacted on the level of service, which was the main reason for complaint.

External provider complaints for home care and residential/nursing homes, increased slightly in 2016/17 by 19% and 11% respectively. Home care commissioned hours increased from 654,024 in 2015/16 to 711,679 in 2016/17 with the number of hours relating to home care complaints accounting for 1% of total care provided.  For those within residential/nursing placements, the number of complaints accounted for 1% of the total number (1,098) using these provisions.

Members were advised that in the case of charging disputes these were now being eradicated due to more robust specific case notes being taken at the beginning of service provision which in turn lead to less disputes.

Members agreed that the appended Complaints Action plan was useful.

Members noted the contents of the report and the continued work in resolving and learning from complaints and the challenges faced by the service with increasing demands.

Members also noted the actions identified to improve services and the continued monitoring by the Service and the Complaints & Information Team to ensure these were implemented evidencing service improvements and with a view to reduce similar complaints.

Members also noted the positive feedback to services by way of compliments received and highlighting good practice.

The Sub-Committee received an update on progress in delivering the Reducing Reoffending Action Plan 2016-2020; an update on the work to address Integrated Offender Management (IOM) in Havering; and an update on the progress of the Drugs Intervention Panel.

The Action Plan focused on prioritising accommodation; education, training and employment, finance and debt; and enforcement and compliance.  In Havering in 2016-17, the IOM Panel worked with 95 nominals, with 76% of the cohort not having re-entered custody. 

During the presentation, it was highlighted that the Havering Community Safety Strategic Assessment had shown that 40% of acquisitive crime in Havering came from Class A drug users alone.  The Drug Intervention Panel (DIP) used a multi-agency approach to facilitate access to drug and alcohol services, as evidence showed that successful treatment would significantly reduce users’ cycle of offending and keep communities safer.

The Sub-Committee noted the progress to date against the Reducing Reoffending Action Plan 2016-2020, Integrated Offender Management Panel and Drugs Intervention Panel.

Since the introduction of a Tri-borough Gangs Unit, the borough have benefitted from having access to a resource which proactively monitors and disrupts the boroughs high risk gang nominals.  It had been recognised that there was an emerging pattern of gang behaviour and the borough had lobbied the Mayor of London to fund work to address the increase in gang membership in the borough. 

The Sub-Committee discussed the updated Serious Group Violence and Knife Crime Strategy 2017-2021. The snapshot of offences on a rolling twelve month basis from July 2014 to July 2017 in Havering, highlighted an increase in knife crime, knife crime with injury, robbery and gun crime.  Whilst data might show that knife crime was not linked to gangs, there was a local awareness of the migration of gang members into Havering from other boroughs. 

The Sub-Committee were aware of the significant increase in crimes linked gangs and youth offending (including knife crime, knife crime with injury, robbery and gun crime). Research revealed that only 11% of Havering Trident Gangs List were under 18 years of age and 20% on the Habitual Knife Crime (HKC) list. Moving forwards, there would be a need to look at resources for the over 18’s, as the majority of those identified fell outside of the area that received most support/attention.

The Sub-Committee were made aware of the Chance Scheme, that was introduced to complement existing work and encourage better information sharing between agencies. The Scheme used a multi-agency approach to improve focus on how youth anti-social behaviour could best be addressed at the earliest stage with the aim to prevent individuals entering the criminal justice system.

The Sub-Committee were made aware of the various risk management panels linked to Gangs and Serious Group Violence.   The delivery structure of information and intelligence flow for the East Area Gangs Panel and Serious Group Violence Panels was received and the Action Plan – Serious Group Violence and Knife Crime 2017-20121 was noted.

The Havering Community Safety Partnership comprised of five responsible authorities who, by law, were required to work together to tackle crime, disorder substance misuse and reoffending.  There was a statutory requirement that the Havering Community Safety Partnership produce an annual strategic assessment of these issues in coordination with a community safety strategy or plan. 

The strategic themes and cross cutting area identified were protecting vulnerable individuals/victims, supporting the most prolific and/or high harm offenders and creating safer locations.  Throughout this work, a key cross-cutting area would be community engagement and public confidence.   This would enable communities to report and receive information, and be part of potential solutions.  This would also help to close the gap between perceptions of crime and actual levels of crime in the borough. 

The Sub-Committee noted the Community Safety Plan 2017-2020 that was approved by Council on the 12^th July 2017.

The number of outstanding named suspects was significantly high, which was a trend in the east, Waltham Forest and Newham, due to the number of foreign national offenders and the high amount of mobility in and out of the country.

Habitual knife carriers were being targeted and officers would be carrying out intense weapon sweeps and intelligence-led operations to confiscate knives and tackle those wanted in connection with knife-related offences and violent crime.  The Sub-Committee requested that narrative be provided to prevent public misconception of data that related to current gun and knife crime rates. 

Rape and serious sexual offences had increased by 16.3% overall over the past year, with sanction detection rates up by 54.5%.  This was significantly higher compared to other boroughs with a detection rate of 54.5%. 

Robbery offences had increased by 81% from the previous year, however small numbers reflected high percentiles.  Burglary was a key focus on the lead up to the Christmas period. Good news stories included an arrest for possession of a prohibited weapon, an arrest for possession with intent to support and being carried in a stolen vehicle and an arrest made in respect of two persons driving into pedestrians with a car. There were on-going operations including ‘Winter Nights’, ‘Be Safe’, ‘Operation Bumblebee’ and ‘Operation Sceptre’.   

The Sub-Committee noted the report on Investigations.

There had been an improvement in the percentage of minimum strength being met since Pathfinder had stabilised, with 76% of shift in July having met the minimum strength, 90% in August and 96% in September.  The minimum strength per shift had been reduced from two sergeants and sixteen constables to one sergeant and nine constables, subsequently freeing up three sergeants and fifteen constables.  There had been no abstractions for Sergeants during September and minimal PCSOs. 

Police officers had received enhanced training on police roles with the introduction of Pathfinder, received training on body cameras and would receive training on the new PC laptops when introduced. 

During Quarter 2, alterations were made to the tri-borough model, including outstanding calls being managed on an incident list for each borough, rather than as a single incident list for all three boroughs, as was the case when the pilot began.  The impact of these alterations was now beginning to be seen in the performance achieved.  The Sub-Committee congratulated the Police Authority on the percentage of I-grade and S-grade calls achieved in target time, in Havering.  It was explained that the 2.5-3.5 minutes of the 15 target for ‘I’ responses was lost when answering the initial call and additional time was taken if the call needed to be connected to the language line.

A discussion on Fire Brigade keys pursued, during which it was explained that it would be impractical for all deployed response officers to hold keys and it would raise concern if a high number of keys were in circulation.  The Police Authority agreed to give consideration to holding keys in the command car. 

In Quarter 2 of 2017/18, there were 1,548 Computer Aided Dispatches which had an opening code that related to anti-social behaviour in Havering, with 1,026 being ‘closed’ as anti-social behaviour.  Six of these dispatches related to five separate traveller incursions, a reduction from the previous quarter.  The previous year, traveller incursions drove 100 calls, however a dedicated Inspector covers had taken the responsibility for the three boroughs.

The Sub-Committee noted the report on performance indicators.