Issue - meetings

Report attached.

The report before Members provided a brief update on work undertaken in relation to the Enforcement & Community Safety Review as presented at the last meeting. It also clarified the position regarding the apparent £86k disparity in the service budget from 2020 to 2021.

The report detailed the following:

·       A permanent Head of Service has been appointed, who has been   working with the Assistant Director of Civil Protection to review the findings of the report and to consider the efficiency and effectiveness of the new structure that was implemented in 2020. 

·       The work was ongoing, but it has been identified that modifications to    the structure are required, to improve the ability of the service to meet the increasing response demands for environmental and other crime across the Borough, which have escalated since the Step 4 of the Government’s Roadmap out of Lockdown on 19  July.

·       A new training regime to upskill staff in Environmental Enforcement who were transferred into the service in 2020 from Housing, where they previously undertook roles as Community Wardens was implemented.

·       Training aimed to increase confidence in identifying and managing environmental crimes and included both a structured programme of technical training, plus peer mentoring and coaching with more experienced colleagues.

·       The Assistant Director was working closely with the three Heads of Service from Civil Protection to identify where collaboration is possible and relevant across the services.

·       The Head of Service and Managers built solid working relationships with new colleagues in Metropolitan Police to identify new opportunities to work collaboratively to tackle local crimes. This has led to a series of joint operations across a range of initiatives in Havering and planning for multi-agency Days of Action in hotspots in the Borough.

·       Members had raised a question on the £86k disparity between the two reports at the last meeting. This query was investigated and the difference in budget is due to staff vacancies being held. This was to reduce pressure on budgets to end of year 2020/21. It is however intended to re-appoint to these posts as soon as the revisions to the new structure are agreed.

Officers confirmed there were 10 community environment officers but would double check the numbers after a question was raised regarding this. There was a database collated on HRA and activities around that were being carried out.

KPIs revealed in what area staff were required and it was determined that staff in permanent posts were required as opposed to temporary cover support. Staff targets for fixed penalty notices were currently under review as currently there were not specific targets for individual Officers.

The Sub-Committee noted the contents of the report.