Agenda and minutes

To approve as correct the minutes of the meetings held on 21 November 2014 and authorise the Chairman to sign them.

The minutes of the meeting held on 21 November, 2013 were agreed as a correct and signed by the Chairman.

To receive the attached report.

Officers advised that in the most recent Performance Report, September, 2013, the Youth Justice Board had identified Havering Youth Offending Service as ‘not a priority’ for requiring any extra support from their organisation. This was a positive report and showed that the Youth Justice Board had gained confidence in local systems.

This position was reinforced by the majority of the performance indicators and the fact that we now had a strong team in place to deliver the service priorities.

Performance over the twelve months from April 2012 to March 2013 indicated 121 fewer young people entering the Youth Justice System. This decrease was higher than the comparative figures for London.

Similarly data showed that in terms of rates Havering had shown a reduction in the use of custody. Compared to the same period last year the numbers had reduced from 14 to 10.

We asked that in future we be provided with data comparing our performance with that of our iQuanta boroughs, i.e. Bexley and Bromley.

The restructure of Havering YOS staff had commenced in October 2013 and was now nearly complete. There had been complications due to on-going HR issues. The restructure brought together a permanent team consisting of end to end case managers who were multi-skilled and deliver continuous support and enforcement to young offenders. It had also delivered a management structure seen by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation as highly useful for supervision and ‘grip’ of cases.

The YOS had increased partnership working over the last year and this had been seen throughout both social care and crime/community safety.

The one problem remaining to be resolved was that of accommodation. The loss of Portman House had been both positive and negative. Positive in that it was not fit for purpose and had driven the service to work from satellites, but negative in that a base for the team to consolidate had been very difficult. Satellite premise had been and would continue to be used where possible and this had been beneficial in many cases. However, a central base for the team to work from, with bespoke health and safety plans, would benefit the service in the long term.

We were assured that the service was moving in the right direction and thanked officers for their hard work.

To receive an oral report from Lucy Satchell-Day, Assistant Chief Officer, London Probation Trust.

Lucy Satchell-Day provided an update on the current position with the changes to the probation service. All staff employed by the London Probation Trust had been assigned to either the National Probation Service (NPS) or to the local Community Rehabilitation Company (CRC). The good news for Havering was that Lucy had been appointed as the lead officer for the CRC and Carina Heckroodt as the senior officer for the local NPS team. The Senior Management Team is in post for both teams. The internal split would happen from 1 April, 2014.

Locally the CRC would serve both Havering and Barking & Dagenham. The NPS would cover Havering, Barking & Dagenham and Newham. This inconsistency arose because of the disparity of caseload being transferred.

The Government had extended the life of the Probation Trusts until 31 May, 2014, after which they will cease to exist.

The competition phase is due to conclude in September. Neither G4S nor SERCO passed the pre-qualification stage.

The key challenges facing the new organisations were:

·         Staff motivation; and

·         Forming new Partnerships.

So far there has been no information on who will replace the Probation Trusts, as responsible authority, on the Community Safety Partnerships.

We have noted the update.

To receive a presentation

We received an update on progress with the MOPAC funded Projects.

1.    Street Triage – we had received £30,000 to deliver a street triage project in Romford Town Centre. The project started on Friday, 6 December, 2013. It was staffed by 2 paid medics every night. Additional support was provided by a number of St Johns volunteers.

20 incidents had been attended with only 7 requiring support of an ambulance. Officers would continue to monitor the success of the project and work with the Street Pastors to assess how many people were helped so that they did not need to attend A&E.

2.    Substance Misuse and Young People – we had received £40,000 to deliver this project. The outcomes to date were as follows:

We were pleased with the outcomes but asked whether the improvement had been maintained and how the improvement in family relationship was assessed.

Whilst the percentages were impressive how large was the cohort? We were advised by officers that this related to a cohort of 20.

3.    Domestic Abuse Providers – we had been granted £20,000 to deliver this project. 24 staff had been trained by the Domestic Violence Intervention Project. Additionally, London Probation had been commissioned to deliver a ‘training the trainer’ programme for 16 front line officers in quarter 4, to deliver the Caring Dads programme across the borough.

4.    Improving Support for Domestic Abuse – we had been granted £35,000 to deliver this project.

The Independent Domestic Violence Advocate had supported 36 victims who had been referred by the MARAC. A specialist Domestic Violence Worker had been appointed to the Tier Three team in Children’s Services and was already providing support to 14 families.

52 two-hour drop-in sessions had been provided, each quarter, which had been attended by 208 victims.  3 courses, each of 10 sessions had been delivered. These had been attended by 70 women with crèche facilities provided for 32 children.

The Borough Commander advised us that the number of domestic violence victims had risen by 2% which made this project even more valuable.

5.    Rent Deposit Scheme for Offenders – we were granted £32,400 to deliver this scheme. The outcomes were as follows:

To receive the attached report.

To consider the attached draft report.

Officers had prepared a draft Annual Report of our activities for the year. We are satisfied that this paints a true picture and have authorised our Chairman to agree a final version which incorporates the business transacted at this meeting.

The agreed version should then be presented to full Council.

We have asked officers to provide an update on the position with regard to the introduction of Street Pastors in to Hornchurch on Friday and Saturday nights.

Councillor Roger Evans advised that the Romford Safer Neighbourhood Team had been listed as a finalist in the above awards. The Team had achieved a 31% reduction in mobile phone thefts in Romford Town Centre.

We have asked the Borough Commander to pass our congratulations on to the Team.