Agenda and minutes

To approve as correct the minutes of the meetings held on 19 March 2015 and authorise the Chairman to sign them.

The minutes of the meeting held on 19 March 2015 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

To receive an oral rep[ort from Transport for London.

Keith Gardner, Bus Policy Manager, Surface Transport, Transport for London had attended the meeting to discuss the possible crime and disorder implications of the decision to introduce Cash Free Buses.

Cash free buses had been introduced on 6 July 2014. The concerns were that bus drivers who refused a passenger the right to travel could be assaulted and/or a passenger who had been refused the right to travel could be at risk.

The Sub-Committee were advised that before cash free buses were introduced research had been undertaken to identify which customers tended to use cash to pay for travel on the buses. This was not those on a low income who saw the benefit of using an Oyster card but young white males who were cash rich and time urgent. The research also indicated that tourists and visitors to London tended to use Oyster cards.

Before the system had been introduced Transport for London had worked with Age Concern and the Suzy Lamplugh Trust to rewrite their vulnerable passenger procedures. Part of the process involved ‘one more journey’ where provided you were not in a negative position on your oyster card you could make one more journey. When you topped up the cost of that journey would be debited from your balance.

Tfl had monitored the situation to ensure there were no problems. In the first month they received 3 code reds a day relating to no cash, it was now down to 2 code reds a day. Similarly the number of customer complaints was on average 8 per day in respect of no cash, this was now down to 4 per day.

The feedback from operators was positive and Tfl had no evidence that anyone had been placed at risk. Known vulnerable persons were eligible for a Travel Support Card and this should ensure that drivers always exercised discretion and allowed travel.

The biggest impact on night time travel had been the introduction of contactless payment, rather than no cash travel.

The Sub-Committee were satisfied that the introduction of cash free buses had not led to an increase in crime and disorder on the buses.

To receive an oral report from Housing.

Officers had reported on the use of the Community Payback service by Housing. In January 2012 SERCO on behalf of the London Probation Trust had agreed to complete community based work for housing by having a team working two days a week on specified projects. As part of the arrangement Housing were required to fund the cost of a dedicated supervisor trained by the London Probation Trust. The cost of a supervisor was £152 per day, plus mileage costs. In addition, equipment and welfare facilities were to be provided.

The initial cost of delivering the service during 2012/13 had been approximately £20,000. The project had continued in 2013/14 and 2014/15 with a similar budget, although latterly the budget had been underspent.

Officers provided details of the various schemes undertaken on behalf of housing by the Community Payback Scheme.

The Sub-Committee were concerned that Housing was paying for a supervisor whilst other council users of the scheme were not. The Sub-Committee advised officers to liaise with other council departments to ensure a consistency of approach by the council to our engagement with the Community Payback Scheme.

To receive an oral report from the Head of Children’s Services.

Back in September 2014 concerns had been raised with the Sub-Committee regarding the quality of Youth Offending Service provided by Barking and Dagenham since October 2012. The main area of concern had been the management of the Referral Order Process.

Officers advised that since the service was taken back in house all the issues raised had been addressed. Training for the volunteers had been reintroduced, a larger pool of volunteers had been recruited and most recently the volunteers had received training in restorative justice.

In February 2015 the Ministry of Justice had commented favourably on the council’s decision to place the Youth Offending Service within the Early Years Team. At a recent seminar organised by the Ministry of Justice one of the cases discussed had been one of the councils. An example of good practice.

The Service was working with the Youth Justice Board to introduce a live tracker protocol.

The Sub-Committee were pleased with the progress being made and were assured that the decision to bring the service back in-house was the correct decision.

To receive an oral update from the Metropolitan Police.

Chief Superintendent Jason Gwillim presented the latest crime statistics for the borough.

The figures showed that with the exception of Violence with Injury the police expected to meet all their targets. Across the Metropolitan area only three boroughs expected to meet the target. As explained previously we were not comparing like with like.

The other area of concern was theft person, and this was likely to be affected by the two day We ‘R’ Festival.

The Sub-Committee liked the new way of presenting the information and asked the police to submit this data to each meeting. The Sub-Committee also asked that a monthly peaks and troughs report be submitted for their information.

To receive an oral report on the night time visit to Romford Town Centre.

 The Sub-Committee had been advised that on the night of 3 April 2015 Councillor Linda Van den hende and two officers had visited Romford Town Centre to assess how the various initiatives were working to reduce the impact of crime and disorder. The police had looked after the party and arranged for them to meet the senior officer on deputy that evening, who also happened to be the senior officer on duty across the 9 forces in the north eastern quadrant.

The visit included attendance at the police briefing, attendance at the briefing with security personnel and visits to a number of establishments. The party also met the St John’s ambulance personnel who managed the street triage and the street pastors.

Two years ago just one of the premises had introduced the ID scanner, now most of the larger establishments had such equipment. This had proved to be most successful and useful.

The Sub-Committee had noted the report.

A draft of the Sub-Committee’s Annual Report for 2014/15 had been tabled with the agreement of the Chairman. The report covered the activities of the Sub-Committee over 5 meetings and listed the various partners worked with during the year.

The Sub-Committee adopted the report subject to slight amendment to cover the items considered at this meeting.