To approve as correct the minutes of the meeting held on 10 September 2019 and authorise the Chairman to sign them.

The minutes of the meeting of the Sub-Committee held on 10 September 2019 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

Report attached

At the request of the Sub-Committee, Shelley Hart, Chair of Havering Safer Neighbourhood Board gave Members a briefing detailing the progress of the Board since it was established 5 years ago.

The Sub-Committee was informed that Safer Neighbourhood Boards (SNBs) are the means by which the Mayor of London (through the Deputy Mayor and the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime) holds Borough Police Command Units to account for performance, giving residents and victims a greater voice in setting policing priorities.

The following objectives of the board were outlined:

·         Having a broad remit to reflect the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime’s responsibilities, respecting the view that local people would know best what is needed at the local level.

·         Ensure communities are more closely involved in problem solving and crime prevention.

·         Have greater reach and ensures a more frequent refresh of ideas and views;

·         Achieve greater coherence between different engagement mechanisms, e.g. Independent Advisory Groups (IAG) and Stop and Search Community Monitoring Groups (S & S CMG), so as to provide greater public accountability in policing and crime reduction.

·         Make more efficient use of resources to deliver value for money and target funds at tackling issues of local concern and crime prevention.

It was noted that the board had a good representation at its meetings and at SNB events. Some members have not changed over the years.

The Chair of Havering Safer Neighbourhood Board outlined the following progress since the last update:

1.    Havering Street Watch requested to join the SNB and have now resigned due to too many commitments.

2.    The Neighbourhood Watch Network (NHW) was still very active within the borough. Two meetings have been attended with the National Body to better understand their Strategic Plans for the next 3 years and how it may help at the local level. This also included a seminar on fund raising and the use of Social Media to raise the profile of NHW within our communities.

3.    SNB Community Day and Conference was held in conjunction with the Community Safety day, open to all (residents, workers and visitor’s in the borough) in September 2018. The event allowed SNB to engage with over 350 members of the local community.

4.    School for Scammers was successfully delivered to various audiences around the borough. 

5.    The Board undertook two projects to address knife crime; Street Doctors and No Knives in School Projects. Both of these projects have been very successful and were well received by the target audience.

6.    Twelve days Christmas Pop Up took place in Romford Town Centre and was also supported by several of the Community volunteer teams including The Safer Neighbourhood Board, Community Safety, Street Scene, Road Safety, Romford Town Centre Police, Safer Transport Team, Fire Brigade, Safer Neighbourhood Team, Neighbourhood Wardens, Streetscene, Road Safety, Tapestry, Diabetes UK, Peabody trust, WDP, Neighbourhood Watch and the Havering Youth Service. Safety equipment and items for the Community were given out during the event, which included 1,200 purse chains and bells.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 14.

Report attached

The Sub-Committee received information on performance against indicators during Quarter 12 (July to September 2019).

The Sub-Committee was informed that due to the meeting being brought forward by a month, data was only available to the beginning of September 2019...

The Police Service target to reach 90% of “Immediate” (I) graded calls within 15 minutes of the call being made and for “Significant” (S) grade calls was to reach 90% within one hour of the call being made.

It was noted that data from the Police was now provided as a rolling average for I and S grades of calls met within target times including domestic abuse calls in each of these grading.

The Sub-Committee noted the following statistics that highlighted performance:

1.    Response time to Immediate (I) and Significant (S) Grade Incidents

I-grades - For the week commencing 2 September 2019 Havering saw an improvement in the number of I calls reaching the target time compared to quarter 1 with a rate of 83.8% (compared to 82.7% for the week commencing 1 July 2019.). This was slightly below the overall BCU average of 84.96%).

For the same period, Havering DA I grade calls have seen an increase in the number of calls reaching targets with a rate of 92.9% compared to the 84.6% reported for the week commencing 1st July 2019. This is above the overall Basic Command Unit (BCU) average of 78.76%

S-grades - The 12 month rolling averages to 2 September 2019 were as follows: 80.6% of S grades were met within an hour (compared to 80.5% for the week commencing 1 July 2019.).This was above the BCU average of 74.84%.

Domestic Abuse S grades show the figure of 79.4% locally (compared to 80% for the week commencing 1st July 2019.). This is above the BCU average of 73.51%.

2.    Violence

The data available provided a comparison on non-domestic abuse violence with injury experienced in Havering in quarter 2 of 2019-20 compared to the same time period in 2018-19. A reduction from 1354 Non DA VWI from August 2017 to August 2018 to 1176 Non DA VWI from July 2018 –July 2019, a reduction of 13.1%.

In July 2019, a reduction of 16 incidents when compared to July 2018 but  August 2019 saw an increase by  2 incidents when compared to August 2018. At the time of writing the report data for September 2019 was not available.

It was stated that the ongoing implementation of the serious group violence and knife crime action plan was contributing to the reduction.

An increase of 7.8%. was recorded on the level of domestic abuse (DA) crimes experienced within Havering in quarter 2 of 2019-20 compared to the same time period in 2018-19.

The rolling 12 months total of 2380 DA Crimes from July 2017 to July 2018 to 2567 DA Crimes from July 2018 –July 2019, an increase of 7.8%.

The Sub-Committee was informed that the council was currently in the process of recruiting two additional Independent Domestic Violence advocates  ...  view the full minutes text for item 15.

Report attached

The Sub-Committee received an update report on Serious Group Violence and Knife Crime.

The report informed Members that:

·         The highest proportion and volume of youth violence takes place within the ward Romford Town. The second most notable ward scoring high with knife crime related offences is Gooshays.

·         The ‘Perception’ of Knife Crime being a problem have increased, it was stated that 27% of residents in Havering (1 in 4 people) now believe the issue was a problem.

·         County Lines awareness was being raised with all of Havering’s secondary schools and pupil referral units.

·         Young people going missing through County Lines have been found in 11 different counties with Essex (Chelmsford) and Worcestershire (Evesham) being the most common.

·         Whilst Havering had the highest proportion of successful referrals into Rescue & Response out of all 32 London Boroughs, there was still a considerable room for improvement.

·         No access to the local Police gangs list makes work around prevention of those involved in gangs and knife crime very difficult, and potentially avoidable. The issue had been raised with MOPAC and the MPS.

It was stated that tackling serious violence was a key priority for both MOPAC and the council. 

The report detailed the following progresses that have been made:

On County Lines Exploitation - a major, cross-cutting issue involving drugs, violence, gangs, safeguarding, criminal and sexual exploitation, modern slavery and missing persons.  The response to tackle county lines involves the Police, the National Crime Agency, a wide range of Government departments, Local government agencies and voluntary and community sector (VCS) organisations.

The Sub-Committee was informed that Community Safety and Children’s Services have been working very closely over the last few years in order to make sure this form of exploitation is both recognised and address. 

The following key teams are fully alert to the issues of county lines:

·         MASH Team

·         Social Services

·         Youth Offending Team

·         Community Safety Team

·         Child Sexual and Criminal Exploitation & Missing Team

·         Admissions and Inclusions Team

·         Police – Safety Schools Officers, Intelligence Team, Gangs Unit etc.

It was also stated that further work have been undertaken with Schools, between April 2019 – July 2019, all 18 Secondary Schools & Olive Academy received a presentation directed at Teachers and Parents of School Pupils from the Metropolitan Police Trident Unit with regards to County Lines.

The council regularly refers to the MOPAC funded Pan-London service; Rescue and Response (R+R). The service specifically focuses on county lines, both identifying young people and providing a service for boroughs in need of assistance. 

It was noted that 48 Individuals were identified as having links to County Lines, placing Havering in the 2th position out of 32 Local Authorities.  Havering completed 23 referrals to Rescue and Response between June 2018 and June 2019, this was the 9th highest amount of referrals completed out of 32 Local Authorities.

It was stated that Havering had the highest proportion out of all 32 London boroughs in referrals to Rescue and Response service at 48%.

The Gangs and Serious Group Violence  ...  view the full minutes text for item 16.