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Agenda and minutes

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Items
No. Item

278.

Apologies for Absence

Minutes:

Apologies were received from Councillors O’Sullivan, Chowdhury and Picknell

279.

Declaration of Substitute Members

Minutes:

None

280.

Declarations of Interest

If you have a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest* in an item of business:

§  if it is not yet on the council’s register, you must declare both the existence and details of it at the start of the meeting or when it becomes apparent;

§  you may choose to declare a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest that is already in the register in the interests of openness and transparency. 

In both the above cases, you must leave the room without participating in discussion of the item.

 

If you have a personal interest in an item of business and you intend to speak or vote on the item you must declare both the existence and details of it at the start of the meeting or when it becomes apparent but you may participate in the discussion and vote on the item.

 

*(a) Employment, etc - Any employment, office, trade, profession or vocation
  carried on for profit or gain.

(b)   Sponsorship - Any payment or other financial benefit in respect of your expenses in carrying out duties as a member, or of your election; including from a trade union.

(c)   Contracts - Any current contract for goods, services or works, between you or your partner (or a body in which one of you has a beneficial interest) and the council.

(d)  Land - Any beneficial interest in land which is within the council’s area.

(e)  Licences- Any licence to occupy land in the council’s area for a month or  
 longer.

(f) Corporate tenancies - Any tenancy between the council and a body in which you or your partner have a beneficial interest.

 (g) Securities - Any beneficial interest in securities of a body which has a place of business or land in the council’s area, if the total nominal value of the securities exceeds £25,000 or one hundredth of the total issued share capital of that body or of any one class of its issued share capital. 

 

This applies to all members present at the meeting.

 

 

 

Minutes:

None

281.

Minutes of the previous meeting pdf icon PDF 76 KB

Minutes:

RESOLVED:

That the minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 25 March 2021 be confirmed and the Chair be authorised to sign them

282.

Chair's Report

Minutes:

None

283.

Public Questions

For members of the public to ask questions relating to any subject on the meeting agenda under Procedure Rule 70.5. Alternatively, the Chair may opt to accept questions from the public during the discussion on each agenda item.

 

Minutes:

The Chair outlined the procedure for Public questions

284.

COVID 19 Update pdf icon PDF 206 KB

Minutes:

Linzi Roberts Egan, Chief Executive and Councillor Sue Lukes, Executive Member for Community Safety were present and outlined the report

 

During consideration of the report the following main points were made –

 

·         First step of roadmap reached on 8 March, with schools and colleges fully reopening, and work taking place with schools to support safe full reopening

·         Support to local businesses for reopening and the Shop local, Shop safe campaign has been revived. In response to a question it was stated that on easing of the guidelines last weekend, businesses had been supported by the Council, however some businesses had chosen not to reopen at the present time. Public Protection officers were investigating breaches of COVID regulations, and any examples of breaches should be reported. Councillor Lukes stated that all Members should encourage shopkeepers to sign up to the Shop local, Shop safe initiative

·         Infections have slowed and are at relatively low levels. Symptomatic testing rose significantly in March and non-symptomatic Lateral Flow tests has remained at high levels in the community primarily linked to schools. Latest infection rate 17.3 residents per 100000 population and amongst over 60’s the infection rate is 3.3%, compared to the national average of 11%

·         Vaccination and testing – at current time 4 fixed vaccination sites in the borough, and continuing to vaccinate priority groups. Also outreach vaccination to homeless and bespoke clinics at GP hubs for those with learning difficulties. Community pop up vaccination centres have also been used. Vaccination programme is currently significantly better than others within London, but is significantly below the national target of 95%. Uptake of vaccinations is now higher than the flu vaccine programme, and is continuing to increase across all groups. Whilst lower in some Black communities the gap is narrowing

·         We are Islington has provided a significant role in supporting local residents and financial support has been provided to residents

·         Food support has also been provided and there have been 4095 requests since the service was launched. There has also been fuel support given

·         Well-being support and support to shielded/critically extremely vulnerable residents has also been provided

·         Staffing – noted that as of 6 April the percentage of staff unable to work was approx. 20% and staff working on site was 32% and support is available to staff and residents through a number of services. It was stated that this level of staff absence was also due to staff taking annual leave, those who are currently unable to work due to non COVID reasons, and had been at a similar level since the start of the pandemic

·         Noted that there had been instances of large groups of people gathering in Parks and open spaces on easing of lockdown, and that more toilet facilities would be made available in future

·         In response to a question it was stated that with regard to surge testing for variants that had taken place in other parts of London, lessons had been learnt from this, and a plan was being formulated in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 284.

285.

Presentation - Executive Member Community Safety/Crime Statistics pdf icon PDF 870 KB

Minutes:

Councillors Sue Lukes, Executive Member Community Safety and Councillor Michelline Safi – Ngogo Executive Member Children, Young People and Families were present and accompanied by Keith Stanger and Curtis Ashton

Detective Superintendent Dave Courcha was also present at the meeting to respond to questions

 

During consideration of the report the following main points were made –

 

·         Noted total crime figures had fallen in all areas, apart from racial and domestic violence offences – reduction of 24% reduction in crime overall, but this is slowly increasing again. Areas of concern centre around a small number of parks/estates, where established gangs/groups are causing issues with increased drug dealing and robbery

·         Huge uptake in services provision from street homeless, and drug users

·         Knife crime reductions sustained, and attributed to work of Gangs Teams, partnership approach to youth offending, and joined up Police and partnership work

·         Police have responded with a number of initiatives – creation of violence suppression unit, cross borough initiatives, weapon sweeps, higher level of NP patrols in high crime areas, multi-agency offender management, work with Pentonville Prison, and engagement in youth custody worker programme

·         Achievements – reduced number of first time entrants into the youth justice system, reoffending rates for young people amongst best in London, reduction in the number of people receiving a custodial sentence, and reductions in youth violence, and serious youth violence. Challenges include impact of pandemic on exploitation of children and young people, surge in violence after lockdown 1, organised crime groups, cross border crime. Work taking place with Haringey on cross border crime initiatives. In addition there were still high levels of moped and pedal theft

·         Initiatives being undertaken to support those subject to domestic violence, and violence against young women and girls. Challenges include ongoing impact of pandemic, safety of women and girls in communities, schools and workplaces, increasing criminal justice outcomes and awareness of young people as victims of domestic abuse. Noted a new Violence against women and girls strategy was being developed, and that Islington charged more perpetrators for Domestic Violence than any other Domestic Violence unit. Noted that the Police had established a new predatory offender unit, and that a violence and aggression unit was being relocated from Camden to Islington to offer a rapid response to violence and robbery issues. A Drugs Focus desk would also focus on drug dealing

·         In response to a question it was stated that caretakers and repairs staff did receive training to report any issues of domestic violence or other concerns

·         Reference was made to the increase in ‘cuckooing’, and that this had increased. These were often complex cases and the community MARAC was supporting victims

·         Noted that a mental health nurse would be embedded in the Police Control room in order to assist officers where there are issues of mental health with offenders

·         Measures taken to improve women’s safety, including the Safe Havens scheme, targeted communication campaigns, treating mysogyny as a hate crime, early intervention workshops

·         Delivering multi agency projects to reduce ASB and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 285.

286.

Presentation - Executive Member Community Development pdf icon PDF 601 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Councillor Una O’Halloran, Executive Member Community Safety was present and accompanied by John Muir, Head of Community Development, and made a presentation to the Committee, a copy of which is interleaved

 

During consideration of the presentation the following main points were made –

 

·         Working to the Council’s VCS strategy, the Communities Team has contributed and informed a range of corporate strategies to enable communities to thrive, connect and give. The Communities Team focuses on building communities and strengthening the voluntary and community sector by strategy, community networks, places and spaces, funding and investment, capacity building and volunteering, and communications and digital development

·         Grants programme – Council new programme started on 21 January 2021 running until 31 March 2024, and there is a commitment to protect levels of grant funding to the local and voluntary community sector. The current budget is £2.7m per annum, and has been designed around the Council’s Corporate Plan. Residents Impact Assessment identified new positive aspects of the new grant programme – 19% increase in the funding of BAME organisations compared to previous grants programmes

·         Reviews are being carried out under 3 strands Capacity building and volunteering, Equalities and Cohesion Networks, with a focus on the needs of the Black/Afro Caribbean community and residents with disabilities

·         Organisations can access independent, impartial advice on welfare benefits, debt, housing and immigration issues. Discretionary rate relief, food connection grants, grant funding programmes and payment of LLW are strategic priorities

·         Small grants programmes include Community Chest, Local Initiative Fund

·         Ward Partnerships are a forum for community engagement, and all wards have had WP meetings throughout 2020/21. Work is taking place to evolve the Ward Partnerships, and will be set out in a community plan, which has leverage to influence delivery in the area

·         Estate based community centres – work taking place to improve some centres. COVID has restricted activities in community centres. It is proposed to deliver a 3 year community centre strategy

·         Estate based Active Space Programme – this includes Arts on Estates, Estate Environment, Active Spaces and these activities are free and advertised specifically through estate based and local media

·         Community Development and Partnerships in Finsbury Park and Caledonian Wards are taking place

·         Equality events taking place and EU nationals supported with targeted work to support vulnerable EU residents

·         COVID service offer and We are Islington – worked with VCS partners providing guidance, engaged network organisations and individual organisations to ensure lock down compliance, established a COVID service directory as part of the We are Islington helpline. 14 community conversations undertaken on COVID 19 with communities on testing and public health messaging, worked with Islington’s mutual aid groups providing flexible support. VAI delivering the volunteering programme for the borough, and an additional 20 volunteer roles specifically to support COVID 19 have been identified, and advertised

·         VCS Funding and well-being – contact made to VCS grant funded organisations, London Community Response Fund, National Lottery Coronavirus Community Fund. Advice sessions to ensure organisations are supported in writing funding bids, developing income  ...  view the full minutes text for item 286.

287.

Monitoring Report, Work Programme etc./Consideration of scrutiny topic 2021/22

Minutes:

RESOLVED:

That the report be noted and that consideration be given at the next meeting to the following scrutiny review topics for consideration in 2021/22