Agenda and minutes

Councillors Doolan, Klute and Comer Shwartz and Andrews and O’Sullivan for lateness

None

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.

None

RESOLVED:

That the minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 5 October 2015 be confirmed as a correct record of the proceedings and the Chair be authorised to sign them

None

The Chair outlined the procedures for public questions and filming and recording of meetings

The Chair stated that he had presented the Committee’s report on the BEST team to the Executive at its last meeting.

The Chair added that in terms of the agenda that evening the items on Annual Crime report, the Youth Crime strategy and the scrutiny review item on knife crime would be considered together and Members could then ask questions thereon.

Councillor Paul Convery, Executive Member Community Safety and the Borough Commander, Catherine Roper were present for discussion of this item.

The SIP Annual report had been circulated for discussion and this was considered in conjunction with the items on the Youth Crime strategy and the Scrutiny review on knife crime.

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

·         There had been an 11% increase in crime from the previous year and this has demanded a strong response with additional police resources and determined efforts on behalf of the Council and partners to adopt a co-ordinated approach to youth offending and a marked increase in knife crime incidents

·         Over the past year the priority offence type has been snatch offences which reached high levels in April and May with nearly 400 offences a month

·         The partnership is focusing on offenders, rather than the range of different offences, as it is clear there is a crossover between ASB and other more serious crimes. The integrated offender management arrangements have been streamlined to bring multi agency focus on those individuals causing most concern

·         Currently, excluding the YOS cohort, there are over 200 individuals identified as persistent and prolific offenders, responsible for a number of offences, ranging from acquisitive crime to serious violence. These individuals are managed across different multi agency arrangements

·         Children and young adults (under 25) continue to feature highly in the offending statistics, particularly in relation to knife crime and serious youth violence

·         Young people, 15 to 20, continue to dominate the most arrested chart. However, the under 15 year old arrest rate has declined considerably in comparison to last year. This may show that some early intervention strategies have started to work

·         Islington, however, continues to have a high youth re-offending rate, which has significantly increased over the first quarter. The sentences given to young people remain fairly short, however it does enable effective interventions whilst they are in prison custody, with better chances of influencing behaviour change post release

·         Whilst the number of first time entrants to the criminal justice system continue to fall, the borough’s triaging process is not proving to be effective, as it was previously. Currently 21% of young people who have been triaged later enter the criminal justice system, compared with only 14% last year

·         By concentrating on offenders rather than the offences that they commit, it has become clear that there is a significant crossover between ASB and serious criminality at all levels and that many of the same individuals are involved. The integrated offender management arrangements have been streamlined to bring multi-agency focus on those individuals causing the most concern

·         There is relatively a small number of young people who are directly and actively involved, around 200 young people. These have been often been recruited by older adults into loosely organised gangs that have shifting memberships and affiliations. These gangs commit a range of acquisitive crimes to generate cash, in order to participate in the drugs economy in the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 175.

This item was dealt with in conjunction with item 175 above.

Councillor Convery stated that he would like to thank Licensing Committee Members, officers and the Police for the effective work that they have carried out.

RESOLVED:

That the report be noted

Catherine Briody, Victims and ex-offenders Support Manager was present for discussion of this item and circulated documentation showing the work being carried out on youth engagement in the borough. (Copy interleaved).

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

·         There has been a new post created as part of the integrated Gangs Unit of Youth Engagement Co-ordinator

·         Since the implementation of the Local Policing Model in 2013 police engagement within primary schools has been left to ward PCO’s, which has resulted in a large drop off with some primary schools having little or no Police engagement. In order to address this and to bring about a more consistent and sustainable approach, all 46 primary schools have now been allocated a single point of contact, which is an existing Safer Schools Police constable

·         Using the existing safer schools officers, all secondary schools now has a single point of contact, including EGA, which has been without a Schools officer since June 2013

·         Over the past month, Police have been developing a consistent, sustainable and regular police educational programme for Primary and Secondary schools. The programme will consist of 12 main inputs covering early engagement with Primary schools and following it through with 5 inputs dedicated to secondary schools. The programme looks to introduce the following topics – Introduction to Police, Stranger Danger, Road Safety, Bullying, Decisions and Consequences and Exploitation Gangs and Child Sexual exploitation, Girls in Gangs, Joint Enterprise, Online awareness and cyber crime and knife crime

·         All schools will be offered the programme via the Safer Schools Officers from November

·         Victim support – Police will be working with Victim Support to create and facilitate bespoke packages for schools and other hard to reach groups within the young community

·         Volunteer Police cadets and junior citizens

·         Sports and summer programmes

·         Police station events and open events

·         For young people and their families across the borough (especially at risk groups of potential vulnerable young people it is planned to host a question and answer session on topics such as gang membership and stop and search, presentation on the warning signs of early gang membership, intervention and diversion options for young people, careers advice service by DWP, young people talking to young people such as Police cadets, and Dragons Den style challenges for young people