Agenda for Overview & Scrutiny Committee on Tuesday, 11th July, 2017, 7.30 pm

Agenda and minutes

Venue: Conference Room, Civic Centre, Silver Street, Enfield, EN1 3XA. View directions

Contact: Stacey Gilmour 

Items
No. Item

80.

WELCOME AND APOLOGIES

Minutes:

The Chair welcomed attendees to the meeting. Apologies for absence were received from Tony Murphy, Simon Goulden and Alicia Meniru.

 

The Chair explained that this joint meeting of the Overview & Scrutiny Committee and the Crime Scrutiny Standing Workstream had been arranged as a result of the upsurge in knife crime in the borough that had taken place in early spring. This had then gained further impetus under Opposition Priority Business raised at Full Council in June 2017. The purpose of this meeting was to gather evidence, probe, look at what is and isn’t working and what, if anything needs to be done differently. Tonight’s meeting should not be about political debate, therefore for simplicity the Chair asked all members to be in ‘receive’ and not  ‘send’ mode and to steer clear of political agendas.  This meeting would give Members the opportunity to discuss this matter in more detail and seek clarification on any concerns from the Officers, Cabinet Member and Borough Commander in attendance.

81.

DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

Members of the Council are invited to identify any disclosable pecuniary, other pecuniary or non-pecuniary interests relevant to items on the agenda.

Minutes:

No declarations of interest were put forward.

82.

KNIFE CRIME AND POLICE NUMBERS IN THE BOROUGH pdf icon PDF 242 KB

To receive reports and discuss the recent increases in knife and violent crime in the borough.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

RECEIVED a report from Paul Sutton, Assistant Director, Service Development & Youth Services. The report described the work being undertaken by the Youth and Family Support Service around serious youth violence and knife crime. The following was highlighted:

 

·       The underlying message was that prevention is better than cure and this was demonstrated throughout the report.

·       Information was provided on the actions being taken with the parents and families of offenders. This included details on the work of the Youth Development Unit (YDU), Parenting Support and Change and Challenge Units (PSU and CCU) and the Youth Offending Unit (YOU).

·       Paul spoke about various programmes in place including the Knife Crime Programme (KCPP), Street Doctors, the Youth Culture and Conflict Resolution (YCCR) 1 and 2, Self Defence programme, LEAP (confronting conflict), Victim Awareness and the ISS programme (Intensive Supervision and Surveillance).

·       The Youth Offending Unit (YOU) have worked with the police regarding having knife arches at the YOU and this has meant that some people attending appointments at the YOU have been arrested for carrying knives. Work is ongoing with the Police to do more of this work.

·       Paul emphasised that all of the above are in addition to the statutory Children and family Support Services and the Looked After Children’s Services.

·       Some Youth Offending Unit client case examples were provided demonstrating how the processes worked and the success of the various programmes.

·       Paul went on to speak about what more could be done by all those working with children and young people to deter them from this type of lifestyle. He stressed that it would require ‘everyone’ (community members, voluntary sector, private sector, health services, education and training providers, council, Police etc.)  working together.

·       There was a real need to be tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime, meaning: Awareness raising (e.g. in schools, primary and secondary and with parents); community engagement; prevention; education; information sharing; use of intelligence; (targeted) Stop and Search; tougher sentencing for certain crimes; more and better targeted policing; support and rehabilitation; restorative justice and knife arches.

·       Early awareness raising with parents and children was key as was education and advice to children in primary school and information and advice to parents regarding knives, violence, gangs, drugs etc.

·       It was crucial to continue to ensure excellent well-resourced youth offending services (If we cannot work well and intensively with the young people in the system we will see more violence and more young people in custody).

·       Councillors can continue to assist by enabling environment e.g. ensuring partnerships are working and people are cooperating; ensuring children’s services continue to have the funding required; continue to engage and mobilise residents regarding the problems and solutions; keep ensuring a consistent message is given e.g. as to the necessity and benefit of tactics such as stop and search and having the difficult and challenging conversations regarding these etc.

·       In conclusion Paul stressed that the emphasis must be on: Communication, Co-operation and Coordination

 

The following issues and questions were then raised:  ...  view the full minutes text for item 82.