Agenda and minutes

Cllr Dey, Chair of the meeting in Cllr Rye’s absence, welcomed everyone to the meeting and introductions were made.

Apologies for absence were received from Cllr Michael Rye and Cllr Destiny Karakus. Cllr Rye was substituted by Cllr Tom O’Halloran.

Apologies for absence were also received from Cllr Gina Needs, Cabinet Member for Community Safety & Cohesion and Ivana Price, Head of Service, Young People & Community Safety.

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

Cllr Adrian Grumi declared a non-pecuniary interest as he runs Enfield Crime Watch Facebook page.

To agree the minutes of the Crime Scrutiny Panel meeting held on 1 March 2023.

With an amendment to record the correct spelling of Tim Fellow’s name at Minute No:5 (paragraph 10), the minutes of the meeting held on 1 March 2023 were agreed.

To receive the report of Andrea Clemons, Head of Community Safety and Sarah Gilroy, Policy and Performance Manager.

Andrea Clemons, Head of Community Safety introduced the report which provided an update on progress locally in meeting the requirements of the Serious Violence Duty, introduced by the Police Crime Sentencing and Courts Act 2022. A presentation was received by the Panel and Sarah Gilroy, Policy and Performance Manager provided a summary of the violence profiles resulting from the Enfield Serious Violence Duty Strategic Needs Assessment 2023. This information would allow residents to understand serious violence in Enfield and allow them to take part in the consultation questionnaire.

In response to questions from members regarding the consultation process it was advised that consultation will take place between September and November 2023 with residents, young people, businesses, service users and stakeholders. The findings from the Strategic Needs Assessment will help generate discussion with residents/stakeholders and collectively this information will inform the resulting strategy. A formalised communications plan has been agreed, outlining messages and a wide range of channels, including but not limited to social media, e-newsletters and printed news channels.

The Chair thanked officers for their update and the information provided.

The Panel agreed:

i.               To note the report and the consultation process.

*Post meeting note*

‘At the Crime Scrutiny Panel meeting in September, Cllr Chris Dey (Vice-Chair and chairing the meeting in the absence of the Chair Cllr Michael Rye OBE) suggested that the Serious Violence Duty questionnaire be shared with children and young people. As the questionnaire is targeted at adults and includes questions around sexual violence and domestic abuse, it is felt that it would not be appropriate to share with children and young people.

Cllr Dey has therefore given his agreement for the minutes to reflect our plan to consult with children and young people. We will be consulting with children and young people from the Enfield Youth Council and Youth Justice Service. We will also be capturing the views of voluntary and community sector organisations who work with young people through focus groups and the questionnaire’.

To receive the report of Julie Tailor, Domestic Violence Co-Ordinator.

Julie Tailor, Domestic Violence Co-Ordinator introduced the report highlighting the progress of work on Violence Against Women and Girls and Domestic Abuse. It was noted that the challenges in measuring success as indicators are not straight forward in this crime type and reduction in numbers could be as a result of not reporting due to a loss in confidence. Information was also provided on activity which had taken place over the last year with an aim to bring about improvements, build confidence and encourage victims to come forward. Data was provided on domestic abuse incidents, domestic abuse violence with injury, sexual offences, and rape offences.

Questions were invited from members.

In response to questions regarding the locks and bolts programme and whether this could be extended to be proactive and not just reactive it was advised that there is a very limited core budget for this initiative. However, the programme continues to provide support to vulnerable clients and their families, and an application has been submitted for external funding to further enhance this scheme.

In response to a question regarding the support to services for residents who do not speak English as their first language it was confirmed that there is access for residents to specific agencies that deal with cultural needs as well as language barriers.

Following members’ questions, officers confirmed that they continued to fund a high standard Independent Domestic Violence Advocate (IDVA) support and emergency accommodation for victims of domestic violence. Since the last report to the panel, external grant funding had also been secured for an additional IDVA as well as an Independent Sexual Violence Advocate (ISVA).

Discussions took place regarding the Identification and Referral to Increase Safety (IRIS) project to improve health’s response to Domestic Abuse. The programme is designed to equip GPs with the knowledge, skills, and resources to effectively identify and respond to patients who may be experiencing domestic abuse. Although the exact numbers were not known, it was felt that around half of the GPs in Enfield had signed up to this project.

In response to a query regarding teachers identifying children who may have been affected by domestic abuse, it was advised that this is covered as part of Safeguarding Training that is offered to schools and the response to this has been most encouraging.

Further discussions took place regarding the Child and Adolescent to Parent Violence and Abuse (CAPVA) in London and it was advised that anecdotally there had been an increase in children coming into looked after care in the borough. This might be due to a one-off incident; a crisis that could normally be dealt with within a number of days, or a more chronic, ongoing issue where young people end up staying in care for a number of years.

With regards to the data shown at 3.5 of the report concerns were raised that no information was included regarding repeat victims of domestic abuse, despite the Met’s Turnaround Plan detailing this as a priority. Superintendent Chris Byrne  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

To receive the report of Andrea Clemons, Head of Community Safety and Rebecca Barnett, Community Safety Intelligence Officer.

Andrea Clemons, Head of Community Safety introduced the report, which set out the performance against agreed priorities of the Safer and Stronger Communities Board Plan. It was advised that due to changes in accessing data some crime categories had not been included. The key points in the report were highlighted and it was noted that Total Notifiable Offences in Enfield had decreased by 2.2% in the year ending July 2023 when compared to the previous 12 months. London saw a 5.0% increase over the same period. Further data, comparisons and trends were provided for each category.

Questions were invited from Members.

In response to concerns regarding knife crime it was advised that there is a big, combined partnership push around this through the North Area Group (Enfield & Haringey Police) which looks at the trends, hotspot locations, times etc to see where intervention is best placed. This data had been used to apply for some additional funding to tackle robberies as the data showed that the peak time for this type of offense was between the end of the school day and 5pm/6pm. Some additional youth work was commissioned for Enfield Town where a problem had been identified and a responsible team had been placed in this area at the times that it was needed and as a result, robberies had come down. Some of this work is resource intensive as it also about tackling offenders including surveillance work by the Police to tackle the sale of knives in local shops. Members were assured however that there is a broad range of activity in place to try and tackle weapon related violence, some of which is robberies and some of which can lead to very serious injury. Superintendent Byrne provided some further information on the Met’s Summer Nights partnership approach which has seen knife detection rates go up as more people are stopped and searched and some really nasty weapons have been taken off the streets. Work is also ongoing to look at how the proactive units are used with a view to make these more targeted, as serious violence with injury and knife crime is absolutely a police priority.

Further information was provided on the various partnership activity taking place which included knife safes, knife bins, amnesties, youth worker at North Middlesex Hospital A&E, gang mentoring to encourage young people away from certain lifestyles and working with young people through the Youth Justice Team. The Panel requested that the Partnership Activity Action Plan be circulated post meeting.

ACTION: Andrea Clemons

The Enfield Youth Council representative put forward some interesting points regarding knife crime from a young persons’ perspective which were welcomed by panel members and officers in attendance at the meeting. Superintendent Byrne said he would be keen to meet with the Enfield Youth Council outside of the meeting to discuss this issue in more detail.

Action: Superintendent Chris Byrne

In response to questions regarding effective plans in place over the coming years to reduce motor vehicle crime it  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

To note the Crime Scrutiny Panel Work Programme 2023/24.

NOTED the Crime Scrutiny Panel Work Programme 2023/24.

To note the dates of future meetings as follows:

Wednesday 6 December 2023

Tuesday 27 February 2024

Tuesday 16 April 2024

All meetings will commence at 7:00pm and will be held in the Conference Room at the Civic Centre.

NOTED the dates of future meetings as follows:

·         Wednesday 6 December 2023

·         Tuesday 27 February 2024.

·         Tuesday 16 April 2024

These meetings will commence at 7:00pm and will be held in the Conference Room at the Civic Centre.