Agenda and minutes

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting and introductions were made.

Apologies for absence were received from Cllr Alev Cazimoglu (Cabinet Member, Health & Social Care), Tony Theodoulou (Executive Director, People) and Doug Wilson (Director of Health & Adult Social Care).

To accommodate officers presenting the health items on the agenda, the Panel AGREED to the Chair’s proposal to amend the running order of the agenda, therefore agenda item no:6 was taken first followed by agenda item no:5. However, for clarity the minutes are shown in the order of the published agenda.

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

There were no declarations of interest received regarding any item on the agenda.

To agree the minutes of the Crime Scrutiny Panel held on 27 February 2024 and the Health & Adult Social Care Scrutiny Panel held on 24 April 2024.

AGREED the minutes of the Crime Scrutiny Panel held on 27 February 2024 and the minutes of the Health & Adult Social care Scrutiny Panel held on 24 April 2024.

To receive the report of Jonathon Toy, Head of Community Safety.

Ivana Price, Head of Service, Young People & Community Safety and Cllr Gina Needs, Cabinet Member, Community Cohesion & Enforcement provided an introduction, noting that the report sets out background to the Mayor’s Women’s Night-time Safety Charter (WNSC) and the steps that businesses need to take to adopt the Charter as well as other key points that form core elements of support for women and girls if they feel unsafe in the area. The report also provides the outline of how and where officers intend to pilot the Charter as part of a long-term plan to expand it across the borough.

Jonathon Toy, Head of Community Safety highlighted key aspects of the report. The Women’s Night-time Safety Charter came into effect in 2018, following two successful projects in Lambeth and Southwark. The purpose of the Charter is to work with businesses to create safe environments and is part of the Mayor’s Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy and London’s commitment to the UN Women Safe Cities and Safe Public Spaces global initiative.

The Safer Business Network has been appointed by the Mayor’s Office to lead on the London wide Charter. The Network co-ordinates and administers Business Crime Reduction Partnerships (BCRPs) across London. The Charter sets out 7 Pledges that each business is required to work towards in order to create a safe environment for women and girls to both work and travel in.

All London Councils have signed up to the Charter with Enfield Council signing it back in 2022 and since then positive progress has been made (details of which are included on page 19 paragraph 2.9 of the agenda pack). The Council has taken the opportunity to refresh its overall approach towards this programme and to support this the Director of Public Health has recently taken on the role of Champion for women’s safety. The Council is now working on an action plan to ensure the 7 Pledges are being actively progressed, aligning with the pan London approach. The intention is to develop a Women’s Night-time Safety Charter for businesses across Enfield.

The approach is to include a number of elements within the Charter to maximise engagement including Safe Havens, which are a practical way for businesses to let people know that a form of support is easily available if they need help; Ask for Angela- a customer facing campaign which helps prevent and reduce sexual violence and vulnerability. It’s a code word which can be given to staff when a customer feels unsafe or threatened and allows them to access discreet help and WAVE- which is designed for those in a customer facing role, aimed to help identify vulnerability and put interventions in place to support those visitors coming to a business.

Speaking about the last two years, Jonathon explained that what hadn’t been done up until recently was to focus the attention on getting local businesses signed up to the Charter. A very small number of businesses have signed up, but it is certainly not the numbers  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

To receive the report of Lia Markwick, Lead Accommodation Service Development Manager.

Jon Newton, Service Director, Adults & Older People, introduced the report which provided an update on the development and delivery of Supporting Independence: A Local Prevention Strategy (2023-2027).

Lia Markwick, Lead Accommodation Service Development Manager, highlighted key areas of the report, which included the headline priorities for supporting independent living for young people in transition to adulthood, adults (18-64 years) and older people (65 years and over) with adult social care needs in Enfield over a five-year period.

Recognising that barriers to living independently reach beyond adult social care, the strategy first considers ‘Universal Themes’ that can impact a person’s opportunity to live independently, including information and advice and health and housing. It also considers growing opportunities to enhance independent living through the use of digital technology- a landscape of opportunity that continues to evolve.

The latter section of the strategy focuses on specific priorities for supporting independent living, according to nature of disability or area of need and details of these ‘In Focus’ areas are included in the report. The strategy is intended to complement existing strategies and contribute to a holistic portfolio of documents, that together set out, in partnership with people who need support and their carers, what is needed locally to better support independent living.

The Year 1 Action Plan set out key actions to support delivery of priorities from September 2023 to March 2024. An end of year review of Year 1 Action plan has now been completed with the purpose of updating on progress against priorities and identifying the impact of this strategy work. Some key areas progressed under this strategy in Year 1 are set out in the report.

Further information was provided on the Universal Priorities including information and advice, the right home, training and employment, technology, active connected and engaged communities. Good progress has been made to increase high quality, accessible housing options for older people with support and care needs in the borough. Reardon Court Extra Care Housing Scheme - which has now opened its doors to new tenants – will offer 70 new homes with the availability of 24-hour on-site care for older people who wish to live independently but may require support and care to do so. Benefits of this type of scheme are cross cutting as it is a good opportunity for an alternative to residential care places and it also has the potential to impact on housing in respect of opportunities to downsize for example from council housing.

An update was also provided on the ‘In Focus’ Priorities and it was noted that in Year 1, Enfield exceeded targets for completing annual health checks for people with learning disabilities in the borough, supporting the priority to reduce health inequalities for people with learning disabilities. In 23/24 79% of people with a learning disability had a health check completed.

Year 1 also saw the expansion of the number of ‘flexi flats’ available for use within the Extra Care Housing provision from 2 to 7. This provides accessible short  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

To receive the report of Glenn Stewart, Assistant Director of Public Health.

Dudu Sher-Arami, Public Health Director, provided an introduction noting that this was a great news story for residents as there hadn’t been a stop smoking service (SSS) in the borough for many years. She advised that additional resources had been allocated from the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) specifically to do this piece of work and the report detailed the plan for achieving this.

Glenn Stewart, Assistant Director, Public Health introduced and highlighted key aspects of the report. Smoking is the greatest single preventable cause of health inequalities, mortality, and morbidity in the borough accounting for approximately 230 deaths a year and estimated to cost the borough some £209m a year. The UK Government has a target for the UK to become smokefree by 2030 where ‘smokefree’ means a smoking prevalence of 5% or less. The current prevalence is estimated at between 13.5% (according to the Annual Population Survey) and 15.6% (according to GP data) of the adult (18+) population i.e., 40-50,000 smokers. Grant funding for the borough-wide stop smoking service will be received over five years, from 2024-2029, and depending on prevalence will amount to approximately £2m.

Key elements of the required service were explained, and it was noted that the new provider will be expected to offer a comprehensive borough-wide SSS. This will include both face-to-face and a digital offer. Two levels of support will be offered; one whereby smokers will be given face-to-face support for 6 weeks, the other whereby smokers will be given the same support but through teams or telephone 1-1 support.

Expectations of the grant that LBE will achieve include a certain number of people setting quite dates over the five years of the grant and these figures are detailed in the report. The provider will be monitored through statutory quarterly returns on the number of quitters, success rates, ethnicity, areas of deprivation etc.  In addition, LBE will have regular contract meetings with the provider and there will also be links to the North Middlesex Hospital smoking pathway, London-wide work, and Enfield GP Federations SSS’s. As of 12 September 2024, seventeen providers have expressed an interest. 

The next steps of the process included sticking to the procurement timetable with a provider in place and accepting clients from January 2025 (challenge notwithstanding). Contract and performance management would then take place from January 2025 to March 2029.

Questions were invited from the Panel.

In response to Members’ queries regarding how this provision would impact maternity services, it was advised that this comes under the NHS long term plan, so they are obliged to pick up patients going into hospital either due to maternity or as an in-patient where smoking cessation services are currently offered. However, up to now no support is offered when leaving hospital but this new provision will assist with this.

Clarification was sought regarding the GP data shown on page 41 of the report detailing smoking prevalence by ward and it was explained that this was only a guide as it  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

To receive the report of Jonathon Toy, Head of Community Safety.

Cllr Gina Needs, Cabinet Member, Community Cohesion & Enforcement, provided an introduction noting that the report sets out the key highlights from crime data for Enfield up to August 2024. The report also provides a deep dive into the Community Safety Partnership Programme in the Upper Edmonton and Edmonton Green area and sets out the rationale for the approach, progress to date and next steps.

CI Rob Gibbs, Neighbourhood Policing provided an overview of the deep dive- Clear Hold Build Operation Pisces – Upper Edmonton and Edmonton Green. The Stronger Communities Board Community Safety Plan 2022-25 has three broad priorities: - Crimes that cause direct harm to people, Theft or damage to property and Harm caused to neighbourhoods.

There is one part of Enfield, the Upper Edmonton and Edmonton Green area, that accounts for 20% of the total crime for the Borough. It is an area dominated by organised criminality, drug supply, street sex trade, violence, and street harassment, which blights the lives of the local community and legitimate businesses.

The National Police Chiefs Council have developed an approach called Clear, Hold, Build, aimed at addressing organised criminality in defined local areas and its long-term impact. Clear, Hold, Build is a place-based, 3-phases operational framework designed to simultaneously tackle the totality of Serious Organised Crime Groups (OCGs), their business models, what is enabling their model, locally exploited vulnerabilities, and highest harm hotspots. It provides an integrated partnership approach that delivers tactical options which are systematic, proportionate, and targeted.

The long-term aim is to empower and galvanise the community’s own voice to ‘claim back’ communities blighted by OCGs and build longer-term resilience and confidence to tackle future Serious Organised Crime threats. To achieve this the programme brings together the very best of investigative capabilities, multi-agency disruption opportunities and community-based problem-solving skills in a collaborative way.

Operation Pisces is a multi-agency programme which is focused on the Northumberland Park, Fore Street and Edmonton Green area. In May 2024 the crime analysis of the Fore Street (including Joyce and Snells Estate) and Edmonton Green area indicated that from June 2023-May 2024 Fore Street recorded the biggest hot spot within Enfield for Robbery offences. There were 236 robberies in and around Fore Street in this period, 24% of all the Borough’s offences. There were twenty Lethal Barrel Weapon Discharges, 26% of Enfield’s total and Fore Street had by far the highest rate of anti-social behaviour in the borough during the above 12-month period. Hot spots also appear around Fore Street for robberies, knife crime and drug trafficking.

Operation Pisces Clear phase commenced in June 2024 and the Police have committed a significant level of resources including the 5 local Safer Neighbourhood Teams, Territorial Support Group, the Specialist Crime North proactive teams and Specialist Crime Central Modern Slavery and Child Exploitation. Enfield Council has also established a Partnership Tasking and Enforcement Group bringing together the council’s operational and enforcement services as well as Police leads. The group is chaired by the Head of Community Safety and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

To note the Healthy & Safe Communities Scrutiny Panel Work Programme 2024/25.

The Panel AGREED to add the following item to their Work Programme 2024/25:

·         Planned merger of the Royal Free and North Middlesex University Hospitals.

A suitable meeting date for this item to come to the Panel would be agreed between Officers and the Chair, and the Work Programme updated accordingly.

Action: Stacey Gilmour, Governance & Scrutiny Officer

With the above addition, the Panel NOTED the Work Programme 2024/25

To note the dates of future meetings as follows:

Wednesday 27 November 2024

Monday 27 January 2025

Monday 10 March 2025

Additional Meeting (April 2025-date TBC)

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

NOTED the next meeting of the Panel would be held on Wednesday 27 November 2024, 7:00pm in the Conference Room at the Civic Centre.

The Chair thanked members and officers for their time and contributions and the meeting ended at 9:10pm.