Minutes:
The Mayor thanked Mohammad Tariq Sediq for offering the blessing and presented the following awards:
a. National Stop Loan Shark Award
The Mayor was delighted to be able to congratulate the Trading Standards Team, Community Safety and Environment Division, for winning both the regional and national Stop Loan Shark Awards.
The awards had been granted in recognition of the team’s work in raising awareness of money laundering and helping and supporting the people affected. Trading Standards had worked with key partners including the Police, Citizens Advice Bureau, housing providers and the Department for Work and Pensions, providing over 30 advocate training sessions, to ensure that that residents can seek help from a wide range of local organisations.
Sue McDaid, Head of Regulatory Services, and representatives from her team were presented with the award and congratulated by all members of the Council.
b. Pan London POP (Problem Orientated Policing) Award
The Mayor congratulated the Community Safety and Environment Division, working jointly with the Police and other partners, for winning the London Problem Orientated Policing Award, for their innovative work which had seen youth robbery in Enfield falling to a record low – dropping by 59.2% between 2009 and 2013.
The initiative involved: teaching children, moving to secondary school, crime awareness, an anonymous on line reporting scheme, mobile CCTV cameras, providing diversionary activities for young people, truancy patrols and substance misuse programmes to rehabilitate offenders. Anti-Social Behaviour Orders were also issued to known offenders.
The Mayor presented the award to Iain Agar, Community Safety Analyst, Superintendent Louis Smith and representatives from the division and they were congratulated by the whole Council.
c. Institute of Rating, Revenues and Valuations Performance Awards 2013, Excellence in Innovation Gold and Bronze Awards
The Mayor was also pleased to announce that the Excellence in Innovation Gold Award had been awarded to the Council’s cap Team for the multi-agency work carried out in implementing the recent welfare reform changes, with particular focus on the welfare cap and social housing under-accommodation restrictions.
Three Job Centre Plus officers were now based in the CAP Team. Officers across the Council who provide welfare/benefit advice were identified and they were able to proactively target those most likely to be affected by the Benefit Cap by more than £100 per week, so that they could offer help and support and help mitigate the impact of the reforms on this group of people.
In addition the Excellence in Innovation Bronze Award had been won by the Council Tax Team working in partnership with Experian to pilot Experian’s New Debt Prioritisation Service, targeting high value council tax arrears cases.
The pilot focussed on 2,500 cases. A small taskforce worked through each case and selected the most appropriate enforcement action. Overall this resulted in a reduction in Council Tax arrears of over £1.5million. As well as an increase in charging orders of over £1.1million, resulting in savings of £450,000 in bad debt provision. The Government Annual Return of Council Taxes for 2012/13 placed Enfield as fourth highest in England and top in London for arrears collection.
Sally Saunders, Debbie Jennings, Georgina Andreou and Geoff Waterton from the Revenues and Benefits Division were presented with the awards and congratulated by the whole Council.