Agenda item

Officer: Shifa Mustafa

Key decision: No

The Leader of the Council delegated to the Cabinet the power to make the decisions set out below

RESOLVED to

1.     Agree the adoption of a public health approach to tackling serious violent crime as described at 3.6 and 3.7 of the report in accordance with the commitment in the Corporate Plan;

2.     Note improvements in violent crime figures set out at 3.2 of the report;

3.     Note the proposal for a work stream to create a Violence Reduction Unit as described in paragraph 3.5 of the report;

4.     Note the revised approach to the Safer Croydon Partnership and the positive results arising from this;

5.     Note the initial findings of an interim review into community safety appended at appendix 1 of the report and agree the proposed principles for community safety services as set out in 3.5 of the report and in 4.0 and 5.0 of appendix 1;

6.     Note that detailed proposals arising from the review be further taken forward in accordance with the work-streams proposed at 2.7 of the report; and

7.     The Cabinet Member for Safer Croydon and Communities in conjunction with the Executive Director of Place to lead all these work-streams and manage the newly configured Violence Reduction Unit initially comprising the services set out a 3.5 of the report during this ongoing review period.

The item was taken as the first substantive item of the meeting.

The Leader noted that the borough was in a relatively strong position; however it was felt that it was an opportunity to review how community safety was delivered.

The Cabinet Member for Safer Croydon & Communities informed Members that the review was in line with the manifesto commitment to take a public health approach to community safety. As part of the internal review representatives had visited Glasgow to review how they delivered community safety and what approaches could be implemented in Croydon.

The internal review had found that there were a number of strengths to the council’s response, the community safety strategy was considered sound with good governance, and a good staffing level. It had also been that the partnership mechanisms were working well.

In response to the review findings the Cabinet Member proposed that a public health approach which sought to tackle the root cause and take a preventative approach; being led by evidence and working with the community would see further improvements in community safety. A multi-agency approach was recommended with a Violence Reduction Unit incorporating a number of agencies being proposed.

The Cabinet Member recognised that there were a number of community groups involved in tackling serious youth violence and noted that coordinating the activities of the groups would be a challenge. A further challenge was recognised as being ensuring that work within the council did not take place in silos and that there was a managed response.

The Cabinet Member informed Members that in Croydon there had been a 20% reduction in knife crime with injury, which had reduced further by 26% in October 2018. Whilst there had been reductions in Croydon, the Cabinet Member did not want to ignore the issue that there had been a number of horrific incidents in London in recent months. As such, the Mayor of London had announced £1.2m for the Mayor’s Young Londoner’s Fund to tackle serious youth violence which many groups would be able to apply to.

The Cabinet Member stressed that further work would be undertaken and that she would be happy to discuss the review and proposals during her next session at the Scrutiny & Overview Committee in March 2019.

The Borough Commander welcomed the direction of travel and stated that the review and proposals built upon the work that had been undertaken by the Local Strategic Partnership which sought to put young people at the heart of the work.

Whilst improvements had been made the Borough Commander stated that all those involved in community safety were far from being complacent and the Police had been speaking with colleagues nationally and from the USA so as to benefit from best practice. It was felt that a multi-agency approach would achieve the ambition of a safer Croydon; and whilst it was recognised it would be challenging to achieve, it was felt to be the right approach.

The Leader thanked the Borough Commander and all Police Officers for their work.

In response to Member questions the Cabinet Member recognised that knife crime was a huge concern for the community; however hoped that the work being undertaken would support local communities. Furthermore, by working with the community it was recognised that it was enabling the council to have a strong response to community safety and it was envisioned that the new Unit would have a strong role for the community.

The Borough Commander stated that locations for dedicated neighbourhood officers would be reviewed and that the Gateway centres or fire stations were being considered; however it was noted that it was important that the locations were free to use as the Police did not have the budget for additional venues.

In response to Member questions the Cabinet Member confirmed the paper was an early look at reviewing community safety and that it was intended a further report would be taken to Cabinet which looked at how to implement the public health approach and to maximise the good work that had already taken place. It was confirmed that work would continue with schools and those children who were felt to be at most at risk as it was recognised there were a connection between staying at school and staying safe.

The Leader noted there would be an update paper taken to a Cabinet meeting in the new year and that the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime had been invited to attend the meeting.

The Leader of the Council delegated to the Cabinet the power to make the decisions set out below

RESOLVED to

1.     Agree the adoption of a public health approach to tackling serious violent crime as described at 3.6 and 3.7 of the report in accordance with the commitment in the Corporate Plan;

2.     Note improvements in violent crime figures set out at 3.2 of the report;

3.     Note the proposal for a work stream to create a Violence Reduction Unit as described in paragraph 3.5 of the report;

4.     Note the revised approach to the Safer Croydon Partnership and the positive results arising from this;

5.     Note the initial findings of an interim review into community safety appended at appendix 1 of the report and agree the proposed principles for community safety services as set out in 3.5 of the report and in 4.0 and 5.0 of appendix 1;

6.     Note that detailed proposals arising from the review be further taken forward in accordance with the work-streams proposed at 2.7 of the report; and

7.     The Cabinet Member for Safer Croydon and Communities in conjunction with the Executive Director of Place to lead all these work-streams and manage the newly configured Violence Reduction Unit initially comprising the services set out a 3.5 of the report during this ongoing review period.