Agenda item

Officer: Shifa Mustafa

Key decision: yes

The Leader of the Council delegated authority to the Cabinet to make the following decisions.

RESOLVED: To

1.    Adopt the Framework for The Public Health Approach to Violence Reduction in Croydon (“The Framework”), at Appendix 1 of the report;

2.    Agree the themes and key priorities set out in the report and the above referenced Framework; and

3.    Delegate to the Executive Director Place, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Safer Croydon and Communities, authority to develop and agree a comprehensive Delivery Plan in accordance with Appendix 1 of the report through engagement with the existing structures of the Local Strategic Partnership and keep the Delivery Plan under review to ensure ownership of the Public Health Approach to Violence Reduction is embedded across a wider range of organisations, maximising the skills and knowledge of the strategic partnerships. 

The Cabinet Member for Safer Croydon & Communities gave a presentation on the public health approach to addressing violence in Croydon, an approach which recognised that violence was a complex issue and sought to address the root causes through a whole system approach.

The Vulnerable Adolescent Review which was commissioned by the Children Safeguarding Board had been important in Croydon and the key findings of the report helped shape some of the report.

Members were informed that youth violence in Croydon had seen an ongoing reduction of 11% which outperformed the London average. Additionally, substantial reductions in serious youth violence had been experienced and a reduction of 17% of knife crime had also been seen. While the reduction in crime was encouraging, and over the past five years it was the first time Croydon had dropped below the London average, it was recognised that more needed to be done to reduce crime further and for there to be a sustained reduction.

To realise a sustained reduction in crime the ambition was to treat the source of the issue by looking at the root causes and not just addressing the violence itself. In response to the Vulnerable Adolescent Review and the Director of Public Health’s annual report on the first 1,000 days of a person’s life, the council had recognised that trauma in early life could have a lasting impact on a person’s life. As such, a cultural shift was required to design solutions which addressed issues at an early age and young people did not fall off the radar of partnership organisations. To support the embedding of the cultural shift it was recognised that there was need to ensure impact of trauma was understood by all and interventions were targeted.

The priorities of the public health approach were outlined to Members as building an understanding across all organisations regarding the impact of trauma, ensuring hard to reach communities were being approached, supporting young people in the wider community and family, recognising culture, and ensuring a truly collaborative approach among all involved in tackling the issue.

The Cabinet Member informed Members that work was ongoing to ensure the Croydon approach was in line with the approach being developed by the London Violence Reduction Unit to ensure consistency. Whilst the Croydon Unit would not provide a frontline response, it was intended to seek to influence a range of disciplines both in the council and outside organisations to work together to deliver a public health approach to tackling violence.

Lib Peck, Director of the Violence Reduction Unit at MOPAC, informed Members that the London Violence Reduction Unit had been launched by the Mayor in 2018 and there were representatives from across the board working on delivering the initiative.

The Director of the VRU stated that she felt there was great ambition in Croydon to deliver this approach. By adopting the public health approach it was noted that violence was being looked in its context, and by looking at a child’s journey you were moving away from the view that violence is inevitable. By using evidence, such as the review of the Vulnerable Adolescents, the Director stated that you can drive change through a partnership ethos.

The Cabinet Member noted that the work to achieve a reduction in violence covered a number of Cabinet Member portfolios to ensure children and young people had the best start in life, and encouraged discussions with Members to ensure there was a collaborative approach.

In response to Member questions the Cabinet Member stated that the Policy Framework gave clear actions on the delivery of the ambition, and built upon the earlier reports which had gone to Cabinet in January 2019 and November 2018. It was recognised that it was important for the council to set the director on how to tackle violence through a multi-agency approach.

The Cabinet Member recognised that it was good practice to highlight possible risks, however it was felt that there had been good engagement across the board; including Headteachers and the BME forum, and that there had been buy-in by all involved.

Members were informed that the Safer Croydon Board had discussed the data involved and the Cabinet Member stated that there would be investments to ensure that the Unit had all the data to paint an accurate picture of the situation. The governance of the public health approach had also been approached and as the Unit would be a council body it would have all the necessary governance and oversight. Whilst it was noted that the successful delivery of the approach went across several Cabinet Member portfolios there was support from across the Cabinet to deliver this approach, and from partner organisations also.

In response to Member questions the Cabinet Member stated that there were clear funding streams available and that it was ambition of the council to seek the available funding. However, the Unit would look across the whole system and seek to make changes which can effect change, such as early help. Additionally, it was noted that work would proceed to scale up work already been undertaken such as the Public Health had committed to fund some of the training around the impact of trauma.

The Cabinet Member stated that it was important to learn from reviews to ensure that the damage to people’s lives did not happen anymore. By understanding violence in a broad sense it was recognised that it would be important that connections were not lost and so the Unit would be working with organisations to ensure the connections are made.

It was recognised by Members that the issue of violence was not just a Croydon matter, and that it would be important to work collaboratively with other boroughs and share lessons learnt nationally. In response the Cabinet Member confirmed that she had been building relationships with counterparts in other boroughs and was sharing lessons learnt with the Community Safety Network.

In response to Members, the Cabinet Member agreed that job opportunities were important and the council and partners, continued to work with industries to challenge perceptions and create greater opportunities for young people, especially those which had been involved in violence.

The Cabinet Member for Children, Young People & Learning highlighted how the model would enable the council to support families and individuals who had been through trauma, and welcomed the schools appetite to implement the plans to move to an early intervention model to support people. By working towards a collaborative approach; the Police, schools and community organisations were working to develop sessions which will assist in keeping young people which had been involved in violence in schools. Furthermore, it was noted that by supporting families to be more resilient there was a real opportunity to empower families at a very early age and ensure trauma does not take place.

The Director of the London Violence Reduction Unit noted that a large cultural shift from the view that violence was inevitable was required to ensure the successful delivery of the aims of the approach. Members were informed that the London Unit was also looking at similar issues of housing, education, employment and early intervention and would spread good practice and data to support local councils as it was recognised that it was important that there was a pan-London approach to ensure success of delivery. In relation to the Member query on resources and funding, the Director stated that the London Unit had some resources and was seeking to attract more; however she was keen that the resources be used to empower local communities.

The Director wished Croydon well in the delivery of the public health approach to addressing violence, and was thanked for her attendance and contributions of the Leader of the Council.

The Leader of the Council delegated authority to the Cabinet to make the following decisions.

RESOLVED: To

1.    Adopt the Framework for The Public Health Approach to Violence Reduction in Croydon (“The Framework”), at Appendix 1 of the report;

2.    Agree the themes and key priorities set out in the report and the above referenced Framework; and

3.    Delegate to the Executive Director Place, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Safer Croydon and Communities, authority to develop and agree a comprehensive Delivery Plan in accordance with Appendix 1 of the report through engagement with the existing structures of the Local Strategic Partnership and keep the Delivery Plan under review to ensure ownership of the Public Health Approach to Violence Reduction is embedded across a wider range of organisations, maximising the skills and knowledge of the strategic partnerships.