Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Janet Bailey, Jamie O Malley, Sharon Kilborne, Vicky West, Ade Adetosoye, Chief Inspector Craig Knight, and the London Ambulance Service.

The Assistant Director for Public Protection and Safety (Joanne Stowell) chaired the meeting and there were no declarations of interest. She said that this was the third Board meeting of the year, but unfortunately this would be her last meeting as she was moving on to pastures new.  

The minutes of the previous meeting were agreed as a correct record apart from the fact that the Assistant Director for Public Protection and Enforcement had been noted as ‘Vice Chairman’ and this needed to be amended to ‘Joint Chairman’. 

The Assistant Director for Public Protection and Enforcement noted that all matters arising had been updated upon except with respect to previous minutes 32, and 36. The former was regarding a sample of the data collected by the software on the new Housing system (regarding cases linked to domestic abuse) which was due to be presented to the Board at the meeting. The Assistant Director for Housing responded and said that the Housing Department had not picked up the action until late in the day, (after the Head of Service for Early Intervention and Family Support had noticed that the action was not for her). There had also been some system glitches and so the data could not be presented on the day of the meeting but would be disseminated to partners in due course.

It was noted that the LAS had sent through their response regarding data requests which had been sent to all partners.

Minute 36 from the previous meeting referred to the fact that Chief Inspector Craig Knight would write an article on his research project for the Domestic Abuse magazine. This had been delayed due to pressures on police resources resulting from the COP 26 meetings. He was hoping to write this article prior to the March 2022 Board meeting.

The briefing that had been sent through from Clarion Housing was noted and there were no questions regarding this from the Board. 

RESOLVED that: 

1) A sample of data collected by the new Housing software system would be disseminated to the Board in due course.

2) Chief Inspector Craig Knight would endeavour to write the article on his research project for the Domestic Abuse magazine before the March 2022 Board meeting. 

Questions specifically concerning reports on the SBP agenda should be received within two working days of the publication date of the agenda.  Please ensure that questions specifically regarding reports on the agenda are received by the Democratic Services Team by 5pm on 3^rd December 2021.

Members noted that a written question had been received from Councillor Tony Owen with respect to the Crofton Road Cycle Scheme. He had asked all three blue light emergency services if any of them had noted any delay in emergency response times as a result of the scheme. All three services had responded and said that they were not aware of any delays to response times as a result of the scheme.    

Quarter 2: Keeping Young People Safe;

The Chairman requested that the Bromley Drug and Alcohol Team be invited to provide representation to the Board. She requested that their work be captured within the priorities. The Chairman thanked the YOS, Licensing, Probation Services and Education. She felt that their responses were comprehensive and provided the Board with a good overall understanding of their work and how it aligned with the priorities of the SBP. For the Board to be successful in delivering its aims against its priorities, it was vital that the Board worked together well collaboratively. 

The Chairman reminded the Board that at the next meeting, the priority update would be Priority 4, which was ‘Standing Together against Hate Crime and Extremism’, but it would also be the end of year update. All partners would therefore need to provide details of their progress ahead of time to the Committee Clerk. The next meeting would be take place on the 17^th March 2022.

RESOLVED that the Bromley Drug and Alcohol Team be asked to provide a representative to sit on the Board and that partners provide their final year updates for the March 2022 meeting to the Committee Clerk in plenty of time.

The Community Impact Days update was provided by Sandra Campbell—LBB ASB Co-ordinator. It was noted that Cllr Kathy Bance had previously highlighted issues with the Penge CID. Ms Campbell had since spoken directly with Cllr Bance concerning this matter.

Ms Campbell wished the Assistant Director all the best for her new role and said that she would be sorely missed. She said that the CIDs were growing from strength to strength and LBB was moving about 3000kgs of fly tipping rubbish on a monthly basis. Much graffiti was also being removed. The Council had been working closely with the police, Border Force, LFB and Clarion Housing. It would soon be the case that Probation Services would also be involved with Community Impact Days. Probation would be providing people to help with community projects under the ‘Community Payback’ scheme. Residents were providing very positive feedback with respect to the Community Impact Days.

The Chairman thanked Ms Campbell for the way that she had improved and developed the Community Impact Days. The Chairman asked Ms Campbell if she would disseminate the full briefings that she had drafted for the last three months and that these be disseminated to the Board.

Cllr Cartwright stated that the feedback that he had received after the Mottingham Community Impact Day was very positive; he expressed his thanks both to Ms Campbell and to the LFB Commander for their excellent work.   

The Chairman informed the Board that the Crime Needs Assessment was a statutory requirement for all Community Safety Partnerships. It was designed to help partners understand the crime related needs of the borough and to help with decision-making at a local level and also to support the future commissioning process.

Last year the Crime Needs Assessment had been produced by Matthew Hodges (corporate graduate intern)  and Matthew had kindly offered to produce the new Crime Needs Assessment which would be presented to the Board at the Q4 meeting in March 2022. The Chairman requested that Mr Hodges present the  report.

RESOLVED that Matthew Hodges draft and present the CNA at the SBP meeting in March 2022.

The Chairman informed the Board that the Violence Reduction Action Plan had been updated twice in 2020 and it had been updated again in 2021. It was now regarded as a standing item on the Safer Bromley Partnership Board agenda.

It appeared that the GLA had changed the name to the ‘Local Violence and Vulnerability Action Plan’. The updated template had been disseminated to all partners and this outlined the seven different mandatory themes and optional actions. The document had been signed off by the Chief Executive and the Leader of the Council and was now with the Borough Police Commander. The Chairman said that she would chase this with a Borough Commander as the document was required to be with MOPAC the following day. The final version of the document would subsequently be sent out to partners by Anthony Powell (LBB Community Safety Officer). The Chairman emphasised that the document was confidential and should not be shared outside of the Partnership

The Portfolio Holder for Public Protection and Enforcement thanked the Chairman and everybody else who had been involved in the preparation of the Violence Reduction Action Plan document. It was clear that a lot of work had gone into producing the document and this had been acknowledged by the Leader. It was also noted that LBB had the third best Violence Reduction Action plan in London and it was being used as an example to follow by other boroughs. The Chairman concluded by saying that partners should be proud of the outcomes that had been achieved.

RESOLVED that

1) The LBB Community Safety Officer would disseminate the final version of the VRAP to the Board in due course.

2) The VRAP was confidential and should not be shared outside of the Board.

It was explained that it was a requirement of the Police and Justice Act that Councils had a Crime and Disorder Committee (CDC) which would be able to scrutinise the local Community Safety Partnership. As far as Bromley was concerned the Crime and Disorder Committee was the Public Protection and Enforcement, Policy Development and Scrutiny Committee. The Community Safety Partnership was the Safer Bromley Partnership Board. There was a requirement for the Crime and Disorder Committee to meet once a year, but in Bromley the Public Protection and Enforcement Committee met five times a year.

The Chairman explained that in terms of scrutiny of the SBP, this had become police centric. It was decided that the Crime and Disorder Committee formalise the scrutiny process. In view of this, it had been decided that the scrutiny undertaken by the CDC would be broadened to encompass all partners within the Safer Bromley Partnership Board and not just the police. So all partners from henceforth would be called to present to the Crime and Disorder Committee to have their work against the SBP priorities scrutinised. The work plan for this had been included as part of the agenda pack.

RESOLVED that the update regarding scrutiny of the Safer Bromley Partnership Board be noted. 

The Chairman reiterated that regarding the scrutiny partners by the CDC, this would be restricted specifically to their work within the Safer Bromley Partnership. The proposed work plan had been drafted for clarity and to give partners plenty of warning concerning when they would be presenting to the CDC. The Chairman said that the final version of the Work Plan should be with partners by the end of December.

Councillor David Cartwright, (Chairman of the Public Protection and Enforcement Committee) raised a query regarding hate crime. He said that the issue of hate crime was not due for discussion until February 2023 and expressed concern at this; he asked if this could be brought forward. The Chairman clarified that hate crime would be looked at by the SBP in Q4 in March 2022 and it would be a substantive item on its own at that meeting. The issue of hate crime would also be addressed by the police at the PDS meeting in March as part of their high harm priorities.

RESOLVED that the Work Plan for partners be agreed.

The Chairman explained that this document had been drafted to outline the  statutory responsibilities of the Safer Bromley Partnership. The Terms of Reference explained who was required to sit on the Board as a Core/Statutory representative with voting rights and who could attend by invitation. It also addressed matters such as attendance, commitments and chairing arrangements.

The Assistant Director for Public Protection and Enforcement informed the Board that she was moving on to pastures new and would be taking up a directorship with an Essex authority. As a result of this and in line with the terms of reference, the joint chairmanship going forward would be undertaken by Colin Brand (LBB Director for Environment and Public Protection) and by Superintendent Andy Brittain.

The Assistant Director for Public Protection and Enforcement stated that it had been her absolute pleasure to work on the Board as Vice-Chairman and as Joint Chairman.

RESOLVED that the Terms of Reference be agreed.

It was noted that the LAS had submitted details of the data that they could capture and details of this had been sent out to Board members. This data would be used when the time came to undertake a refresh of the Safer Bromley Partnership Strategy.   .

RESOLVED that the LAS update be noted.

The Chairman explained that the purpose of the draft inter-board protocol was to define how the various LBB Boards could all work together in pursuit of safeguarding and in promoting the health and wellbeing of young people and adults in Bromley. The idea was that all four Boards would work together in collaboration as equal partners. The protocol outlined how each board worked across their remits, together with their specific functions.

It was noted that the Assistant Director for Public Protection and Enforcement, together with the Director of Environment and Public Protection & Enforcement would be attending a workshop run by Teresa Bell on the 17th of January 2022, where the Protocol would be discussed in detail.

RESOLVED that the Inter Board Protocol be agreed.

The DHR  (Domestic Homicide Review) and Prevent update was provided by the Head of Trading Standards and Commercial Regulation as follows:

DHR 2 “NAJARA”

This report was received by the Head of Trading Standards and Commercial Regulation on 1st December 2021. The Board heard that the final duty of the DHR panel was to ensure they were satisfied that their information was fully and fairly represented in the reports and that they accurately reflected the review panel’s findings. They should also be satisfied that the reports were of a sufficiently high standard to be submitted to the Home Office. The reports were shared with the panel on 3rd December 2021 with a request they responded to the Head of Trading Standards and Commercial Regulation with any comments by 10th January 2022. During this period the Action Plan could be reviewed.

Once agreement from the panel was received, the final version of the Overview Report and Executive Summary would be handed over to the Safer Bromley Partnership.

Normally, the documents would be shared ahead of the meeting, then there would be a presentation on the key aspects of the report such as an overview of the recommendations. However, given this case’s confidentiality (and there was a recommendation that the report is not published), electronic sign off from statutory partners would be sought.

It was unlikely that the report would be changed in any way at this stage, but more the case that those partners involved in the response to Domestic Abuse were sighted on the report and its recommendations and agreed with the findings in general. The detailed analysis of the case was provided by the DHR Panel.

Once approved by the Panel and the Chair of the SBP and the Action Plan was agreed, the report would be submitted to the Home Office Quality Assurance Panel. There was currently a six month turnaround for these reviews. Recommendations from the action plan were already being addressed, with several completed.

DHR 3 “ALICE:

The Home Office feedback letter was received on 25th October 2021 which commented that the report demonstrated good family engagement, was straightforward and helped paint a picture who Diane was as a person in her life. The Panel commended the Chair/author for contacting the perpetrator in prison to allow him to offer his contribution to the report and for linking with Victim Support Homicide Service (VSHS) to engage with existing support and advocacy for the family which helped to ease family engagement. There were some recommendations for areas of final development, and these had been addressed and received on 15th November 2021. On the 25th November 2021  the report was sent to the Chair of the Safer Bromley Partnership and the panel members.

The next step would be to send a copy to MOPAC and arrange publication – this was likely to be in the New Year following discussions with the family. The action plan would be managed by the Domestic Abuse Strategic Lead.

A copy would also be  ...  view the full minutes text for item 55.

Standing Items are:

NDVWI

Weapons

Hate crime

Domestic violence

Burglary

Theft of motor vehicles

ASB

Context:

Challenging performance is a key role which has been identified for the SBPB. This item updates partners in relation to the performance issues, highlights any new challenges, and gains consensus as to how the group can work together to address these.

Superintendent Andy Brittain briefed the Board as follows:

There had been a 14% reduction in reports to the police of domestic abuse. There was now a fully staffed Community Safety Unit and the police were seeking to extend the use of DV protection notices to provide greater support to victims. The police intended to focus on the night time economy and on protecting women in public houses and other licensed premises in the borough; this linked in with the police’s VAWG Strategy. It was reported that the police would have a dedicated Town Centre Team of 21 officers working in Bromley in February 2022. 

Sex offences were up by 1% but this only equated to 6 offences in total. .

Knife Crime and Gun Crime figures had decreased.

There were some concerns about the volume of reported race/hate crime. There was now a greater emphasis on the quality of service provided to victims of race/ hate crime by the police. This was a work in progress and  was an issue that was pan London. Superintendent Andy Brittain stated that race and hate crime had seen a 17% increase which was frustrating and a cause for concern. Some of this seemed to be linked to the Covid 19 pandemic.

The Board was pleased to note that the number of burglary offences had decreased. Much of this was probably due to the fact that more people were now working from home.

There had been an increase in the number of thefts of motor vehicles. As well as high end vehicles, there had also been an increase in the number of thefts of mopeds and scooters which seemed to tie in with the growth of food delivery services.

Superintendent Andy Brittain said that ASB calls had remained static.

The responses to the public attitude survey were disappointing. The Superintendent acknowledged that the police needed to improve the way that they communicated with the public and to improve their use of social media platforms. He felt that more public engagement was also important. He was concerned about the low number of people that knew how to contact their ward officers and this was something that definitely required improvement. It was planned that the email addresses for the ward teams would be refreshed and disseminated to the public.

The Joint Chairman (Joanne Stowell) briefed the Board with some information that had been provided by the Home Office that went some way to explain the rise in the numbers of reports concerning race/hate crime:

·  Because people had been at home for longer, they had spent more time online and had been exposed to disinformation and various conspiracy theories

·  There were now better reporting mechanisms for the reporting of race and hate crime

·  There had been some trigger events such as a BLM backlash

·  More people were coming forward to report crime

The Chairman of the SNB commented that she was working with Inspector Stuart Baker to improve the lines of communication between residents and local ward  ...  view the full minutes text for item 56.

This item provides a roundtable update from all partners on developments in relation to performance and emerging issues.

The Police and Crime Plan was now being consulted on. The Assistant Director for Public Protection and Enforcement had attended a MOPAC meeting with the Portfolio Holder for Public Protection and Enforcement regarding this. The Portfolio Holder referred to the detailed questions that the Assistant Director had asked at the meeting.

The Chairman said that she would ask the Committee Clerk to send out the link to the draft Action Plan to the Board. The new Police and Crime Plan was due for publication in April 2022.

The Board was informed that next year a brand new Safer Bromley Strategy would need to be written. The outcome from the Crime Needs Assessment would be fed into the new Strategy. A new public consultation with respect to a Crime Survey would also be required. The last time this was undertaken, LBB received one of the highest responses in London.

The LBB Director for Children’s Services raised an issue concerning the LBB contract with MOPAC for VAWG services. The contract was due to be extended in March or April 2022. LBB had been in contact with the VAWG provider who said that they were concerned that the funding that they had received from MOPAC had not risen for 6/7 years. The funding was therfore not increasing in line with costs. They felt that they could not deliver an adequate service for the money that was on offer and so had declined to bid for the new contract.

It was clear that LBB could not be in a position where there was not a domestic abuse service across the borough. Resultantly, LBB had agreed that they would provide the extra £50k funding that was deemed to be required. It was noted that this was not an issue that had just manifested itself, but rather it was an issue that officers had raised before at the Domestic Abuse Strategic Board. It was a matter that would be noted on the LBB Risk Register.

RESOLVED that the update concerning emerging issues and the task and finish updates be noted.

Superintendent Andy Brittain informed the Board that he had a very effective team of female police officers who specialised in VAWG issues. He requested that if any of the Board members had any large events that they could attend and present to, then he would be grateful if they would make contact with him to discuss this further.

The LBB Borough Fire Commander expressed his thanks to Joanna Stowell as a very supportive partner who had guided him through the Bromley landscape. He said that she would be sorely missed.

The Head of Service for Family Support and Early Intervention also expressed her personal thanks to Ms Stowell.

The Assistant Director for Children’s Services briefed the Board about a new scheme that was being developed--specifically aimed at young people involved in serious youth violence. It was backed by London Councils and there would be further updates at future Board meetings. It was a London wide scheme that would receive grant funding. It would be quite a demanding scheme where young people would be expected to be involved three or four times per week over a three month period.

The Portfolio Holder for Public Protection and Enforcement expressed her thanks to Joanna Stowell, saying that she had been very supportive and a ‘total rock’ since she had unexpectedly taken over as Portfolio Holder for Public Protection and Enforcement . She said that every Councillor that had come into contact with her was full of praise for her and this included the Leader.

RESOLVED that the AOB updates be noted.

The next  meeting of the Safer Bromley Partnership Board will be on 17^th March 2022. This will be held at Bromley Civic Centre and will commence at 10.00am