Agenda and minutes

The meeting was opened by the newly appointed LBB Assistant Director for Public Protection and Enforcement, Louise Watkinson. The Assistant Director had been appointed as Chairman of the Board.          

Apologies had been received from Chrissie Mason, Vicky West, Richard Baldwin, Elaine Beadle, Rachel Pankhurst, Rebecca Saunders, Claire Lewin and David Tait.

Cllr David Cartwright sent apologies and Cllr Kim Botting attended in his absence. Apologies were received from Mimi Morris Cotterill and Finola O’ Driscoll attended as substitute. Apologies were received from Lynette Chamielec and Lydia Lewinson attended as substitute.

There were no declarations of interest.     

The minutes of the meeting that was held on 9^th December 2021 were agreed and signed as a correct record.

CSD 21142

The Board noted that all matters that had arisen from the previous meeting had been updated upon and there were no further matters that required any further attention.

RESOLVED that the Matters Arising report be noted.  

In accordance with the Council’s Constitution, questions that are not specific to reports on the agenda must have been received in writing 10 working days before the date of the meeting. 

Questions specifically concerning reports on the 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 XXXXXXXXX

No questions had been received.

The Board noted the Priority 1 – Safer Neighbourhoods 2021/22 Quarter 4 end of year report. The main partners for this priority were the police and LBB Community Safety.

The Head of Community Safety, Environmental and Domestic Regulation provided a brief overview of progress made against the objectives within this Priority. She said that the Community Impact Days were going well, as was partnership working with Safer Neighbourhood Teams. CCTV cameras had been updated to a more effective digital specification. The Council now had a new VVAP (Violence & Victimisation Action Plan) that came out at the end of last year. The Council had been successful in dealing with ASB and also in dealing with scams/fraud that had been targeted against the elderly and vulnerable. With the emergence out of lockdown, crime levels had begun to increase.

RESOLVED that the update regarding Priority 1 (Safer Neighbourhoods) be noted.   

The Head of Community Safety, Environmental and Domestic Regulation provided a brief overview of progress made against the objectives within  Priority 2, which was ‘Violence Against Women and Girls’.’

Overall, the Partnership was doing well in achieving its targets. There was still the need for Partners to share data and there was still some work that needed to be done with respect to mapping. The Council providers (for VAWG services) were providing an excellent service to victims.

RESOLVED that the update regarding VAWG be noted.

The Head of Community Safety, Environmental and Domestic Regulation provided a brief overview of progress made against the objectives within Priority 3: ‘Keeping Young People Safe’.

The Partnership heard that all the actions with respect to the Strategy had been achieved. There had been gang awareness training provided to the staff of all relevant partners.  Excellent work had been done with schools and the youth offending rate had been steadily declining. .

RESOLVED that the update regarding ‘Keeping Young People Safe’ be noted.

The Head of Community Safety, Environmental and Domestic Regulation provided a brief overview of progress made against the objectives within this Priority which was ‘Standing Together Against Hate Crime and Extremism’.

Generally speaking, objectives and targets had been achieved; some extra work was required around improving hate crime data and improving reporting..

RESOLVED that the update concerning Hate Crime and Extremism be noted.

A board member mentioned that the public's perception of what was happening locally may be somewhat different to the reality. It was agreed that the message needed to be conveyed to the public that generally speaking, Bromley was indeed a safe borough. Ward Panels would have a role to play in this regard. 

A discussion took place with respect to how parents and caregivers could pick up on signs that children may be vulnerable or at risk and how the Partnership could help with this. It was noted that the Bromley Family Forum Partnership were in the process of developing a programme for parents and carers to raise awareness of such issues as grooming, exploitation and knife crime.

It was mentioned that the VAWG reporting figures may be skewed a bit because of Covid 19 and because the Courts were still catching up on a backlog of cases. It was further pointed out that although the official figures reported a decrease in domestic abuse reporting, there had in fact been an increase in  the demand for domestic abuse support services. It had always been the case that as far as Bromley was concerned, there had always seemed to be a reluctance to formally report domestic abuse incidents. In a similar vein the CCG reported a very high number of people accessing crisis lines. There had been a rise in the number of cases reported to MARAC of between 20% to 30% and this highlighted the need for a full time MARAC Coordinator as a matter of urgency. Similarly Clarion Housing also reported a rise in reported incidences of domestic abuse and stalking and agreed with the assessment that there was an urgent need for a full time MARAC Co-ordinator to be appointed.

The CCG Adult Safeguarding Manager said that the Government had recently amended the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill to explicitly include domestic abuse and sexual violence within the definition of ‘serious violence’ for the purpose of the ‘Serious Violence Prevention Duty; the Duty would be incumbent upon public bodies and so it gave added importance to dealing with issues of around domestic abuse. The Board heard that the police had a renewed focus currently on stalking and harassment, as these offences could lead to more serious incidences further down the line. 

RESOLVED that the questions from Partners be noted.

The CID (Community Impact Days) update was provided by the Community Impact Days Co-ordinator (Sandra Campbell).

Community Impact Days currently took place in the Penge, Mottingham, St Mary’s Cray and St Paul’s Cray  Wards. Ms Campbell stated that the Community Impact Days were successful and very impactful due to the excellent collaborative work of many partners. The police, Clarion, Veolia, and LBB’s Neighbourhood Management Teams underpinned the CID days and were vital to the success of CID operations:

·  Housing & ASB visits were carried out

·  Welfare checks were undertaken for vulnerable residents

·  Various traffic and vehicle operations were carried out.

Ms Campbell thanked the police for their contribution as well as Cheryl Baker (her SPOC) from Clarion Housing. She was also grateful for the work that had been undertaken by Kevin McKenzie while he was the Bromley Fire Commander. The LFB undertook fire safety talks with vulnerable residents and with residents in sheltered accommodation.

Ms Campbell informed the Partnership that Clarion Futures was now offering paid apprenticeships and eight young people had been signed up as recently as the day before the meeting. 

A discussion took place concerning the knife amnesty bins that were located in Penge and Bromley. Individuals could deposit knives in the bins and not worry about being prosecuted for possession of the knife and the keys to the bins were with a charity as opposed to the police. The Bromley logo was displayed on the bins. It was noted that the total cost for the bins including installation, contents collection and maintenance was in the region of £3.5k per annum.

Cheryl Baker from Clarion Housing elaborated on the issue that was mentioned previously with respect to apprenticeships. She said that the work also included other types of training and cv writing and there was a team of officers that worked with people with special and complex needs in order to help them to gain employment. 

Cllr Kim Botting asked when was the next CID? She asked if CIDs were allocated based on high crime areas and was hopeful that one could be based in Orpington High Street. The CID Coordinator responded and said that the next CID would be on the 29^th June in Mottingham and this would be extended into Bromley Town Centre. It was clarified that the allocation of CID locations was based on specific crime levels rather than overall crime levels for a ward. 

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RESOLVED that the Community Impact Days update be noted.

The Partnership heard that arson levels had peaked in 2016/2017, but since then there had been a year on year fall in arson incidents.

There was an update regarding specific arson data in Cray Valley East. The issue in that area was mainly related to vehicle fires. This was an area that required more work with partners to address.  The LFB Commander said that he was keen to work with partners in this regard and was aiming to identify abandoned vehicles at an early stage before they became a target for arsonists.

RESOLVED that the Arson update be noted.

An update had been provided to the Partnership from the outgoing Bromley Fire Commander, Kevin McKenzie. The Partnership was addressed by the new Bromley Fire Commander (Chris Line) who expressed his thanks for the sterling work that had been undertaken by Mr McKenzie. Mr Line looked forward to working with the Partnership going forward.

The Bromley Fire Commander said that he wanted to bring the LFB Community Risk Management Plan to the attention of Partners. The London Fire Commissioner was due to disseminate the Plan for consultation shortly. This would be a six week consultation period. Partners were encouraged to feedback on the Consultation. The Chairman suggested that this should be an action for Partners.     

RESOLVED that the LFB update be noted and that Partners provide feedback on the LFB Community Risk Management Plan.   

The Prevent update was provided by the Head of Trading Standards and Commercial Regulation. Islamist extremism (nationally) continued to be the predominant source of threat and risk and remained the most likely ideological inspiration for a self-initiated individual being drawn into committing terrorism. However, there was a continued growth in extremist far-right content and narratives online and in social-media. Concerns remained about how extremism could manifest in local areas through hate-crime and community tensions. Fortunately, there had been no issues locally. Self-radicalisation was a continuing threat, particularly in the online space and social-media due to the accessible nature of harmful and extremist material and messaging. Recent attacks in the US had highlighted the impact of online influences, not least the Buffalo attack by Payton Grendon who left a lengthy manifesto on mutli social media platforms, and there were early indications he was self-radicalised over the past two years.

The Council had limited resources to deal with Prevent and so proactive work around Prevent was restricted to raising awareness and ensuring an effective multi-agency response. The London Borough of Bromley provided several ‘Workshop to Raise Awareness of Prevent’ training sessions via online workshops to staff and partners as part of its programme of mandatory training for all LBB relevant staff.

Partners were informed that a ‘Prevent Review’ was in the ‘fact checking’ stage; it was hoped it would be published before the Parliament summer recess.

The London Borough of Bromley had submitted the annual Channel Panel Annual Assurance Statement for 2022, which formed part of a strengthened quality assurance framework for all Channel panels across England and Wales and required strategic sign off by the Chief Executive.

The Head of Trading Standards and Commercial Regulation said that one Domestic Homicide Review (DHR) remained at the Home Office in the QA assessment stage. Feedback was expected in the coming weeks. The latest DHR had been pended until the criminal investigation had been completed – the trial was scheduled for Jan 2023.

The DHR into the death of ‘Alice’ had been published. The Action Plan was probation centred and would be reviewed at the next Domestic Abuse Strategic Group meeting. The Probation Service had assured that all the points raised in the Action Plan had been actioned

RESOLVED that the Prevent and DHR updates be noted.

Partners were briefed that they would be required to provide their updates for the VVAP either at the end of May or the beginning of June and it would be soon time to provide updates for the quarterly returns. The LBB Community Safety Officer and Serious Youth Crime and Gangs Lead would be contacting them concerning this shortly.

RESOLVED that the VVAP update be noted and that Partners get ready to provide updates for the quarterly returns during the beginning of June. 

Partners were reminded that the Safer Bromley Community Safety Strategy would expire in 2023 and the Partnership would be required to develop a new Strategy. Contributions would be a required from all partners concerning this and it may be the case the new priorities could be selected.

RESOLVED that the update on the Safer Bromley Strategy be noted and that Partners start thinking about how they could contribute to the new strategic document and if new priorities should be adopted. 

The CNA (Crime Needs Assessment) update was provided by Matthew Hodges—Corporate Services Graduate Intern.

Partners were reminded that the Crime Needs Assessment was an annual statutory requirement for all Community Safety Partnerships in England and Wales, as stated in the Crime and Disorder Act 1998.

The CNA was produced to better understand the crime related needs in the borough and to help decision makers set strategic priorities related to crime. It could be used in supporting future commissioning processes and helped to gain a greater understanding of the needs of the victims and where the highest offence rates were.

It was explained that the Mayor of London had published the Police and Crime Plan for London (2017-2022), which set out the priorities for the safety of London. In the Plan there were pan-London priorities and local priorities:

The high-volume local priorities that boroughs were required to consider were:

·  Non-Domestic Abuse Violence with Injury

·  Robbery – Personal Property

·  Theft from Motor Vehicles

·  Theft of Motor Vehicles

·  Theft from the Person

·  Burglary

Within the plan, MOPAC agreed two local police priorities with each Borough, alongside antisocial behaviour and a mandatory focus on high-harm crimes, and those which affect the most vulnerable Londoners, supported by data and research about crime, antisocial behaviour and confidence in the police.

The two Local Priorities that were agreed with Bromley for 2021-2022 were:

·  Non-Domestic Abuse Violence with Injury

·  Burglary (Residential)

Partners noted that the ward where the levels of Non-Domestic Violence With Injury was highest was Bromley Town and that the levels of burglary were highest in Cray Valley East, followed closely by Bromley Town. It was pointed out though that given the population density of the Borough, it was still a safe borough to reside in. 

Mr Hodges said that from March 2021 to February 2022, the London borough average for Total Notifiable Offences was 25,742, and the recorded figure for Bromley was 11% lower than the London Average at 23,185. When compared with other London Boroughs, Bromley remained one of the safest boroughs with 68.2 crimes per1000 population between March 2021 and February 2022. When compared with the London average of 91.54 crimes per 1000 population, this placed Bromley as the borough with the 7^th lowest crime rate.

The most common notified offences in Bromley in 2022 were Violence against the Person which made up 28.9% of the total, Theft, which contributed 21.4%, and Vehicle Offences, such as the theft of or from a vehicle, which made up 15.1%

The Covid-19 pandemic had a significant effect on crime numbers in the 2020-21 months, with noticeable dips during the months when lockdown measures were in effect.

It was highlighted that if you analysed the data for overall crime reporting, then Bromley ranked as the 7^th safest borough in London.  In terms of theft from motor vehicles, Bromley was the 10^th safest borough in London. In terms of assault with injury, Bromley was the 5^th safest borough in London. In terms  ...  view the full minutes text for item 17.

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

The Head of Trading Standards and Commercial Regulation commented that an emerging issue would be the current cost of living crisis which could well expand and get more serious within the next 6 to 12 months. This would have an adverse effect on consumers, particularly those who were vulnerable. There was a danger that people could be pushed into increased debt, be subject to fraud and scammers and generally make unwise financial decisions; he felt it was something that should be reviewed at the next meeting. The Head of Early Intervention and Family Support responded and said that her service would like to link into this as they were also undertaking work in this area.

The LBB Public Health Senior Strategist  mentioned that one of her colleagues had completed a Drugs Need Assessment which could be circulated to the Partnership. It was anticipated that a presentation would run on this via Teams meetings and she would circulate the details concerning this. She also referred to the national 10 year Drug Strategy and informed Partners that grants were available to boroughs and Bromley was currently in the process of drawing down grant funding which would be used to alleviate various problems caused by drug and alcohol mis-use.

The Head of Service for LBB Housing Options and Support spoke about rough sleepers within the borough. She said that generally speaking this work was going well but there were some difficult and entrenched cases that were hard to deal with and those clients had been named the ‘Target 1000’ clients. It was currently estimated that six of these were on the streets of Bromley. Meetings were being held fortnightly to discuss this cohort and she invited as many partners as possible to join the meeting so that a multi-agency response could be formulated. It was also the case that the LBB Housing Department was setting up a Single Homelessness Pathway which would deal with ex-offenders, rough sleepers and single people generally seeking homes.

The Assistant Director, Children’s Social Care, also commented on the cost of living crisis with its potential impact on statutory services and safeguarding. There was concern for example that parents may be forced to undertake extra work--with young people being left at home to fend for themselves. There was also a possibility that teenagers could become more involved in crime. He said that the number of people contacting children services was 8000 pre pandemic, but now it had reached 12,000 and they were very busy.

It was noted that the name of the Youth Offending Team was now changing to Bromley Youth Justice Service.

The Safer Neighbourhood Board Chairman highlighted the problem of street begging on the streets of Bromley where the elderly could be targeted. She also highlighted the issue of High Street Banks closing which had a particularly adverse effect upon the elderly. She pointed out that Sidcup had recently lost four banks. She was hopeful that Bromley Council could exercise some influence at a high level in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 18.

The Safer Bromley Partnership will meet next at 10.00am on Wednesday, 17^th August at Bromley Civic Centre.

The next meeting would be held at 10am on Wednesday, 17^th August. The Chairman preferred an ‘in person’ meeting but would also consider a Teams meeting if there was a preference for this.