Agenda item

Youth Offending Service – Paul King’s first update was with respect to mentoring. The Partnership was informed that the Youth Justice Board had confirmed continued funding for mentoring. With respect to key performance indicators, there was a reduction in the number of first time offenders from 361 to 77. The number of re-offenders going back into the prison system had decreased due to the introduction of a “triage system”. This system was being facilitated by the police and other prevention services. It meant that some crimes no longer went to court if they were not  serious. The “triage” system had reduced the number of young people going back into prison, and gave them a second chance. This process had an 85% success rate in reducing re-offending. It was highlighted that there was a direct correlation between re-offending and school exclusions. It was hoped that discussions would be forthcoming with local schools to discuss their exclusion policies. There had been a very small increase in the number of young people going into custody; it was noted on average around 7-10 young people went into custody annually; the numbers were small and the trend was flat. MOPAC was continuing to fund the mentoring programme; currently there were 89 mentors, and 47 of these had been referred via the Youth Offending Team. The Chairman expressed his thanks to Paul King and the Youth Offending Team for all of their hard work and accomplishments. 

Bromley Community Engagement Forum – Amanda Evans confirmed that the final public meeting of the Bromley Community Engagement Forum would be held on Monday 17^th March 2014 at Bromley Civic Centre. This was because the BCEF was being absorbed into the new Safer Neighbourhood Board. It was envisaged that the new Board would be chaired by Councillor Tim Stevens JP, with Amanda Evans as administrator, and Mr Terry Belcher as Vice Chairman. A Specialist Schools Youth Conference had been held on 7th March 2014. BCEF had been working closely with 3 schools (Marjorie McClure, Riverside, Glebe) to define the workshop topics and the day’s format. To address the students’ issues of feeling unsafe and not welcome at the Glades, Glades, (now called Intu), had launched their lanyard scheme to help vulnerable young people and adults feel safe and welcome in the Centre and also arranged tours for their CCTV centre. One school had recently stated that a few young people now feel so safe that they regularly shop at the centre almost every weekend with their friends which was unheard of previously.  This was a wonderful example of partnership working. BCEF expressed their thanks to Bromley Police and the Intu security team for their positive contribution to the Lanyard scheme. The Chairman expressed his thanks to Terry Belcher and Amanda Evans for all the excellent work that they had accomplished whilst working for BCEF.

Arson Sub Group – Daniel Cartwright (Fire Brigade Borough Commander) reported there was currently very good communication between the police, fire service, LBB and the ambulance service. The Waste 4 Fuel Site in Orpington had been prosecuted by London Fire Brigade for stacking flammable materials 12 times in excess of the size legally allowed. The Brigade had been called out to the centre 12 times in the last year. 

At Bromley Magistrate’s Court the company pleaded guilty to maintaining a stack of flammable material larger than the size allowed without the permission of the fire authority. It was fined the maximum of £1,000 and ordered to pay costs of £7,860 plus a £100 victim surcharge -a total of £8,960.

The court case followed a fire in the waste stack on 18 March 2013--at that time the stack was estimated to contain around 6,000 tonnes of material. Fire safety inspecting officers from the Brigade visited the site after the fire and formally notified the owners that the waste stack was so large they would need consent for it under the Greater London Council (General Powers Acts). The company applied to London Fire Brigade for permission in May but this was refused on the grounds that the size of the stack posed a high fire risk and its size would make firefighting difficult. It was noted that the number of fires related to sheltered accommodation in Bromley was high and because of this meetings were planned with housing providers to discuss fire safety. It was hoped that six monthly meetings could be arranged with housing providers, and that UK uniformity could be established. 

Borough Resilience Forum – James Cook reported that a Borough Risk Register was being formulated with respect to environmental risks that may affect the Borough. The main risks that were currently being assessed were:

·  Power failure

·  Flu Pandemic

·  Flooding

·  Telecoms failure

It was envisaged that a local and national framework could be established. It was proposed that an effective database be created to pool data with respect to vulnerable people.

It was AGREED the update be noted.