Agenda item

A Locality Review report for Bromley had been published in July 2018. This had been produced by the Violence and Vulnerability Unit (VVU) which was supported by the Home Office and MOPAC. The report had been drafted by three VVU consultants: Paul Cullen; Mick McNally and Jenny Oklikah.

The LBB Head of Service for Youth Offending (Betty McDonald) briefed the Group concerning the report.

The aim of the report was to inform about serious youth violence and gangs in Bromley. The VVU consultants were particularly interested in interviewing front line practioners, although they did interview some senior managers also. They interviewed staff from the Youth Offending Service, Community Safety, Housing, Education, Police, Safeguarding, and from Targeted Youth Support. There were not any findings that were particularly new, but rather a reinforcement and confirmation of issues that were already known and suspected.

There was a feeling expressed by the VVU consultants that young people were not being dealt with robustly enough when serious offences had been committed. There was also a sense of frustration that the process of dealing with the issues and administering justice took too long to get through the courts. 

The report concluded with seven recommendations which were commented upon by the Head of YOS:

·  There was a perceived lack of governance and overarching strategy regarding where the main governance responsibilities lay for serious youth violence and gangs. The question that had not been clearly resolved was who owned the serious youth violence agenda in Bromley. Did it sit under Community Safety or Children’s Services?

·  Consideration should be given to running a visioning event  involving partners from across the Borough. The Head of Youth Services felt that this matter was now being addressed. The previous week there was a Safeguarding Board Conference regarding vulnerable adults, and there were speakers there who spoke about serious youth violence and gang activities. Next week there would be a Safeguarding Conference for Schools.

·  A local multi-agency analyst forum should be established. The Head of YOS agreed that the SBP needed to have a better understanding of the relevant data and how it was collected and used.

·  Consideration should be applied to the production of an informed needs assessment that charted the status of the drug market and gang activity in the town and surrounding areas. What was required was not just a needs assessment, but also a plan to determine how the information should be used.

·  More use should be made of current legislation around modern slavery and trafficking--against gangs and offenders that exploited vulnerable people.

·  It was recommended that a regular dialogue be set up with the Youth Courts and the CPS to discuss the sentencing of young people involved in gangs, county lines and knife crime.

·  It was further recommended that multi-agency training in matters relating to county lines and the associated vulnerability issues should be arranged. There should also be a strong multi-agency arrangement to work out how the vulnerabilities could be addressed.

It was clear that gangs and serious knife crime was a priority for the borough. A number of measures were now in place. A Gangs Panel and a Mega Panel had now been set up. It was explained that the Mega Panel was an operational tracking panel, which was well represented. The Mega Panel dealt with young people that were in some way affiliated with gang and knife crime and also young people that were vulnerable. 

The Head of YOS concluded her summation of the report by stating that it was now down to the Safer Bromley Partnership to decide what they were going to do in response to the recommendations of the report.

The Head of Community Safety enquired what the upper limit was for young people that were being assessed by the Mega Panel and it was confirmed that the Mega Panel would deal with young people that had not yet reached the age of 25. More usually, the Mega Panel would be focussing on young people that were under the age of 18. There was some crossover with MAPPA. 

The Acting Head of the London Probation Service (Katie Nash) and the CRC (Community Rehabilitation Company) Area Manager (Lucien Spencer), expressed an interest in sending representatives to the Mega Panel if it was discussing young adults. This would help to facilitate the smooth transition of young people from YOS to CRC and London Probation, and would also generally enhance cross communication between agencies.

The Chairman thanked the Head of YOS for the briefing and asked how progress could be made with taking the recommendations forward.  The Head of the YOS replied that she was due shortly to present the same briefing to the Children’s Safeguarding Board. Subsequent to this, the matter of responsibility/governance as noted in the recommendations would be determined.

It was agreed that the Head of YOS would report back to the SBP subsequent to the meeting with the Children’s Safeguarding Board.

The Chairman stated that she would be having a meeting with the Leader and the Deputy Chief Executive to discuss the same issue.

RESOLVED that the Head of YOS report back to the SBP regarding how to progress with the recommendations of the Locality Review Report.