The Cabinet Member for Safer Communities will introduce the topic.
There will then be contributions from experts and community representatives, followed by questions and discussion.
Finally, the Cabinet Member will sum up.
Minutes:
Councillor Callaghan introduced the report and the Council then heard from the following speakers:-
· Faduma Ibrahim, Youth Safety Co-ordinator at the British Somali Community Centre, spoke about the Community Centre and specifically about the aim of the Girls Project to provide a safe space for girls in Camden, the role of the Police Workshop in building a better relationship between the community and the Police, and the work taking place with the detached youth team on establishing more inter-generational projects. More funding was needed though in order to carry on with these projects.
· Mubarak Mohamud of Clime-It Brothers spoke about the fact that financial reward and the poor job market for young people was driving some to criminality, and of the need to replace the ‘job before a job’ that used to be available in the form of paper rounds and Saturday jobs, in order to give young people an alternative to making money by drug dealing and other criminality.
· Liz Mack of Change Grow Live explained that her organisation was commissioned by the Council to deliver the Routes of the Street service for vulnerable adults with complex needs. She detailed the services provided to assist those sleeping rough or involved in street activity to access support in a safe multi-agency setting. She added that the intelligence led approach relied on information from the community, the Council and partners.
· Omar Hall, Camden Detached Youth Team Co-ordinator, explained that his team was part of the Council’s Integrated Youth Support Service and was effectively a mobile, street based team of youth workers who worked with young people where they were, both physically and as an individual, in a way that suited them individually. The Team also worked in Camden schools offering a range of programmes supporting personal, social and health education and citizenship work, and also did a lot of work in the community to support community cohesion.
· Shaheeda Rahman, Camden Community Safety Manager, spoke about how the Community Safety Service had evolved to listen to communities and residents through a number of mechanisms, and via being geographically based. She explained that the role of Community Presence Officers was to deter anti-social activity and gather intelligence, and the Team took a multi-agency approach focussing on actions and outcomes. She also spoke about the work taking place to combat ‘cuckooing’.
· Chief Superintendent Andy Carter of the Metropolitan Police remarked that policing was undergoing a significant transformation to adapt to new crime challenges and social issues. He detailed the 3 main objectives of the Met Direction and how the progress against these objectives was measured. He commented that the bond between Police and community had come under strain recently and strengthening this, as well as focussing on the Police’s culture and standards, was key. More officers were coming in through different pathways and all were keen to learn so he had set up a board to focus on organisational learning.
· Superintendent Jack Rowlands of the Metropolitan Police expressed his support for Camden’s public health approach to reducing violence and making the borough safer, and a commitment to the partnership approach being taken in Camden. He spoke about innovation within his team to engage with young people and stated that working with the Council on this was critical to addressing the issues of most concern to residents of the borough together. Two strong town centre teams patrolled hotspots in the borough and the licensing teams supported businesses and the Council to take an enforcement and problem-solving approach to make the borough safer. Camden Police had a nationally recognised anti-social behaviour team to tackle ‘cuckooing’, trafficking and exploitation. He encouraged people to join ward panels to help the police identify issues of most importance to residents.
Members of the Council then commented as follows:
· The Borough Commander appeared in front of the Culture and Environment Scrutiny Committee once a year and often indicated everything was fine, but in fact the turnover in Borough Commanders and ward sergeants indicated that there was a problem with the way community policing was working. The new Borough Commander was urged to move back to embedding officers into communities.
· OSTED had recently challenged a local school during an inspection on what it was doing to tackle drug dealers grooming young people and speakers were asked to comment on this work.
In response to comments, Superintendent Rowlands remarked that the Camden and Islington police team was keen to continually improve and he agreed that community policing required consistency. He gave his assurance that he would work to retain as many sergeants as possible, while supporting their development and the needs of the community. There were Safer Schools Officers in all Camden secondary schools helping schools to identify risks, raising awareness of the dangers of drugs and exploitation, and using enforcement where necessary.
· A recent report from Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) had highlighted poor recording of crime across London, particularly when the crimes involved anti-social behaviour (ASB).
· More help should be given to businesses and enterprises who were willing to give paid opportunities to young people to find empty spaces in which to operate in the borough.
In response to comments, Superintendent Rowlands commented that the Met Police was developing an action plan to address the points raised by HMIC in relating to data recording. Locally, whenever a crime was reported by a member of the public, it was recorded and investigated. Every reported incident of anti-social behaviour was entered into the ASB system and was actioned by one of the ASB teams. There was an issue, too, of underreporting, which was linked to trust and confidence, and he encouraged people to always report crime to local police who would do what they could to investigate.
· What more did the speakers think the Council could do to assist with their work?
Mubarak Mohamud remarked that the role models for many young people were the people with the expensive cars that they saw out in the community, often drug dealers and gang members, and young people learned to speak the same language as the gangs – unfortunately, there was little being done in schools to address the use of this street language. He added that provision of meanwhile spaces for small enterprises to get off the ground was essential.
Faduma Ibrahim remarked that the Council could assist with the provision of more parent workshops for those for whom English was not the first language.
· What was the Metropolitan Police doing to increase participation and diversity in the Safer Neighbourhood Ward Panels?
Superintendent Rowlands commented that it was incumbent on all ward panel members to reach out into their networks to encourage a more diverse and representative membership. He and his team would also be advertising the Panels and the benefits of participation via flyers and community events.
· To what extent was there a reluctance to engage with the authorities and a complicity of silence when it came to reporting crimes?
Shaheeda Rahman commented that a reluctance to engage was not a particular issue for the Community Safety team as officers had built strong relationships within their communities who did proactively report their concerns. There was also an exchange of information with the Police so the team could act as a reporting conduit.
· How could black and other minority ethnic councillors assist organisations to understand the issues affecting young people?
· Was there a resource where all the organisations working in this area could be found and, if not, could one be created?
Faduma Ibrahim remarked that the community often did not know how to contact councillors so councillors could assist by being more accessible to the community.
· What work was taking place to ensure that primary schools were aware of the issues and the support available?
Omar Hall commented that many schools were doing lots of work in this area with support from many organisations. This ranged from one to one work with children coming to their attention as in need of support, to larger scale targeted work. His team delivered a programme in primary schools about the issues of youth crime, knife crime and safety, and used a range of techniques to do so without frightening them. However, many of the issues being faced by young people were happening out in their communities, so those communities needed to be helped to be more robust and to support their young people. Work in schools had to be supplemented by the wider community approach.
· After care was key to dealing with anti-social behaviour and it was not enough just to move the perpetrators on without follow up. What work was taking place on this?
Superintendent Rowlands agreed that intervention was key and the SNTs would look to respond as quickly as possible to prevent escalation, with the ASB team undertaking follow up calls. On hate crime, there was a dedicated officer to provide support to victims and he was looking at how this could be widened to victims of ASB and other crime too.
· Areas like Primrose Hill had really struggled with ASB and the job of monitoring this often came down in the end to local people and organisations rather than the Police. Why was this?
Superintendent Rowlands remarked that on Primrose Hill there was shared responsibility between Royal Parks and the Met Police. He assured Members that the Safer Neighbourhoods Sergeant had tasked his officers not only with responding to ASB incidents but also with working with Royal Parks and other partners to reduce the number of incidents. He encouraged people to always call 111 or 999 if concerned, and he assured them that Royal Parks was taking action too.
· What did the experience of the pandemic teach, and what could the Council do better in future?
Liz Mack commented that the pandemic had shown that barriers between agencies could be brought down very quickly and those agencies could work in a more agile way. ‘Everyone in’ saw very close working with NHS partners to provide wraparound support, and Camden Council had been an exemplar in trying to continue that as far as possible.
· Young people needed to be encouraged to believe that they could achieve their goals and aspirations. How could more young people be encouraged to take up leadership roles?
Mubarak Mohamud remarked that the lure of the drug dealer was often too tempting if the future looked bleak, so giving young people a clear vision of a successful future was key.
Councillor Callaghan thanked all those who had contributed to be debate and she summarised some of the issues raised by each of the external speakers. She remarked that there would be a special surgery with the British Somali Community Centre so the Council could work with them more closely, and she also floated the idea of a mentoring programme for young people as was happening in the US. She would be undertaking more walkabouts and intelligence gathering as well as more work on ‘cuckooing’, and continuing to work with the Police and other partners to make Camden safer for everyone in the borough. She agreed that a resource pulling together information about all the organisations working in this area was a good idea and undertook to set that up. Younger Members were part of the solution and needed to encourage young people in the community to engage.
Supporting documents: