An apology for absence was received from Cllr Gary Harding.

An apology for absence was also received from Inspector Craig West (Kent Police).

In relation to Minute 29 of the meeting of the Committee held on 11 October 2018, the Assistant Director (Communities) confirmed that the letter to the Home Office requested by Members had been written and sent by Councillor John Knight, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Environmental Services.

The Assistant Director (Communities) also confirmed that the Terms of Reference for the Crime & Disorder Scrutiny Committee had been circulated to Members.

The minutes of the meeting held on 11 October 2018 were signed by the Chair.

The Chair, Cllr Sara Langdale, declared an “Other Interest” as her daughter was a Police Officer base at the North West Kent Police Station.

To apprise the Committee of the KCC led successful bid to the Government’s Supporting Families Against Youth Crime Fund which as secured £1.3m for work to prevent young people from becoming involved in gangs and youth violence as part of a 2 year project. Colin Green - District Partnership Manager, Kent County Council will be attending the meeting.

The Committee was apprised of the Kent County Council (KCC) led successful bid to the Government’s Supporting Families Against Youth Crime Fund which had secured £1.3m for work to prevent young people becoming involved in gangs and youth violence as part of a two year project.

The Chair welcomed Colin Green, District Partnership Manager – KCC to the meeting.

The District Partnership Manager explained that he worked as part of the Troubled Families Programme (North Kent) team which had noticed an increase in cases of child exploitation. For example, nine children had been excluded from their school as they had been suspected of money laundering for a criminal group in North Kent and research had been undertaken which showed the need for more work in this area. KCC had given permission to submit a bid for funding from the £5m Supporting Families Against Youth Crime Fund made available by the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MCHLG). Initially it had been suggested that a bid for £2.1m be made which would have included direct partnership working with a number of London Boroughs. However, due to an imminent restructure of the team at KCC and the opinion that the inclusion in the initial bid of four London Boroughs as strategic partners would complicate matters, it had been requested that the bid be reduced to £1.3m. This bid would include collaboration with Medway Council, Kent Police, the Metropolitan Police and the Kent Police and Crime Commissioner.

The funding would be used in the coming two years to develop a service specification which would include two elements. The first was the development of a care team which would include a project manager, a support officer and an analyst. The second element would be a new commissioning service which would deliver in North Kent and Medway and four mentors and four trained community workers whom the project manager would oversee. Additionally there would also be two youth workers. It was also hoped to have a “community chest” of funding which appropriate community groups would be able to bid for. The District Partnership Manager was also keen to afford an out of hours telephone project. If additional funding could be accessed then a face to face service would be also considered.

The Committee was advised that the new service would be committed to helping 50 families in the coming two years and would also include outreach sessions in schools and to other appropriate groups. A study would also be commissioned to investigate the efficiency of the work being undertaken by the service. It was hoped that the prevention and support work would in turn result in a positive outcome for these young people and their families. 

The Chair congratulated KCC on an outstanding project and thanked the District Partnership Manager for the initiative. This sentiment was echoed by the Committee.

The District Partnership Manager fielded questions from the Committee and the following was highlighted:

·         The London Boroughs involved as informal partners were Lewisham, Greenwich,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 58.

To inform the Committee of the agreed priorities for the new CSP Community Safety Strategy 2019-2022.

Members were apprised of the Dartford and Gravesham Community Safety Partnership’s (CSP) new three year Community Safety Strategy 2019-22 and the priorities contained therein. The Strategic Manager (Community Safety Unit) advised that the first stage had included a strategic assessment. Once this assessment had been completed, a very brief public consultation exercise had taken place in an effort to clarify resident’s concerns with regard to their neighbourhoods and 420 responses had been received. There had been a clear indication of priorities which had included anti-social behaviour (mainly low level but persistent), petty vandalism, litter and graffiti. Residential burglary and town centre safety had also been flagged. A low level of concern about violence had been expressed. In identifying priorities officers consider certain criteria including volume, trends and the added value that could be provided through partnership working. Members noted that it had been difficult to undertake year on year comparisons of recorded crime because of changes in Home Office Counting Rules and definitions but year on year analysis should begin to be possible from 2019/2020 onwards.

The Strategy would be published on the Council’s website in mid-April and would run for 3 years. The Strategy had been designed to be able to respond to changes in trends and legislation etc and the Members’ attention was drawn to the diagram on page 17 of the agenda which was used to communicate the aims of the Strategy to members of the public. Performance indicators had been included in the Strategy and would be reviewed on a quarterly basis.

The Chair thanked the officer for a useful and easy to understand document.

Following questions from the Committee, the Strategic Manager (Community Safety Unit) highlighted the following:

·         A comment was made on paragraph 1.3 of the report which appeared to say that decisions on the priorities to be included in the Strategy had been made before the public consultation exercise. The officer clarified that the CSP had received the Strategy after the completion of the strategic assessment. This had taken place in January 2019 when the priorities had been approved based on the assessment alone. Following this, the public were approached with regard to their views. The Strategic assessment only considered recorded data and the public’s opinion was sought on issues that actually affect their lives. There was also an element of under-reporting of certain issues. The officer was requested to rewrite this section.

·         The officer explained the design of the questionnaire and gave an example of the questions therein. The questionnaire did not contain much data as the honest opinion of residents was required and it was intended that this exercise be repeated on an annual basis. The Strategic Manager (Community Safety Unit) was requested to advertise the questionnaire and to aim for a broader sample in future. It was also agreed that Members be sent the questionnaire.

·         It was noted that a consultation could be skewed by a number of factors including gender, age and perception and any conclusions should be tempered  ...  view the full minutes text for item 59.

This item is for information only / noting.

The Committee considered the Kent & Medway Police and Crime Panel minutes of the meeting held on 14 November 2018.

Members noted the content of the minutes.

To move, if required, that pursuant to Section 100A (4) of the Local Government Act 1972 that the public be excluded from any items included in Part B of the agenda because it is likely in view of the nature of the business to be transacted that if members of the public are present during those items, there would be disclosure to them of exempt information as defined in Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act.

Resolved that pursuant to Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 that the public be excluded during the following item of business because it was likely in view of the nature of the business to be transacted that, if member of the public were present during this item, there would be disclosure to them of exempt information.

To enable a better understanding of the level and extent of gang related criminal activity in Gravesham and multi-agenda activity being delivered to address this issue. Detective Sergeant Ian Sanderson, Acting Chief Inspector Neil Loudon and Inspector Craig West (Kent Police) till be attending the meeting.

The Chair welcomed Acting Chief Inspector Neil Loudon and Detective Sergeant Ian Sanderson (Kent Police) to the meeting.

Detective Sergeant Ian Sanderson gave a presentation to the Committee on gang related activity, County lines and the local picture to enable a better understanding of the level and extent of gang related and criminal activity in Gravesham.

The Chair thanked Acting Chief Inspector Neil Loudon and Detective Sergeant Ian Sanderson for attending the meeting and the detailed information explained to Members.

On the conclusion of the meeting the Chair advised that this was the last meeting of the Crime & Disorder Scrutiny Committee that she would preside over and she thanked the Committee for keeping themselves informed, asking pertinent questions and for doing a great job.

The Chair also thanked the experts and specialists that had attended the meetings the backbone of which had been the police and she recognised the time they had given up and how busy they must be and stated it had been very much appreciated.

She also extended her thanks to the Assistant Director (Communities), the Strategy Manager (Community Safety Unit) and the Community Safety Operations Manager for their brilliant expertise.