Agenda item

Joint Report of the Commissioner of Police and Town Clerk

The Group received a joint report of the Commissioner and the Town Clerk that provided a summary to Members of the work completed on the Safer Communities Project.

The Head of Change Portfolio Office explained that two workshops had been undertaken since the last meeting of the Safer City Partnership with follow up meetings to further solidify the understanding, and a lessons-learned workshop planned.

The representative for the Partnership for Young London requested paperwork from Work Stream 11 – Housing ASB Process.  The Head of Change Portfolio Office agreed to circulate this. (4)

The Chairman queried the developments in Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) recording methods.  The Community Safety Manager explained that an IT solution was possible, and that Corporately dramatic improvements to recording standards have been achieved.  However, he also noted that systems that would make yet further improvements were currently in existence.  The Director of Community & Children's Services confirmed that it had been progressing well; although there had been a significant spike in numbers, most of these appeared to be due to low-level incidents involving youths.  He explained that it required some further fine-tuning to ensure effectiveness.  The Senior Intelligence Analyst explained that they had been looking specifically at the occurrence of “harm” in involved in recorded ASB cases.

The Director of Markets & Consumer Protection illustrated his disappointment at the outcomes considering the significant resource and time expended on the Safer Communities Project.  He explained that the workshop needed to be very well thought through in order to ensure its effectiveness.  He asked what the total cost of the Project was, and the Town Clerk confirmed that it was approximately £350,000.  The Director of Markets & Consumer Protection noted that, when considering some of the Work Streams individually, it seemed that significant sums had been expended on very minor work.  The Chairman agreed, citing the mistake of allowing the project to be consultant-led rather than business-driven.  He noted that now these lessons had been taken on board, minor changes needed to be noticed and maintained.  He also explained that siloed working needed to be avoided.

The Head of Change Portfolio Office confirmed that the Change Portfolio Manager would circulate the findings from the workshop. (5)

RESOLVED – That the report be received.