Agenda item

Report of the Community Safety Manager

The Group considered a report of the Community Safety Manager that provided Members with an update on activity carried out by the Community Safety Team since the last meeting.

The Community Safety Manager explained that “Prevent” was an area in which there had been significant engagement in spite of the resource challenge that it faces.

The Commissioner explained that he was planning a trip to Peterborough where they had yielded very strong results around community engagement.  He hoped to be able to bring back some new ideas to employ in this area as a result.

The London Fire Brigade Borough Commander asked whether Prevent also covered industry engagement alongside community engagement.  The Community Safety Manager explained that it was predominantly focused on residents.  He explained that adapting local authority programmes to fit in with corporate targets was very challenging.  However, he confirmed that efforts had been made to engage with key businesses.

The Community Safety Manager explained that the 10% allocation from PCOA funding, regardless of the sum, could still prove to be significant to the Safer City Partnership.  The Chairman explained that the POCA sum still needed to be quantified but noted that there should be an expectation that it would be relatively small.  Members of the group queried how POCA funding was allocated.  The City’s Business Representative asked if the Later Night Levy funding could be used for the Safer City Partnership in the same way.  The Director of Port Health and Public Protection explained that the Late Night Levy could be allocated to anything relating to the Late Night Economy, and whilst this could support the work of the SCP, it could not go directly to the SCP.

The London Fire Brigade Borough Commander noted that the POCA funding figure was previously a significant sum and asked why this was no longer the case.  The Chairman explained that the funding had previously been bolstered by large apprehensions made by CoLP.  He explained that the reduction in POCA funding was seen as a positive in that it was the result of funds being returned to the victims where this had not been the case previously.

The Community Safety Manager requested Members’ approval via email of the Information-Sharing agreement included within the report.

The Chairman requested that the Information-Sharing agreement be forwarded to those partners not present at the meeting. (4)

The London Fire Brigade Borough Commander noted that the word “Service” should be amended to “Brigade” under the list of responsible authorities within the report.

The Director of Port Health and Public Protection noted the great efforts made to progress the information-sharing agreement to this stage and thanked the Community Safety Manager for his work in this regard.

The Community Safety Manager noted that, in light of GDPR, individuals should not be deterred from their legal obligation to share information.  He explained that a similar process was being undertaken by other London Boroughs. 

The Director of Port Health and Public Protection explained that there had been agreements in the past, but this would not guarantee that information would be shared.  He emphasised the importance of following through on agreements with action from all proposed signatories.

The Representative for the NHS explained that, whilst he agreed in principle with the proposal, it could not be considered a legally-binding document.  The Community Safety manager explained that this was a refresher to previous agreements and an overarching document to collate more specific legal agreements on particular issues.

RESOLVED – That the report be received and the Information-Sharing Agreement be approved.