Agenda and minutes

RESOLVED:

The minutes of the meeting held on the 5 November 2018 be confirmed as an accurate record of proceedings.

Cllr Sophie Davis declared a personal interest in item 7 as she worked for the Behavioural Insights Team and the London Community Rehabilitation Company, the National Probation Service and the Home Office were clients of the organisation.

RESOLVED:

That the response be noted.

4.1The Committee heard evidence from Abu Ahmed, Head of Local Delivery and Communications at the Home Office. Abu introduced himself and his background and said that his presentation would broadly cover three areas: the current UK threat level; why they believe people are being drawn to terrorism; and the Prevent model. A copy of the presentation will be included with the agenda documentation. During the presentation to the Committee, the following key points were noted:

• The threat from terrorism in the UK is severe. The main threat the government is concerned about is from International terrorism and within this the particular concern is from Daesh. The government has made a conscious decision not to call the group “Islamic State” as they don’t believe they are Islamic or a state.
• There are a range of other threats faced by the UK including the threat from Northern Irish related terrorism in Northern Ireland and a threat from al-Qaida.
• Terrorists recruit and radicalise in a different way now to in the past – for example increasingly using social media such as Twitter, Facebook or Instagram with slick sophisticated propaganda. In this way they reach out to a broader range of people than groups such as al-Qaida did 10-15 years ago.
• Around 900 people from the UK have travelled to conflict zones in Iraq and Syria. Around 40% of those people have returned to the UK. Around 20% of people who went have sadly lost their lives.
• As Daesh’s territory has contracted their calls had become less about people travelling and more about inspiring so called ‘loan actor’ attacks in the UK and other parts of the world.
• There were 4 Daesh inspired terrorist attacks in the UK last year.
• The UK Police services have disrupted 25 Daesh inspired plots since 2013, 12 of which were in the last year.
• Toxic, manipulative propaganda leads to vulnerable people becoming involved in terrorist activity. 
• After every Daesh terrorist attack the UK sees a rise in far right and extreme right wing activity. Using the attacks to create division. There has been a surge in the threat from the extreme right wing around the country in recent years. The ideology of the extreme right wing is explicitly violent for example National Action. There have been a number of arrests in recent years.
• The propaganda from far right groups is now focusing increasingly specifically on anti-Muslim rhetoric.
• Sometimes mainstream media outlets pick up on misguided reports.  
• The reasons people get radicalised are diverse and there is no single profile. The majority of people are male but there are women and girls who become involved in terrorism too. There is a range of ethnicities and education levels of people who become involved in terrorism. Few people have a deep knowledge of faith, this can then be exploited. Some patterns regarding past criminal activity and people who have problems with alcohol or substance misuse. Mental health problems in individuals is a factor and groups with nefarious  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

This is under Part 2 of the Local Government Act 1972, Schedule 12A, Paragraph 7 ‘Information relating to any action taken or to be taken in connection with the prevention, investigation or prosecution of crime.

Press and Public were note excluded at this meeting.

This meeting did not go into Part 2 session and press and public were not excluded.

7.1       Becky Canning, National Probation Service (NPS) and Lucien Spencer, Community Rehabilitation Company (CRC) presented their reports to the Committee. During the questions and discussion that followed, the following key points were highlighted:

·         The CRC were unable to break down the attendance and attrition data at a local level. They reported across the London and Thames Valley region as per their contractual obligations.

·         The CRC was subject to annual inspections and had just had its third inspection in 4 years.

·         There was a range of Service level agreements built into the CRC contract and penalties for not meeting certain targets. The CRC were working with supply chains to measure quality of services. For example Safer Street commissioned by MOPAC included alcohol and abstinence monitoring.

·         The 2017 HMIP inspection had challenging recommendations, following a request regarding the safeguarding training from a Committee member, the Committee heard that all CRC staff had now had safeguarding training.

·         The NPS had access to the Violent and Sexual Offender register. All NPS staff who used it needed Met Police vetting. The NPS’s IT had been updated. There was now better information sharing and the Police and Probation Services were better working together.

·         Following a question requesting information on what the NPS had undertaken around the HMIP recommendation 4 on improving understanding of rehabilitation activity; the Committee were informed that this had been improved with the new framework and web-based toolkit and the increased use of the accredited programme. There was still more work to be done in this area.

·         A question was asked on what action had taken place around HMIP recommendation 2 to the CRC noting that there were no interventions targeted at the BAME Community despite 51% BAME service users.  The Committee heard that all managers had undergone training on unconscious bias. The staff employed reflected the local community they served with 70% of staff being from Black or minority ethnic backgrounds. There were currently two non-accredited programmes for women “Thinking Ahead for Women” and the “Heal Programme”. Women offenders were managed by women.

·         Following a question on the HMIP recommendation 3 to the CRC on unpaid work, the Committee heard that there had been improvements but delivery was complex. Sometimes there was a need to over-subscribe individuals to community groups to ensure that if somebody didn’t attend there were enough people to commit to the work agreed for the partner organisations. More work was being undertaken to strategically look at this issue. 

·         There was an increased focus on workload of staff at the CRC and not just numbers on the caseload to look more holistically at staff’s wellbeing.

7.3       RESOLVED:

That the report be noted and Becky Canning and Lucien Spencer be thanked for attending.

8.1       James Bravin, Policy Manger, gave a presentation to the Committee, a copy of which will be included in the agenda documentation. During the discussion the following key points were highlighted:

·         The Lewisham population had increased by 1% in the last year, however the rate of increase has decreased since 2014 due to an increase in internal migration and less International immigration.

·         The borough was getting older. The average age had increased from 33.6 to 34.7 since 2013.

·         Members of the Committee requested whether it would be possible to get up to date details of the ethnicity via age cohort.

·         The Committee heard that the ONS did not publish that data but the GLA did. The methodology for their populations predictions and projections were different but with that caveat it would be possible to provide that data to the Committee.

8.2       RESOLVED:

That the report be noted.

9.1       Katie Wood presented the report to the Committee and highlighted the items due at the next meeting. During the discussion the following key points were made.

• Tayo Disu should be invited to attend the next meeting should she wish.
• Members of the Committee agreed that the start time of the next two meeting should be amended to 6.30pm due to the number of items on the agenda.
• The Committee requested that in future if there was a section 60, members of the Committee should be informed. This request would be made to the Head of Crime Reduction and Supporting People.

9.2       RESOLVED:

That the report be noted.

That the next meeting of Safer Stronger Communities Select Committee start at 6.30pm.

There were no referrals to Mayor and Cabinet.