This meeting of the Crime, Environment and Transport Scrutiny Commission was scheduled to review several reports and consider how they relate to the safety and security of the people of Newham. This included looking at the performance of its Community Safety Partnership and scrutinising the effectiveness of policing in the borough, as well as proposals for the adoption of a new model to better coordinate community safety enforcement. The meeting was also scheduled to consider the adoption of a new Youth Safety Strategy.

Annual Performance Review of the Newham Safety Partnership and Serious Violence Duty

The meeting was scheduled to review a report on the Annual Review of the Newham Safety Partnership 2023/2024 and Introduction to the Serious Violence Duty which provided a summary of the partnership’s three year plan and how its performance during the year 2023/24 related to its stated priorities.

It described how the Newham Safety Partnership, previously known as the Community Safety Partnership, was responsible for working with partner organisations like the Metropolitan Police Service, the Probation Service, local NHS Trusts, and the London Fire Brigade to understand local crime patterns and identify strategic priorities for addressing them.

It then listed the partnership's key priorities and associated areas of focus:

Safety in Public Spaces:

• Enhance women's safety.
• Address hate crime.
• Reduce anti-social behaviour.

Violence and Victimization:

• Decrease domestic abuse and violence against women and girls (VAWG).
• Combat serious violence.
• Tackle modern slavery and exploitation.

Neighbourhood Crime:

• Reduce crime and anti-social behaviour in identified hotspots, including Stratford, East Ham, and Upton Park.
• Lower reoffending rates and address the underlying causes of crime.

The report went on to provide details about the performance of the partnership in each of these areas during 2023/24.

For example it described the work that had been done to improve women’s safety in public spaces by training businesses to understand and respond to vulnerability, by improving lighting and CCTV coverage, and by running events to build resilience in communities. It also noted that while reports of sexual offences had decreased, the number of sanctioned detections for sexual offences had also decreased, and described how this made it difficult to understand whether the decrease in offences was genuine.

The decrease of 3.2% in sexual offences is uncertain; it may suggest that women are becoming more confident in reporting such crimes, leading to a perceived decline in statistics, or it could indicate that women still lack confidence in reporting sexual abuse.

Similarly the report described how the partnership had delivered training to schools, businesses and community groups on hate crime and that Stop Hate UK had been commissioned to provide a bespoke service to Newham residents. However it also noted that despite this work, hate crime had risen by 11.4% over the past year and sanctioned detections had decreased by 54.2%

Hate crime has risen by 11.4% in the last financial year, and the cause remains uncertain; it could be attributed to increased confidence in reporting or a genuine rise in the number of offences. Outside of Newham, tensions across the Middle East and the war in Ukraine are likely to be causation factors in regards to some aspects of hate, including islamophobia and anti-Semitism.

The report then provided a similar summary of the partnership's work across each of its areas of focus.

Finally the report described how the partnership was scheduled to change over the year 2024/25, describing how it was working towards creating a new governance structure, new strategic delivery groups, and a monthly executive group to better monitor and respond to emerging crime trends. It also described how the partnership was to be renamed as the Newham Safety Partnership in order to improve its public profile.

The report described how this new structure was being independently reviewed and how a report would be provided during the 2025/26 municipal year setting out how this new structure had been implemented.

It then set out how the partnership intended to develop its strategic priorities for the years 2025 to 2028. It described how it would undertake a strategic needs assessment during the third quarter of 2024, and use the results of this assessment to identify key crime trends, emerging issues and community concerns. It would then consult with local residents, community groups and key partners, including the police, the NHS, the London Fire Brigade and the council's scrutiny team, and use this consultation to draft a partnership plan for the years 2025-2028. It would then review and finalise the plan, seek approval from the council's Cabinet, and implement the plan from April 2025 onwards.

The report also provided an update on the partnership's progress in implementing the Serious Violence Duty that was introduced in January 2023. It described how this duty placed a requirement on authorities in each borough to work together to combat serious violence.

The report described how this involved undertaking a strategic needs assessment and then developing a strategy to address the issues that the assessment identified. It then described how the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) had provided funding to help the council develop its strategy, coordinate an action plan, and deliver local interventions.

It described how, during 2023/24, this funding had been used to conduct test purchase operations to prevent the sale of age-restricted products to children, and that in 2024/25 this funding would be used to develop a Virtual Reality programme for anti-knife crime and fire safety.

The report then explained how the partnership had published its serious violence strategy in January 2024 and how this strategy had resulted in the creation of a Violence & Vulnerability Reduction Action Plan that set out how the partnership intended to achieve its strategic goals.

Metropolitan Police Report: Stop and Search

The meeting was scheduled to consider a report by the North East Basic Command Unit of the Metropolitan Police Service on its use of stop and search powers in Newham.

The report stated that 5,676 stop and searches had been carried out between 1 September 2023 and 31 August 2024. This represented a 24% decrease on the previous year, with fewer searches conducted in every month of the year than the corresponding month the year before.

The report then provided a breakdown of the reasons for the searches. Of the 5,676 searches, 4,019 were for drugs, 1,381 were for offensive weapons, 151 were for stolen goods, 93 were for articles for use in criminal damage, and 32 were for firearms.

It then provided a breakdown of the outcomes of the searches. It stated that 1,807 searches had resulted in an arrest, that 397 had resulted in a Community Resolution, that 32 had resulted in a summons and that 3,440 had resulted in no further action.

The report then provided a breakdown of the demographics of the people searched. It said that 4,639 of the people searched were over 18 years old and 974 were under 18, that 4,790 were male and 446 were female, and then provided a breakdown of the ethnicity of the people stopped.

"White: 1,696 (30.1%)

Black: 1,826 (32.2%)

Asian: 1,858 (32.7%)

Mixed: 199 (3.5%)

Other: 97 (1.7%)"

The report then noted that, for the period covered, the positive outcome rate for searches had been 31.8%, an increase of 4.9% on the previous year. It defined a positive outcome as being an arrest, summons, caution, or community resolution.

Finally the report provided a summary of how the police ensured that stop and searches are carried out lawfully and ethically, describing the roles of its internal governance processes, its Community Monitoring Groups (CMGs), and its Police Encounter Panels (PEPs).

Youth Safety Strategy

The meeting was scheduled to review a report on the proposed Youth Safety Strategy.

The report described how a review had been undertaken of the borough's approach to youth safety and that this had resulted in the drafting of a new overarching strategy to bring together the council's priorities, objectives and actions in this area over the next three years.

It explained that the strategy would have six key principles that would guide its implementation. These were to:

• Work in Partnership
• Prevent and Intervene Early
• Support and Protect
• Tackle Racism, Inequality and Disproportionality
• Disrupt and Deter
• Create Safer Spaces

It then described how each of these principles would be applied, and how they would relate to other work the council was already doing.

For example, the principle of Work in Partnership would be implemented by working with residents, businesses, community organisations and partner agencies to empower children and young people to make the change they want to see in their communities. It would also involve the council working with partner agencies to adopt the Young People’s Charter, and would include embedding youth voice and participation into all service development and delivery, for example by incorporating the learning from Youth Citizen Assemblies into new policy developments and services.

Youth assemblies are a key component in our borough’s participation offer to young people; the sessions are run ‘by young people, for young people’, to surface and debate issues with the Council and wider stakeholders. Youth voice and coproduction exists as an ultimate priority, and first step across all changes to service development and delivery. We appreciate Newham’s young people and respect their insights that highlight risk, issues and gaps across the system, as well as their input to help us shape service development and design which forms a core part across all future council activity, such as our considerations across new policy developments, services developments and design and roll-out.

Similarly it described how the principle of Prevent and Intervene Early would be delivered in part through redesigning its Early Help service for 0-19 year olds, in part by working with stakeholders to embed new Working Together principles and protocol, and in part through the introduction of a new Newham Integrated Community Enforcement (NICE) model.

The report also included a table setting out the revenue and capital budgets allocated for youth safety projects during 2024/25 and 2025/26:

"Title Grant Expected Income 24/25 Grant Expected Income 25/26

Family Hubs 1,602,100 -

Safe program 407,219 -

Vanguard 368,276 241,293

Thriving Communities TBC -

Turnaround Project TBC -

Your Choice 205,556 -

TOTAL 2,583,151 241,293"

It also listed related interventions and offers that the strategy would be delivered in collaboration with, along with the funding sources and durations of those interventions.

Introduction of the new Newham Integrated Community Enforcement (NICE) model

The meeting was scheduled to consider a report on the introduction of a new Newham Integrated Community Enforcement (NICE) model.

The report stated that NICE is a new approach to community safety enforcement based on the model used in the Royal Borough of Greenwich. It would aim to break down silo working between enforcement teams and partners, increase collaboration, and provide a holistic and joined-up approach to community safety enforcement.

It explained how NICE would be delivered through a range of public facing activities, including:

• High visibility partner patrols
• Targeted joint operations, ‘surge days’, and days of action.
• Temporary deployment of dedicated mobile CCTV cameras
• Prevention & reassurance communications using partnership channels
• Community engagement activity
• Securing wider support needed across or outside of the core NICE partnership, for example commissioned or community organisations

It then set out how the work would be overseen by a governance structure including weekly operational ‘grip’ calls, monthly tactical data/intelligence driven tasking & coordination meetings, and annual strategic priority and performance reviews.

It went on to describe how the model would have three kinds of priorities; “thematic” (type of concern), “geographical” (areas of concern), and “seasonal” (temporary concerns), and then listed the initial priorities that would be used to launch the approach in 2024/25:

Thematic

• Creating Safer Public Spaces
• A Cleaner, Greener & Healthier Borough
• Combatting Problematic Premises
• Tackling Nuisance Vehicles
• Keeping Residents Safe at Home

Geographical

• Stratford
• East Ham
• Upton Park

Seasonal

• Safety & security of LBN Parks & Open Spaces during Q1
• Summer Street Drinking & Water Safety during Q2
• Halloween & Bonfire Period & Burglary & Robbery during Autumn/Winter nights during Q3/Q4

The report explained that these priorities had been developed in consultation with the Mayor, Cabinet Members and relevant officers and partner agencies.

The report then set out how NICE was to be implemented.

It explained that the Mayor, the relevant Cabinet Members and the Corporate Leadership Board had agreed to pilot the model, and that senior managers and partners had been briefed in July 2024. It also explained that a NICE Insight & Coordination Unit was to be created within the Community Safety Enforcement Team and that this unit was to be staffed by two analysts and a lead project officer.

The report explained that the first weekly operational grip calls had taken place on 11 September, that attendance and participation had been good, and that the first monthly tactical tasking and coordination meeting was scheduled for 9 October.

Work Programme 2024-25

The meeting was scheduled to review a report setting out the planned work programme of the commission.

This report listed the scheduled topics of discussion for the remainder of the 2024/25 municipal year.

These were to include:

• Implementation and Impact of Parks Strategy
• Waste and Recycling Strategy
• Street Cleansing
• New Licensing Policy
• Dealing with Residential Anti-Social Behaviour
• Major Projects and Highways Management
• Sustainable Transport

The report explained that the proposed programme of work had been developed in consultation with the council’s Environment & Sustainable Transport Directorate.

The report also included a reserve item on the 2025 consultation on Newham Council’s Air Quality Strategy.