Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Councillor Ahmadi Moghaddam and Councillor Shah, substituted by Councillor Fraser and Councillor Collymore.

Members are invited to declare at this stage of the meeting, the nature and existence of any relevant disclosable pecuniary, personal or prejudicial interests in the items on this agenda and to specify the item(s) to which they relate.

Councillor Conneely made a declaration in relation to Item 8 - Safer Brent Partnership Annual Report 2021-22, due to her work with a local organisation that had received funding from the Violence Reduction Unit to provide mental health services to young people

To hear any deputations received from members of the public in accordance with Standing Order 67.

None.

To approve the minutes of the previous meeting held on Tuesday 6 September 2022 as a correct record.

It was RESOLVED that the minutes of the previous meeting held on Tuesday 6 September 2022 be approved as an accurate record.

To consider any matters arising from the minutes of the previous meeting.

None.

To receive a report providing an update on the Council’s grants programmes, inclusive of the ‘You Decide’ Participatory Budgeting inititative.

Please note that the Chair and members of the Community & Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee have been invited to attend this meeting in order to consider this item as a joint scrutiny review.

Councillor Donnelly – Jackson (Cabinet Member for Community Engagement, Equalities & Culture) introduced a report updating the Scrutiny Committee on the Council’s grants programmes with  particular emphasis on the participatory budgeting initiative “You Decide” whereby the local community were actively involved in voting for the local projects they believed would most benefit the community and should be awarded funding.

Lorna Hughes (LH) Operational Director, Engagement Strategy and Communications advised the Committee of the broader scope of grants that the Council made available to community in addition the You Decide Grants including the smaller Love Where You Live Grant that awarded up to £1000 and the Edward Harvist Grant that was a medium level grant offering up to £5000 for applicants. There were also grants available for the Carbon Offset Fund, Neighbourhood Community Infrastructure Levy (NCIL) and Brent Health Matters. The Committee heard that the You Decide funding of £2 million was split equally between the 5 Brent Connect areas, with each area allocated £400,000. The emphasis of the You Decide Participatory Grant was to maximise community engagement, it was felt this approach had been successful with an unprecedented 149 application received with 479 residents having taken part across the 5 separate events.

The Committee were advised that Brent had provided the largest participatory budgeting funds across London, however going forward with the current budgetary pressures there were likely to be uncertain times ahead in accruing revenue from NCIL to support this.

In summarising LH shared that the trialling of the You Decide Participatory Budgeting Scheme was felt to have been a successful initiative, allowing for increased community engagement and local organisations to benefit from funding that was invested back in to the community. It was acknowledged that there were further areas of development to build on to increase the reach and further enhance community engagement.

In order to provide the Committee with greater insight in to the experiences of the community groups who had actively applied for a grant, several community organisation representatives were in attendance to share their experiences.

The Chair proceeded to invite the first community speaker Jon Coming - Higgs from Elders Voice to address the Committee, with the following key points shared:

• Elders Voice was a local organisation that supported elderly residents to live safely and independently in their own homes through community support.

• The application experience had been overwhelmingly positive, Mr Coming – Higgs advised the Committee that if he had to apply for a grant in the traditional capacity he felt it was unlikely to have been successful as the nature of their project  was focused on learning how to support the elderly community with outcomes being qualitative rather than quantitative, a lack of measurable data may have hindered their application success if the grant application was rolled out in the more traditional way.

•  It was highlighted as a strength that Brent valued the voices of the local community and had explored a more dynamic approach to community engagement and grant allocation.

• It  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

To consider and review the draft Borough Plan and priorities for 2023-27. Please note that the Chair and members of the Community & Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee have been invited to consider this item as a joint scrutiny review.

The Committee received a report detailing the draft Borough Plan 2023-27, which had been developed with departmental leads and set out the vision and strategic priorities developed with CMT and Cabinet earlier this year. The Committee were asked to note and comment on the report before endorsing ahead of its finalisation in early 2023.

Councillor Butt highlighted that the plan laid out the ambitions of the administration to achieve the best outcomes for Brent residents, including increasing skills and employment opportunities, providing a good standard of education in all Brent schools, delivering on the commitment to increase the affordable housing stock in Brent and ensure that Brent residents have every opportunity to thrive. Councillor Butt advised of the financial challenges going forward due to the lack of adequate fuding and mismanagement of the budget from central government, however highlighted that despite the budgetary pressures he felt the Labour administration in Brent had demonstrated they were able to positively manage the funds they had to work with residents and provide high level public services, it was felt that the draft borough plan continued to illustrate the Labour administration in Brent’s commitment to support residents.

The Committee had a number of questions on the draft borough plan, with the following key points discussed –

·         The Committee queried whether the objectives in the borough plan were achievable within budget when taking in to consideration the additional financial pressures the council was under. In response the Committee were advised that budgetary pressures were considered in the creation of the plan and the financial situation would continue to be monitored parallel to the objectives on the plan. , making changes as and when necessary. It was noted that the lack of certainty and delivery of single year budgets from central government increased pressures in planning local services.

·         It was confirmed that when the revised Borough Plan comes in to place there would be a degree of harmonisation with strategies and policies on the existing plan to ensure that the plan accurately captured the administrations’ vision for Brent and the steps needed to achieve this.

·         In response to a Committee concern that the extent of Brent’s climate ambition was not reflected in the borough plan, it was noted that feedback from residents demonstrated that climate concerns had not featured on residents top priorities. Despite this the Council were clear in acknowledging its social and moral responsibility to act upon climate concerns. As discussed previously some of the greatest impacts in reducing carbon emissions was through work with schools and addressing adaptations to Brent’s housing stock. Pending confirmation of funding and whether there would be a significant rent cap introduced, the council was not yet in a position to confirm if carbon offset in relation to investment in Brent’s housing stock would be achievable.

·         The Committee questioned officers regarding what they felt to be a lack of accountability on the plan coupled with ambiguous target setting, noting that specific targets would support clearer measurable outcomes. Officers reassured  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

To receive the Safer Brent Partnership (SBP) Annual Report and review delivery of the SBP priorities and objectives for 2021-22

The Chair invited Carolyn Downs, Chief Executive and Chair of the Safer Brent Partnership to introduce the Safer Brent Partnership Annual Report 2021-22 for the Committee to note the Safer Brent Partnership, Annual Report Financial Year 2021 – 2022 and the activities undertaken to support agreed priorities. Additionally, for the Committee to provide recommendations to feed into the Safer Brent – Community Safety Strategy and related delivery for 2023 – 2025. Key highlights from the report were shared as follows:

• There were positive themes throughout the report, namely reductions in anti social behaviour, knife crime and gang related crimes. Despite the successes the Safer Brent Partnership were clear that there was no room for complacency and continued to sustain momentum moving forwards.

• Although there had been a general reduction in gang and knife crime, Dollis Hill and Neasden had seen an increase in these types of crime, this had illustrated a significant shift as historically Harlesden and Wembley had always recorded the highest figures in the borough in relation to these crimes. It was established that further exploration was needed to understand why Dollis Hill and Neasden were now presenting as hot spot areas, the Committee noted that the shift in crime prevalence across the borough may impact the way that police resources are distributed across the borough.

• There had been an uptick in sexual offences against women and girls, further exploration was needed to ascertain whether the increase in reported figures was due to an actual increase in activity or if more effective reporting was in place.

• Domestic Abuse Services and MARAC were working collaboratively to manage Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) with Youth Offending becoming progressively more engaged in the multi -agency approach to tackle VAWG.

• The Partnership recognised that a renewed focus to increase opportunities to support skills, employment and education for individuals within the justice system was necessary to improve outcomes in this area.

The Committee welcomed the areas of success in the report and in noting the continued areas of development asked some follow up questions to clarify the information shared, with the following points discussed:

·         In noting that violent crime remained a strategic priority for the Safer Brent Partnership the Committee queried how partners had worked collaboratively to address violent crime, particularly in hot sport areas and what interventions would look like moving forward. In response the Committee were advised that following Harlesden and Wembley being recognised as previous hot spot areas there had been significant investment in to supporting community engagement and police visibility in Wembley and Harlesden wards through the addition of Police Town Centre Teams. It was felt the increased visibility and positive relationship building within the community had a positive impact on wider community engagement as well as acting as a deterrent for certain crimes.

• Further community police engagement included the police meeting with local multi faith forums, GymSafe – a programme to support women feeling safe in gyms, a Summer Camp at Newman Catholic College and Police  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

To receive a verbal update from the Metropolitan Police and review the mechanisms established within Brent for engagement with the police.

Tania Martin, MPS updated the Committee that following previous feedback there had been a recent push on revising the structure of Ward Panel meetings. It was recognised that Ward Panels provided the community and the Police with a positive opportunity to engage and work together, therefore it was felt there should be a high value placed in ensuring Ward Panels were running effectively. As a result of the revised structure a new Ward Panel handbook , terms of reference and Code  of Conduct were also being used to support the effective running of Ward Panels. The Committee heard that there should be a maximum number of 25 participants at Panels covering a broad range of demographics to truly reflect the Community of each Ward. It was understood that there was disparity among the different Ward Panels in terms of numbers and diversity represented. In order to support the continued development of Ward Panels feedback was requested from Committee members.

 The Committee provided the following feedback and points of discussion:

·         There was a lack of consistency from one ward panel to another, some ward’s had very small numbers of attendees and others were well attended. There were also some Ward Panel’s taking place where the local Ward Councillor had not been invited to attend.

·         It was felt that much of the success of the Panel was dictated by the approach and commitment of the Sergeants who ran each Panel. The Committee noted that ideally Ward Panels would become more aligned, however it was recognised that there had to be flexibility to reflect the differing characters of each Ward and each Sergeant running the Panels. Tania Martin, MPS confirmed that feedback would be shared across Ward Panels to continue to improve the process.

·         In response to a Committee query regarding the best path Councillors should take to seek accurate information from the Police following a significant crime happening in their ward, the Committee were advised that inconsistent communication had been recognised as an issue previously, in an attempt to improve channels of communication, this type of information would now be accessible from an Operations Manager covering the BCU.

·         Some Committee members felt it would be helpful to consider a different structure to Ward Panels whereby one meeting could scrutinise the police priorities within the ward and an additional Panel could be convened for attendees to flag issues they were concerned about within the local community. It was felt this would be more effective in allowing local residents to share their concern and without impeding on the discussions that were needed to scrutinise the ward. Tania Martin, MPS agreed to take this information to explore further with colleagues.

To consider the Scrutiny Committee’s work plan for 2022/23.

The Chair confirmed there had been some changes to the Scrutiny Work Plan

              agenda and minor amendments to the wording.

       There would be an additional Resources & Public Realm meeting held on

       Tuesday13 December 2022 to discuss redefining local services.

       The Resources & Public Realm meeting in January 2023 would look at the Budget

       Task Group.

This report updates the Committee on the scrutiny recommendations tracker.

The Chair updated the Committee that suggestions previously made on the

       abuse of parking  permits had been followed up by the relevant officers.

Notice of items to be raised under this heading must be given in writing to the Head of Executive and Member Services or her representative before the meeting in accordance with Standing Order 60.

None.