- Solace women’s aid: Cynthia Davies to present
- Camberwell community wardens: Ruth Backhurst and Rhett Maclean to present
- Community safety discussion
Minutes:
Domestic Abuse
Eva Gomez, Safer Southwark Partnership team manager, explained that domestic abuse covered violence, emotional and financial abuse. In Southwark, there were about 2,000 domestic crimes reported each year. About 300 of those took place in Camberwell. A campaign had been launched to raise awareness of domestic abuse and promote the services on offer from Southwark. Services included:
- Emergency accommodation in different locations.
- Specially trained advocates to go to court and represent victims of sex crimes.
- Mentoring support for those involved in gangs.
- Prevention work via the safe, equal and healthy relationships programme in secondary schools.
- A programme for perpetrators seeking to change their behaviour.
- Council staff had also been trained to help victims of domestic abuse.
In response to questions, Eva said the service was for male and female victims over 16 years of age. Domestic abuse affected all groups in the community regardless of location, age, race or wealth. Contact: Eva.Gomez@southwark.gov.uk or Tel. 020 7525 7246.
Ana Popovic, Solace Women’s Aid (advocacy and support services), explained that she was a caseworker working with women and children who had experienced domestic abuse. It was a crisis intervention service offering different sorts of help depending on the circumstances. Leaving an abusive relationship was often difficult and ongoing support was provided by Solace. The Solace team advised about housing and keeping adults and children safe. There was a counselling service, advice on injunctions and a support network. Contact: Ana.Popovic@southwark.gov.uk
Community Wardens
Ruth Backhurst, area manager of community wardens, explained that the wardens were a patrolling uniform service within the council’s community safety division. The core aims were recording and reporting on crime, including anti-social behaviour, environmental issues and engaging with the community. The wardens worked with the housing department and the anti-social behaviour unit. The warden role was often about linking departments and agencies that could take further action. In terms of enforcement, the wardens targeted dog fouling and littering. The wardens educated people on responsibilities and issue fixed penalty notices. The Camberwell team had reported about 1,500 environmental issues during the previous year and made more than 800 visits to local businesses.
In response to questions, Ruth made the following points:
- The community warden service was cut by about 50% a few years ago so the challenge was to deliver a good service with less resources. One of the changes had been the move from a borough wide service to a town centre focused service.
- Community wardens could only seize alcohol if they witnessed associated anti-social behaviour.
- There were six community wardens working in Camberwell plus a shared team leader.
Ruth invited residents to make enquiries to the warden control room - Tel. 020 7525 5846.This was a public number to report community concerns and environmental issues.
Jonathon Toy, head of community safety and enforcement, explained that community safety was a collaboration with the police, various partners and services along with the community. Over the last few years violent crime in the borough had fallen considerably which enabled young people to socialise and play without fear. Knife and gun crime had fallen by about 25% (300 less incidents) and that had been achieved by a lot of work by agencies in the community. Community mentors, for example, did a lot of work to help improve the community and reduce crime.
In response to questions, Jonathon made the following points:
- A large part of the work involved bringing agencies together to tackle crime, anti-social behaviour and fear of crime.
- Victims of crime were often affected for months or years afterwards but there was support available. Generally crime statistics were falling and that meant people felt safer in the borough.