Agenda item

Cllr Barrie Hargrove, Cabinet Member for Communities, Safety and Leisure will present the action plan enclosed. This will inform the planned scrutiny review on Knife Crime.

The chair invited the following to present on the Knife Crime and Knife Carrying action plan; circulated with the papers:

•  Cllr Barrie Hargrove: Cabinet Member for Communities and Safety

•  Sharon Ogden: Safer Communities Team Manager, Housing and Modernisation

•  Stephen Douglass: Director of Communities, Housing and Modernisation

Cllr Barrie Hargrove - Cabinet Member for Communities and Safety explained that the Knife Crime and Knife Carrying strategy developed in part because of death of a 15 year old in Elephant & Castle in 2015. Community concern has grown over the years. He said that the police remain the lead on knife crime; however the safeguarding board lead persuaded me that the council could help with prevention. The Serious Case Review of Child U identified that better sharing of information might have led to a better outcome. The report’s recommendations emphasised the importance of a partnership approach.

Schools are important partners in this; though it's difficult as some schools are concerned about reputation. The focus of the strategy is both knife crime and carrying, and getting across the message that young people are safer without a weapon. There is also a more difficult cohort who uses knives for fights and criminal purposes. Another issue is young people who are victims who do not feel safe or willing use the judicial process.  Trust with police is important, and there are generational issues. Tackling knife crime has to be more than just enforcement, though that is important.

Stephen Douglass added that the Knife Crime and Knife Carrying action plan has the involvement of young people. The youth council elections asked young people to identify issues of concern: knife crime was the top issue.

Sharon Ogden said that there a  growing tendency is to see young people without  criminal intent carrying knife for others reasons , such as perceived safety. There is concern that knife crime has become almost normalised for some young people.

The chair invited questions: 

Members asked about schools and exclusions for knife crime. Exclusions are made to enforce the message that knife carrying is unacceptable. The difficulty is the negative impact on young people excluded. However there is a paramount need to keep children safe. Sharon said there are interventions that aim to not criminalise young people and but divert them from knife carrying - this about using wider community leaders.

A member said that there is additional MOPAC money to help with sharing information - officers said they will look at this. There is good work with hospitals now.

There was a question about the impact of knife crime on girls. There are links with between domestic violence, child sexual exploitation and knife carrying. The Mayors strategy was very brief on this.

Sharon said that there are services working with boys involved in gangs, and they do work with girlfriends, and the wider family dynamics and problems.

There was a discussion of the attractions and problems of hyper-masculinity: and how both work with boys and girls are needed to address this.

The issue of budgetary shortages in council and schools, particularly primary schools was discussed.

Primary Schools PTAs may want raise money to get Street Doctors for schools. There maybe the potential for lobbying to get healthy relationship programmes and other initiatives that prevent knife crime. Members asked if the council can set down a minimum expectation around information sharing with schools. The cabinet member welcomed this suggestion; however he cautioned that relationships on this issue are at a formative stage.

Members praised the action plan’s ambitions. There was a suggestion that the plan might benefit from taking a longer time on the earlier mapping stage in order to prepare.