Ian Wake, Director of Public Health, stated that it was a statutory duty of the Director of Public Health to prepare an independent report on the health and wellbeing of the local population each year and stated that the 2019/20 report considered the issue of Violence and Vulnerability in young people and how a public health approach could be used to improve outcomes for our residents.

Members were provided with an overview of the report by means of a PowerPoint presentation. This included:

·       Public Heath Approach to Tackling Violence

·       Trends in Violence

·       Trends in Youth Violence and Weapons Offences and by Districts

·       Youth Violence by small geographical areas

·       Predictors of future violence at ward level

·       Risk Factors – Gang Involvement

·       Casual Factors – Deprivation and the Crime Paradox

·       How the council should respond

·       Key Gaps in Service Provision

·       Other Key Findings

·       Conclusions and Recommendations

The presentation can be found from the following link:

https://democracy.thurrock.gov.uk/documents/b17855/Annual%20Report%20of%20the%20Director%20of%20Public%20Health%20201920%20Serious%20Youth%20Violence%20and%20Vulnerability%2002.pdf?T=9

The Chair thanked Ian Wake for the incredibly detailed report and the PowerPoint presentation had been helpful to identify the issue keys of that report.

Councillor Fletcher echoed the Chairs comments and questioned on the data front, how much dependence had there been on Xantura to produce the data tools. Ian Wake stated that Xantura provided the architecture to which the data was fed into and the Public Health team had worked very closely with them to analysis the data and produce the risk base model. This identified the opportunity to bring some of the skills from the organisation to work with Xantura. Ian Wake stated that Police data needed to be included and those conversations had started with Essex Police.

Councillor Fletcher questioned whether there were any barriers between agencies working together to get full cooperation. Ian Wake stated that partnership working in Thurrock worked well. The challenge would be for the enforcement and crime work stream that sat under the Community Safety Partnership and the Health and Wellbeing work stream that sat under the Health and Wellbeing Board to be joined up. A Violence and Vulnerability Board had been created that had representatives from all professionals to bring this work together.

Councillor Fletcher referred to the number of exclusions in primary schools and questioned why Thurrock primary schools were so quick to take this action and what impact would this have on those children. Ian Wake stated that on secondary school exclusions, Thurrock did incredibly well in particularly temporary exclusions with Thurrock being one of the best in the country but with primary schools less well. Ian Wake stated that the report contained a recommendation to explore this further and agreed to take that recommendation forward.

Councillor Lawrence thanked Ian Wake for the report and requested that help and support should be more readily publicised particularly at school events such as at parents evening which would be a good opportunity to speak with children, parents and teachers. Ian Wake stated that plans were put in place to engage with school forums, present at the Health and Wellbeing Board, present at more council committees, and conferences but due to COVID this had to stop but it was hoped these would be picked up shortly.

The Chair stated as the report had 33 individual recommendations under those four headings of the report there were gaps and would be crucial that those were implemented. That one of the gaps identified was a lack of tie-up with Planning and Regeneration and it would be interesting to have a planners prospective on how that might happen. The Chair suggested that as there had not been time for a conference for members to consult on the report he suggested that as part of recommendation 1.2 a hard of the report be sent to all Members to give them the opportunity to read and that post COVID a conference or a series of event be held for elected Members. That also a conference or event be arranged with wider partners to come up with a robust plan to implement the 33 recommendations. The Chair stated that it was important these 33 recommendations are implemented and regularly reviewed so that they can be tracked for the differences that are being made.

Julie Rogers stated that there was a specialist Police team who the Thurrock Council planners worked with on a regular basis and any new housing development would be sent to that Police team and advised how the crime could be designed out in that particular scheme. This was now the new process going forward on new developments and more information could be provided at the proposed conference or through a members briefing. The Chair thanked Julie Rogers for the comments but stated an example of the report looked at the number of licensing premises in one area where problems were known. This detail should be included in the merging local plan as some elements had moved beyond the traditional approach.

Councillor Fletcher stated the local development plan should take a large input of the report, conversations between the different agencies involved with the plan to develop communities where there was a low risk of crime rather than just focussing on how to prevent crime once there prevalence in there.

RESOLVED

1.         That the Cleaner Greener and Safer Overview and Scrutiny Committee noted and commented on the content and recommendations contained within the report.

2.         That the Cleaner Greener and Safer Overview and Scrutiny Committee considered how the findings and recommendations contained within the report could best be implemented and used to influence broader council strategy in this area.