L Crime Audit 2004.02

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A Safer Lewisham A 3 year Partnership strategy to reducecrime, anti-social behaviour and drug misuse2005–2008Borough of Lewisham Wards with major roadsEvelynNew CrossBrockleyTelegraph BlackheathHillLadywellLewisham Central Lee GreenCrofton Park Rushey GreenForest Hill Grove Catford South ParkPerry ValeWhitefootBellinghamSydenhamDownhama safer Lewisham – a 3 year partnership strategy2005–2008contentsforeword by Steve Bullock, mayor of Lewisham 21. executive summary 32. statement of partnership purpose 73. Lewisham’s partnership strategy 84. resources 105. priorities – crime and anti-social behaviour 13prolific and other priority offenders 13young people and crime 14domestic violence 14health inequalities – the impact of crime 15hate crime 15transport & crime issues 166. priorities – drugs and alcohol misuse 167. implementation 188. management and governance 199. target setting and performance management 21appendix 1 23appendix 2 24appendix 3 271foreword by Steve Bullock Mayor of Lewisham• reducing anti-social behaviour – to eliminate all forms‘I want a prosperous andof anti-social behaviour across our communitysuccessful borough. But peoplewherever it occurs. I want residents to see ancan’t succeed if they live improvement to the local environment and to theirin fear of crime. That is whyoverall quality of life locally.ensuring the comfort and security• reducing hate crimes – to eliminate crimes ...

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• Publié par: Fawyeng
• Nombre de lectures: 15
• Langue: English

Extrait

A Safer Lewisham

A 3 year Partnership strategy to reduce crime, anti-social behaviour and drug misuse

2005–2008

BoroughofLewishamWardswithmajorroads

Evelyn

New Cross

Brockley Telegraph Hill

Blackheath

Ladywell Lewisham Central Lee  Green Crofton Park Rushey  Green Forest Hill Grove Catford South  Park Perry Vale Whitefoot

Sydenham

Bellingham

Downham

foreword by Steve Bullock, mayor of Lewisham 1. executive summary 2. statement of partnership purpose 3. Lewisham’s partnership strategy 4. resources 5. priorities–crime and  anti-social behaviour prolific and other priority offenders young people and crime domestic violence health inequalities – the impact of crime hate crime transport & crime issues 6. priorities–drugs and  alcohol misuse 7 implementation . 8. management and governance 9. target setting and performance management appendix 1 appendix 2 appendix 3

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targeting of resources, the skill and the knowledge of those within our crime fighting partnership and the efforts made to work alongside communities are key to achieving success. In this strategy we will set out our new approach to tackling arrangements for governance and management accountability. My role is to make sure that local partnerships work well together and are accountable to the wider public. The work of this partnership in fighting crime is at the front of our concerns in Lewisham and I will focus all our energies into making the partnership effective.

This strategy document pulls together all the issues that need to be addressed to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour and to reduce the harm caused by drugs. All of these issues are important for a variety of reasons and I am glad at their inclusion and will expect the partner agencies to deliver. I have appointed a member of my Cabinet to champion the work of community safety locally. In my role as Mayor for the whole borough, I have identified three particular concerns that I want the partnership to address:

Steve Bullock Mayor of Lewisham

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focussing attention on neighbourhoods The new police Safer Neighbourhoods Teams are a substantial resource to tackle low level disorder. The neighbourhood wardens schemes have won national awards and praise and support from the communities they serve. Both Safer Neighbourhoods Teams and the wardens have been part of a determined effort to provide visible reassurance to sections of our communities who feel particularly unsafe in the borough; for instance patrolling busy bus stops to prevent disorder. Reaching out to the older residents of Lewisham has been a focus of the work of the Lewisham Police Consultative Group and other initiatives most notably within Downham have seen the police developing with local businesses and the Post Office a reassurance policing model that has enabled pensioners to collect their pensions free of the fear of being a victim of crime. This model is proposed to be replicated across other police sectors in the forthcoming year. Other resources providing reassurance are shop-radio schemes, park rangers and high quality Public Safety CCTV all co-ordinated to increase effectiveness. Additional support is provided by volunteer Street Pastors, members of local churches, providing advice, help and reassurance on Friday and Saturday nights in Deptford and New Cross.

children and young people In respect of child and young people, the Partnership has been particularly active. For example, the Safer Schools scheme has meant police officers can intervene directly in tackling offending in schools and develop a positive relationship with young people. Pupil attendance at school has improved significantly and the Summer holiday schemes now involve young people in positive activities out of term–this appears to have led to older residents reporting reduced anti-social behaviour. The introduction of restorative justice in schools means conflict is dealt with by pupils in a way that that satisfies the victim’s wish for redress and which challenges the perpetrator’s behaviour. The Youth Offending Team will develop the restorative justice model throughout their interventions with young people and at a local level within the work of the Youth Inclusion Support Programmes located within Downham & New Cross Gate (NDC). The Council’s Behaviour Improvement Programme challenges poor behaviour and tackles underlying factors such as the child’s development problems. other successes •The Partnership has worked with Goldsmiths College and Lewisham College to tackle safety issues for their students and staff. •There is strong tradition of work locally around transport issues. Transport for London and the Council’s CCTV team are sharing resources that increase our ability to monitor public areas and potential crime hotspots. Transport police, borough police and transport providers have run joint operations tackling those whose offending is linked to the rail network. •Our approach to tackling gun crime has included joint projects with Lambeth, Southwark and Greenwich

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•Staff from the Lewisham Victim Support Scheme, a voluntary organisation, work from within the police station to provide advice and support to victims of crime whilst cases go through the court process. A dedicated worker for both domestic violence and work with young people has provided a much needed service. Partnership funding of these services will continue in the forthcoming year. •There has been significant progress to support  women who are the victims of violent crime and improvements in the support to victims of domestic violence. Work continues to encourage victims to report crime and then to provide support through to the point of successful prosecution. This remains one of the significant challenges for the Partnership and the work within the Borough Criminal Justice Groups involving the courts, the police, the crown prosecution service and the probation service is reviewing our ability to bring perpetrators to justice. The London Criminal Justice Board–Premium Service Protocol for Priority Crime includes a discreet action for dealing with domestic violence and performance will be reviewed within the local Court Groups. •The Sapphire Team of police and health professionals provides a sensitive service that responds to the range of victims’needs which has transformed the way sexual offences are dealt with: bringing more than half of all cases to court. Social services now has an Adult Protection Development Officer developing services for those older people and people with learning difficulties who experience abuse.

•The local Drug Intervention Programme (DIP) tackles the link between acquisitive crime and drug use in getting drug users out of offending through direction into treatment. Joint work between council and housing has had some resounding successes in quickly and effectively closing down addresses where crack cocaine was being sold and consumed. DIP has achieved success in establishing good relationships with the prison service and in joint planning with the CARAT (Counselling, Advice, Referral, Assessment & Through-care Team) to ensure treatment and other services are available to prisoners upon release. •Projects funded by the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund have allowed us to develop good practice on getting ex-offenders into housing and employment: both factors known to have an impact on reducing re-offending. The Ilderton Motor Project for example, has worked successfully for many years with young people to prevent further offending. This is by no means a complete list but indicates the continuing development of a coherent approach to detection and bringing offenders to justice whilst using preventative measures and diverting offenders from further crime to reduce crime levels.

outstanding and emerging issues Crime has two effects: it directly affects the victims and it has a pervasive effect on the wider community–from people being worried about going out at night to businesses being unwilling to invest locally. For a number of years residents surveys have indicated a perception that matters have deteriorated whilst the British Crime Survey records falling levels of crime. It is hoped that the focus on anti-social behaviour and a stronger dialogue with local people about quality of life issues will continue to have a positive impact on public perceptions. Reducing anti-social behaviour is a rising agenda issue for our Partnership. For progress to be made in tackling anti-social behaviour where it occurs we will adopt a combination of preventative work and prompt operational responses to the first indications that problems may be developing. The public is greatly concerned about crime–crime against people and crime against property and the environment. Their concerns include robberies, assaults and vandalism on buses, tubes and trains. The last three years saw a more mature Partnership look beyond the constraints of borough boundaries and start work with transport agencies to develop a cross borough approach but consultation reveals that further work is required to ensure that all sections of our community feel safe on buses and trains. We have undertaken some outline research work locally on what appears to be the disproportionally high numbers of young black men represented in the criminal justice system. This has included a critical review of practice of those working locally with young people at risk of offending as well as directly with young offenders. This work is now being focussed to examine the issue in greater depth. This will involve liaising with stakeholders at a London and national level as well as within Lewisham. We will work closely with relevant black & minority ethnic community groups in our examination of this issue. Finally, we need to improve how our Partnership functions in two other key respects: (1) overall performance management and reporting; and (2) involving and communicating with local communities on crime and safety issues.

2.statementof partnershippurpose statement of partnership purpose our purpose is: 1. to reduce crime and the fear of crime and to increase public confidence in community safety in Lewisham and in the criminal justice system locally; 2. to reduce the harm caused by drugs and alcohol through reducing supply, ensuring that potential users, particularly young people, make informed choices and by providing a range of appropriate treatment packages. This supports the Government’s expectation that the role of Partnerships is‘to reduce crime, to reassure the public by reducing the fear of crime and anti-social behaviour and to reduce the harm caused by illegal drugs’(Safer Stronger Communities Fund Final Guidance, Home Office and ODPM). The Partnership will ensure the provision of services that promote a safe and strong community. The public require the certainty that crime and anti-social behaviour are tackled and the Partnership has a duty to provide services that: •enable the public to report crime conveniently and confidently •ensure enforcement, conviction and sentence options –bringing perpetrators to justice •support victims of crime •reduce the likelihood of offending and re-offending •focus upon children and young people to prevent them being the victim of crime •tackle issues that impact upon the quality of life– anti-social behaviour •reduce drug misuse and the risk of harm from drugs and alcohol and associated drug related crime.

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overall goals 1. To engage all local neighbourhoods and communities in the process of reducing and preventing crime and minimising public risks arising from major incidents, disaster or terrorism. 2. To tackle anti-social behaviour and ensure that communities are not blighted by neighbourhood nuisance and abusive behaviour to people and/or the local environment. 3. To tackle the issue of drug related crime and work to support the implementation of the National Drug Strategy and local drug strategy. 4. To reduce the following crime types: gun crime, street crime (personal robbery), burglary, car crime, domestic violence and other violent crime, hate crime and crime on passengers in public transport.

3.lewisham’s partnershipstrategy To achieve our goals involves deploying our resources to deliver on our priorities. It also an opportunity to ensure a consistent approach to both local and national processes and plans. We will: •tackle the issue of young people within the criminal justice system by providing services managed by the Youth Offending Team. •work with the Children and Young People Directorate to achieve the aims of Making Lewisham a better and safer place for children and young people 2003/6. •ensure that services to offenders are well targeted and create opportunities to prevent re-offending, working to support the effort of the courts, the Crown Prosecution Service and the probation and prison service. •ensure that the victims of crime receive support and that witnesses are provided with services that enable and secure the process of bringing perpetrators to justice. This will require support to the Victim & Witness Support Services by providing both financial and operational support. •work to deliver this strategy at a national and a borough and nt approach anti-social tructures to unities. review of the

links to key strategies and legislation This strategy sits within a framework of both local and national plans, strategies and performance management criteria. Part of this strategy’s role is to provide coherence with adherence to this at a local level mediating between national priorities and national need and ensuring that agencies are working to agendas that are mutually reinforcing. The following strategies and plans have had a significant influence and provide the detailed work-plans for implementing the strategy: •MPS Local Policing Plan Lewisham 2005/6–this forms part of the London wide policing plan and considerable attention has been paid by the MPS, the Metropolitan Police Authority and our local Partnership in Lewisham to ensure that this plan and our strategy are aligned. •The National Drug Strategy, Lewisham Drug Strategy Team Plans–including a plan to prevent drug misuse by young people 2005/6. •Lewisham Youth Offending Plan 2005/6–the Youth  Offending Team is accountable to the Youth Justice Board and its annual plans form a key plank in our approach to working with young offenders and those at risk of offending. •Lewisham Anti-Social Behaviour Strategy–much of the detail of our approach to anti-social behaviour is contained within this strategy which is being developed by the Partnership. This is also closely linked to the Council’s Housing Division ASB policies and procedures. •National Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy 2004.

•London Probation Plan 2005/6. •Priority and Other Prolific Offender Strategy 2004. •Lewisham 2003/6 Making Lewisham a better and safer place for children and young people. •Lewisham Youth Service Plan 2005/6 . •Lewisham Community Strategy 2003–2013– Lewisham Strategic Partnership’s ten year strategy for the borough with a strong focus on crime and disorder. •Safer Stronger Communities 2005/6 Lewisham Draft min-Local Area Agreement–new arrangement to pool various government funding streams within a single strategy for a coherent approach to local and national outcomes. •Lewisham Drug Intervention Programme. Neighbourhood Renewal Fund. • •Lewisham Fire Brigade Safety Plan and Borough Plan. • LFEPA London Safety Plan 2. •LB Lewisham Best Value Review–  ‘Making Lewisham a Safer Place’; 2003. •London Borough of Lewisham‘Domestic Violence Review’2004.