Agenda and minutes

There were no declarations of  disclosable pecuniary interests.

The Committee noted Councillor L Kelly’s involvement in matters relating to Minute 26 below in her former role as the Assistant Police and Crime Commissioner.

The Minutes of the meeting held on 16 October, 2019 were agreed and signed as a true record.

Further to Minute 17 – “City of Culture 2021”, the Committee received an update in relation to outstanding actions, including the establishment of a City of Culture 2021 Members Advisory Panel and visits to other Cities of Culture.

RESOLVED that the Scrutiny Co-ordination Committee agrees to exclude the press and public under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 relating to Minute 29 below headed ‘Keeping Young People Safe”’, on the grounds that the report involve the likely disclosure of information defined in Paragraph 7 of Schedule 12A of the Act, as it contains information relating to the investigation of a crime and in all circumstances of the case, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

Joint briefing note

Representatives from West Midlands Police have been invited to attend the meeting for the consideration of this item

Councillors P Seaman and B Gittins, Cabinet Member and Deputy Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, Councillors A S Khan and P Akhtar, Cabinet Member and Deputy Cabinet Member for Policing and Equalities, Councillors K Caan and R Ali, Cabinet Member and Deputy Cabinet Member for Public Health and Sport and Councillor K Maton, Cabinet Member for Education and Skills have also been invited to attend.

The Committee considered a Briefing Note on the city-wide approach being taken to keep young people safe in our City. Partners in Coventry held a summit to consider what could be done locally in January, 2019. It was noted that a further summit would be held in 2020.

The Briefing Note covered:-

·  The Young Persons Violence Prevention Strategy

·  The Public Health Approach

·  Identifying Vulnerable Young People

·  Projects, activities and partnerships and progress made

·  The Police perspective

·  Trend data

The Coventry Youth Violence Prevention Partnership Board (CYVPPB) was established in June 2019 and includes senior representatives from Policing, Public Health, Children’s Services, Adult Services, Education, Probation, City of Culture, Faith Groups and Youth Justice.  At its meeting in June 2019, the CYVPPB agreed to draft a multi-agency strategy using a public health approach to address the issue of youth violence in the City. The high-level Strategy was appended to the Briefing Note and was being presented to the Health and Wellbeing Board, the Police and Crime Board and both the Adults and Childrens Safeguarding Boards for consideration and endorsement.

The Strategy is based on taking a “public health approach” and is modelled on the Strategy produced by the West Midlands Violence Reduction Unit (WMVRU). The WMVRU has been set up by the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner as the successor to the West Midlands Violence Prevention Alliance. Supporting the CYVPPB are a Project Board and an Operation Group and their further roles were detailed in a further appendix to the Briefing Note. The Strategy is a 10 year Strategy and this emphasises the long-term commitment of the partnership and recognises that this issue cannot be resolved without a sustained long-term effort.

The Briefing Note detailed approach and progress against the following six key objectives in the Strategy:-

·  Building Strong Foundations

·  Primary prevention

·  Secondary prevention

·  Tertiary prevention

·  Enforcement and Criminal Justice

·  Attitudinal change using effective communication

The Committee noted that even though the strategy is still in draft, a great deal of work has already been undertaken to progress the short-term priorities identified, details of which were included in the Briefing Note. The West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner recently sent out a call for providers to bid into a fund which will provide activities for young people across the West Midlands during October half term. Providers were able to bid for up to £5,000 to deliver activities in key crime hotspots across the West Midlands and the following three projects were successful for Coventry:-

·  Positive Youth Foundation and Short Football – Hillfields, Wood End and Bell Green

·  Empowr-U- Joe Graham, Wood End, Hillfields

·  Coventry Boys and Girls Club – City Centre

Extensive activities have already taking place with schools including:-

·  Secondary schools have well established Panels led by Head teachers which meet 6 weekly and include professionals from the police and other relevant agencies to discuss families and incidents where there has been an incident of, or threat of, violent crime.

·  Positive Youth Foundation  ...  view the full minutes text for item 26.

Report of the Scrutiny Co-ordinator

The Committee considered their Work Programme for 2019/20. It was noted that an item on Buses would be included on the agenda for the meeting on 5 Febraury, 2020 and that the items on Hate Crime and Domestic Violence would now be considered at the meeting on 25 March, 2020.

Any other items of public business which the Chair decides to take as a matter of urgency because of the special circumstances involved.

There were no other items of urgent public business.

Further to Minute 27 above, the Committee received and discussed confidential information in relation to this matter.

RESOLVED that the content of the information be noted.