Agenda item

To receive verbal updates from the Chair of the Youth ASB / Violence Task & Finish Panel (T&P).

asOSC received a verbal update from the Chair of the Youth Violence Task and Finish Group, Councillor Mitchinson, as follows:

‘The Task and Finish Group held its second meeting yesterday.  

The scope of the Task and Finish Group was:

•       To explore and understand the definition for and levels of youth violence and antisocial behaviour (ASB) in the borough

•       To understand what the community safety partnership are doing towards youth crime and violence and ASB

•       To feed into partners and make recommendations

•       To consider whether there are additional activities the Council can do to support the reduction of youth violence and ASB.

Yesterday we heard from two of our partners: the Inspector in charge of the Neighbourhood Teams, and the Service Manager of Hertfordshire County Council’s Services for Young People (SfYP).

• The Inspector raised a number of issues and highlighted the work they did working with the community, councils and schools.

•       Because the borough has two town centres and a university, there is a likelihood we would have more victims of crime and ASB than some other areas.

•       There has been a drop in ASB and youth ASB across all wards in Welwyn Hatfield. The Inspector says this is because of the close partnership working of the Community Safety Partnerships.

•       The police emphasised that the achievements were due to the teamwork of all agencies, and it was noted throughout the presentations the importance of us all working together.

•       The police can access the right support for each young person, whether prevention, diversion, or criminal justice orders.

•       The Home Office project Operation Hotspot identified Welwyn Garden City Town Centre. Additional funding has been provided for additional patrols of the town center to cover the Safer Neighbourhood Team’s rest days. 

•       Using intelligence, the police used their powers to target specific young people committing the majority of ASB, using orders and enforcement to serve them with the appropriate order, stop them from associating with bad influences, and hopefully prevent further reports of ASB.

•       All reports of knife crime are recorded, but on further investigation the Inspector told us that sometimes a blade was not seen but assumed by the victim, meaning the reported figure would be higher than the reality. 

•       Cuckooing is down to zero.

•       One of the interesting things that was highlighted was a high number of missing children reported in Welwyn Hatfield; it would appear this was down to the number of unregulated pop-up children's homes, which other local authority councils are using to place young people in. It would appear the missing children that are being reported are not actually local children which is very surprising.

•       SfYP is a preventive and diversionary service that helps young people in Hertfordshire succeed in education, employment, and wellbeing. 

•       Many of the young people SfYP work with are SEND (special education needs and disabilities), have special educational needs, have undiagnosed needs like ADHD or ADD and /or have disengaged with education. Mental health needs are high in this cohort.

•       Welwyn Hatfield Council and HCC jointly fund the Positive Pathway Programme which offers young people unique, intensive one to one support. This service is the only one in Hertfordshire that offers one to one support and the County Council officer said it was working really well.

•       At the next panel meeting in February, we will have a discussion with the Youth Council so they can give their input into the task and finish group, which we thought was essential.

•       At the next meeting the task and finish panel will agree on what our final recommendations will be.

•       The Task and Finish Group is due to present the report at the Overview and Scrutiny meeting on 18 March 2025.’

Members commented as follows:

• Members were concerned about pop-up children’s homes.
• A member asked whether the children in local pop-up homes were from London boroughs, and expressed concern if the children were from north London given that rail links would make it easy for vulnerable children to return to the area where they had been at risk. Another councillor reflected that train routes from the borough meant the children would potentially be able to access all of London and also Brighton. 
• A member had met with a senior commissioning manager about a HCC children’s home in the member’s ward. The home was for Hertfordshire children and had 3 or 4 bedrooms which meant there were limits on the number of children living there. The Chair of the task and finish panel believed that the pop-up homes that were of concern were unlicensed and would clarify this.
• A member queried whether the homes that were a concern were unlicensed or unregistered, noting the latter were illegal. The Chair of the Panel would seek clarity on this and advised the homes in question did not come under the remit of HCC. 
• A member said there was a pop-up home in his ward that was registered and noted the difference between a registered and a licensed (by Ofsted) children’s home; unlicensed homes should be reported to Ofsted. The pop-up home in his ward was registered as a children’s home but had not been authorised, and Ofsted’s advice was that if children appeared to be living at the home then the matter should be referred to them.  
• A member who had previously asked about the number of children impacted by domestic abuse and violence and their effect on the children’s mental health spoke positively about the role of the panel.
• A member noted that according to the Children’s Society, looked after children were significantly more likely to be reported missing than children living at home. Another councillor noted that looked after children needed to be reported as missing if they were not in by midnight.
• A councillor wondered whether issues arising from the task and finish panel such as registration and licensing could be a recommendation from the panel to consider in the next municipal year. She noted the importance of ensuring all recommendations from task and finish groups were properly looked at to ensure they were carried out.

RESOLVED

OSC

(a)   Noted the verbal update and;

(b)   Recommended that all recommendations from task and finish panels were properly looked at to ensure they were carried out.