Agenda and minutes

Agenda and minutes

Venue: Council Offices, Bushloe House, Station Road, Wigston, Leicestershire, LE18 2DR. View directions

Contact: Mark Smith - Email: mark.smith@oadby-wigston.gov.uk 

Items
No. Item

20.

Apologies for Absence

Minutes:

R Dixon         (Oadby & Wigston Youth Council)

R Lobel         (Leicestershire County Council)

L Pettitt         (Leicestershire County Council)

21.

Minutes of the Previous Meeting pdf icon PDF 64 KB

Minutes:

RESOLVED THAT:

 

The minutes of the meeting held on Wednesday, 7 November 2019 be taken as read and confirmed.

22.

Update on Police Attendance

Minutes:

M Smith provided the Forum with a short update on the new arrangements for Council forums to receive updates from the Police on crime and disorder trends, and community safety concerns, in the Borough.

 

The Forum heard that in order to keep Police resources free, updates will be given to the Chairs of the Borough’s three Resident’s Forums, alongside the Chair of this Forum, in advance of their respective meetings. This removes the requirement for a Police representative to attend each of the forums, and enables the Chairs to provide an update to attendees on their behalf.

 

These briefing meetings will be coordinated and arranged by M Smith within his capacity as the Council’s Community Safety and Youth Officer. The first of these meetings will be arranged after the May elections, and will be held in advance of the next round of Resident’s Forums once their respective Chairs have been agreed.

23.

LCC Early Help Restructure

Minutes:

Due to apologies received M Smith provided the Forum with an update received on this agenda item at the Community Safety Partnership meeting held on Monday, 8 April 2019. The update, as lifted from the minutes of the Community Safety Partnership meeting, was given as follows;

 

R Lobel and L Pettitt provided the Partnership with an update on the newly named ‘Children & Families Wellbeing Service’ (“CFW Service”) following an extensive restructure that took place in 2018-19. The new service launched on 1 April 2019 and amalgamates four different service areas; Supporting Leicestershire Families (SLF), the Youth Offending Service (YOS), the Children’s Centres programme, and the Information, Support, and Assessment Teams.

 

Blaby, Oadby, Wigston, and South Wigston now form a single service area, located in the ‘West Side’ of the CFW Service’s county divide. Chris Thomas is the Head of Service for the CFW Service, Carly Turner is the Service Manager for the Youth and Justice roles, and Rebecca Woolock is the Service Manager for the Family roles. Louise Pettitt, Rachel Lobel, and Adrian Bakari will be heading up the services locally.

 

Rachel Lobel will take on responsibility for the Youth & Justice delivery in Oadby and Wigston, including the IMPACT Team and ASB related work. She will also be responsible for engaging with NEET young people and pre-16 children missing in education.

 

There will be 7 youth workers within Blaby, Oadby, and Wigston with a crime prevention remit.

 

The CFW Service will work directly with families, which include young people aged 0-19, intensively around issues in the home such as parenting, domestic abuse, anti-social behaviour, and substance misuse.

 

The ‘Wigston Magna Children’s Centre’ will now be known as the ‘Wigston Magna Family, Children & Wellbeing Centre’, and will continue to operate. The Bobbin Factory will be closing at the end of the 2019 Summer Term as the lease comes to an end. At present the 1st floor at the Bobbin Factory, originally used as the youth floor, is utilised solely by the college in term time, and can only be booked after 5pm by going through the college itself.

 

Referral routes in to the service are unchanged, and the existing ‘Request for Services’ form can still be utilised.

 

M Smith confirmed that representatives of the new Children & Families Wellbeing Service will be invited to attend the next meeting of this Forum to provide Members with any additional details required, and to answer any questions relating to the update provided.

24.

Anti-Social Behaviour Update

Minutes:

T Maccabe introduced himself to the Forum as the Council’s new Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) Officer. T Maccabe explained that his update for this meeting will focus on ASB since 2017, and that the details provided were based upon reports of ASB received by both the Council and the Police. ASB incidents involving young people specifically would be focussed on as much as possible.

 

At present there are two main ASB concerns, both of which are in Wigston. The first concern is located mainly on Boulter Crescent, but involves young people from both the County and the City side of Leicestershire. Knives and drugs are the predominant issues in this concern, and Leicestershire Police have already made 3 arrests in relation to it. A Police operation is now in place around this concern.

 

The second main ASB concern in the Borough is young people, aged 11-12, climbing on to and running across the shop roofs on Bell Street. This is causing damage to businesses as well as resulting in shop staff being harassed by young people if they challenge the anti-social behaviour.

 

In relation to both of the above concerns 5 young people have been placed on Acceptable Behaviour Contracts (ABC) since T Maccabe was employed by the Council. It was explained to the Forum that an ABC forms the final ‘pre-legal’ stage of the Incremental Approach, and seeks to manage the behaviour of young people through a voluntary agreement. Members asked T Maccabe what would happen if a young person refused to sign an ABC; it was confirmed that a young person refusing to sign an ABC, and continuing to engage in ASB, can be used as evidence in court at the legal stages of the Incremental Approach.

 

Members asked if there was any ABC outcome data that could be made available to them; T Maccabe stated that the figures do not exist, but he is aware of several young people in the Borough who received an ABC in October 2016 progressing on to actual crime, resulting in at least one eviction from a Council tenancy. Of the same cohort there has been 1 really positive outcome with the young person in question moving away from crime and ASB completely, and now being on their way to achieve a coaching qualification through the Leicester City FC ‘KICKS’ Project.

 

Of the current 5 young people subject to an ABC in the Borough, 3 have not been involved in reported ASB since signing.

 

Members enquired as to why, on the graph provided by T Maccabe, there had been a significant spike in ASB reports in Q4 of 2018-19. It was confirmed that the spike directly relates to the ongoing concerns in Wigston, but is a spike in the number of reports recorded only since T Maccabe’s employment; overall ASB in the Borough is declining. It was stated that this is not indicative of an increasing problem, just of better reporting behaviour.

 

A comparison to ASB in other districts in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 24.

25.

IMPACT Team Update

Minutes:

This item was deferred until the next meeting due to apologies received. M Smith noted that an update on the 16 sessions the IMPACT Team had recently delivered in the Borough was expected shortly, and that if it is received in time it will be included with the distribution of these minutes.

26.

Youth Council Update

Minutes:

L Duguid introduced herself to Members as the Chair of the Oadby & Wigston Youth Council, and gave a breakdown of the Youth Council’s current campaigns. These are;

 

§  Knife Crime,

§  Votes at 16,

§  First Aid Training,

§  Mental Health, and

§  A Curriculum for Life.

The Forum heard that both the Knife Crime and Votes at 16 campaigns, having been selected via the National ‘Make Your Mark’ ballot, are to be debated during a UK Youth Parliament residential event taking place the weekend of 13-14 April 2019.

 

L Duguid informed Members that the Mental Health campaign has been enthusiastically picked up by Beauchamp College who have provided multiple evening sessions on the subject. Lionheart Academies Trust, who manage Beauchamp College, is putting together a conference with a mental health focus for pupils and staff, and will be developing a mental health toolkit.

 

Members also heard that the Youth Council’s First Aid campaign is still in the development stage. The end goal is to see First Aid training taught to all young people, through their schools, in year 6 and above. Youth Council members are looking at organising their own training, with additional spaces on the course being opened up to other young people and Councillors.

 

Members asked if the Council could look to arrange its own First Aid training and invite young people on to the course. This approach has the potential to be an income stream for the Council and is something that M Smith will look at.

 

The diversity of the Youth Council was also discussed as the majority of its members are currently Oadby based young people, leaving the group not fully representative of the Borough. L Duguid stated that she has been in contact with relevant teaching staff at the Wigston based schools but has yet to have a response. Members recommended that the Executive Head of Wigston Academy is contacted directly with details of the Youth Council.

27.

Supersonic Boom 2019

Minutes:

Supersonic Boom 2019 will be held on Wednesday, 14 August, 1pm-5pm on Blaby Road Park, South Wigston.

 

The Youth Council started the planning for Supersonic Boom 2019 at their meeting on 8 April. It was noted by Youth Council members that they are looking forward to seeing the Supersonic Boom project through to completion and seeing the final result. Feedback from last year’s event as part of their preparation.

 

M Smith will be updating the event management plan for this year’s event, as well as arranging all of the required licences and documentation. M Smith informed Members that he has also set a KPI goal of seeing attendance at Supersonic Boom increase to 1,700 people.

 

Stalls, attractions, and performers are wanted, and the Youth Council would prefer to see more applicants than previous years in order to be selective in what, or who, is approved to be present at the event.

28.

Any Other Business

Minutes:

None raised.

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