Agenda and minutes

(Head of Research and Democratic Services)  To report the appointment of any substitute members for the meeting.

No substitute Members were reported.

(Head of Research and Democratic Services). To declare interests in any items on the agenda.

In considering whether to declare a personal or a prejudicial interest under the Code of Conduct, Overview & Scrutiny members are asked pay particular attention to paragraph 11 of the Code in addition to the more familiar requirements.

This requires the declaration of a personal and prejudicial interest in any matter before an OS Committee which relates to a decision of or action by another Committee or Sub Committee of the Council, a Joint Committee or Joint Sub Committee in which the Council is involved and of which the Councillor is also a member.

Paragraph 11 does not refer to Cabinet decisions or attendance at an OS meeting purely for the purpose of answering questions or providing information on such a matter.

No declarations of interest were made.

To note and agree the minutes from the last meeting held on 12 October 2006.

Noted.

The Panel has agreed that it wishes to explore the overlaps between criminal activity and mental health.  In order to help the Panel, Alison Cowie, the Director of Public Health and Mike O’Keafe the Lead Commissioner for Mental Health from the West Essex Primary Care Trust and Steve Cook an Associate Director from the North Essex Mental Health Partnership Trust who specialises in the criminal aspects of mental health will be present at the meeting.

The Panel’s concerns were first raised through your Chairman and centre around his experience that people with mental illness enter the Criminal Justice System and remain there until someone recognises their vulnerability and asks for “reports”.

Often the nature of the offences centres around public order offences, disorderly behaviour, neighbour disputes, low level sexual misbehaviour (e.g. flashing), drugs and substance abuse etc. etc.

What, if anything, is done to train Police Officers and Custody Sergeants in particular, to help them identify these mentally disordered offenders and of equal importance what provision is made or available for early intervention.  Is there any provision for a potential mentally disordered offender to discuss offending with a Mental Health Worker and does any protocol exist for those identified as potential mentally disordered offenders?

What assistance, if any, can health providers give to local initiatives and community action teams in identifying potential mentally disordered offenders?  Is it possible to offer training to non-health professionals to help them spot such people and refer them on and is there somewhere or someone to refer them on to?

The Chairman welcomed to the meeting Alison Cowie, the Director of Public Health, Mike O’Keafe, the Lead Commissioner for Mental Health from the West Essex Primary Care Trust (PCT) and Steve Cook an Associate Director from the North Essex Mental Health Partnership Trust and specialist in the criminal aspects of mental health.

It was noted that the representatives had been invited to report on the link between criminal activity and mental health. The issue stemmed from the Chairman of the Panels experience that there was a lack of support for people with mental health issues in the criminal justice system.

Alison Cowie opened the discussion by reporting on PCT involvement in the Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership (CDRP), how it benefited from this work and the key issues that would need to be picked up in the future.

She reported that the Epping Forest PCT had been a Responsible Authority for the CDRP since 2003. She advised that the services for crime and health worked closely together both directly for example in treating victims of crime admitted to A& E and indirectly to address the impact the fear of crime had on peoples willingness to go out and engage in activities such as Leisure Services which contributed to emotional wellbeing. She reported that PCT staff could be victims of violence and its buildings affected by vandalism.  Certain issues had been defined as ‘preventative health burdens’ including alcoholism, drug use and the consequences of anti-social behaviour.

She advised that the PCT contributed resources, funding, staffing support to the CDRP and attended and chaired the network meetings. It also supported the ‘Crucial Crew’ initiative and participated in the scenarios for crime awareness. As a result, the trust obtained information on health trends and support for their own projects and had taken steps to address Hate Crime in the Heath Service.  As a result of the restructuring of the PCT, a new public health lead would be appointed to take forward health issues on the CDRP and the LSP. The PCT ran projects with NACRO to reduce obesity.

The Panel noted the Pacts intention to continue with existing work and information sharing having regard to patient confidentiality. The Panel noted current work between the Princes Alexander Hospital and the Police to gather evidence on alcohol related crime to identify action. The Panel noted that this was a key priority area and that the National Treatment Agency for Drugs had driven some of their targets.

In response to the presentation, the Panel expressed concern about alcohol related low level antisocial behaviour and questioned whether such incidences could be related to the closure of hospital wards in the area? The Panel asked about the care that would be available for those patients moved back into the community as a result of the closures and the resources and future plans to support CDRPs with this work?

The Panel asked about the support that would be available to assist Members  facilitate the ‘community call for action’  through  ...  view the full minutes text for item 18.

The Panel has agreed to meet with representatives of the other designated responsible authorities who are required to participate in the Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership under the terms of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998.  This is to seek their views on what the Council could or should do to help it achieve its objectives and better understand the interaction between the partners now and what, if anything, we could do to make things better in the future.

The responsible authorities are the District Council, the County Council, the Police, the Primary Care Trust and the Fire and Rescue Service.  The Panel heard from the Police at its last meeting and tonight will meet with the West Essex Primary Care Trust and the Essex Fire and Rescue Service.

2A.       West Essex Primary Care Trust

Ms Alison Cowie, who is the Director of Public Health, will represent the West Essex Primary Care Trust.

2b.       Essex Fire and Rescue Service

Assistant Divisional Officer Peter Ashby will represent the Essex Fire and Rescue Service.  Peter also chairs the Co-ordinating Group of the Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership.

Any papers produced by Alison or Peter will be made available to Members in the early part of the week of the meeting.

The Panel received a presentation from Assistant Divisional Officer, Peter Ashby of Essex Fire and Rescue on the work his service in the Epping Forest District and how this was enriched by its relationship with the CDRP.

The Essex Fire and Rescue Service had been a partner of the CDRP since 2003. The service operated a mix of part manned and fully manned  stations in the District and had a prevention and early intervention role with the CDRP to turn young people away from crime. A briefing paper on this was before Members.

In relation to specific schemes, it was reported that the service ran local ‘Fire Break’ weeks twice a year for 12 young offenders and potential young offenders. The scheme provided training on equipment and demonstrated the importance of team work.  It also involved a ‘card system’ for controlling behaviour which carried a penalty of exclusion from activities and an end of course presentation to mark progress which was monitored over the longer term indicating very encouraging results. Usually only about 1-2 students failed to complete the course.

The Panel drew attention to the ‘Crucial Crew’ scheme. The Panel thought that the scheme had been very effective and thanked those officers involved for supporting it.

In terms of everyday work, reference was made to a case where there was a need for multi agency work and how the CDRP had facilitated such provision. The service was far more able to coordinate work in this area through working with the CDRP.

Attention was drawn to measures to deal with ‘Fire Setting’. This involved the provision of awareness sessions, talking to fire starters families and referring  them on to other agencies as required. The aim was provide early prevention to stop problems escalating and young people going on to commit offences in their late teens. A Members  referred to press articles suggesting that that the service had become a target for violence. Mr Ashby reported that he was not aware of such incidences and that this was not a problem locally. A Members asked about the number of hoax calls received by the service? This was not a prevalent issue although there had been a campaign to raise awareness of this in view of the incidences of false alarms caused by malfunctioning electrical equipment.

The Panel thanked Mr Ashby for participating in the discussion.

The Community Safety Section of the current Government White Paper is attached as background reading to aid the panel in their deliberations.

Members noted a summary of the white paper and the duty to be placed on Members in relation to the ‘Community Call for Action’. Consideration would need to be given to the document and the final report of the Panel and who would be tasked with this. Members might wish to write the report themselves. Caroline Wiggins the new Crime and Disorder Reduction Officer would be taking up duties on 4 December 2006 and would be attending future meetings of the Panel.

For the Panel to decide on a date for their next meeting.

Agreed that representatives from the Youth Offenders Services and Drugs Intervention Team should be invited to the next meeting which was to be arranged for the new year.