Report of the Strategic Director of Neighbourhoods

The Strategy outlines in detail the vision, priorities, performance measures for the city.

The Committee considered the report and presentation of the Strategic Director of Neighbourhoods whichoutlined the vision, priorities and performance measures for the city set out in the Serious Violence Strategy.

Key points and themes in the report and presentation included:

• The national and local context;
• Governance and connectivity;
• Serious violence in Manchester;
• The Serious Violence Strategy, including the consultation and learning from reviews;
• Priority areas of activity;
• Implementation plan;
• The Serious Youth Violence Framework, a multi-agency method and holistic approach; and
• Measures of success.

Some of the key points and themes that arose from the Committee’s discussions were:

• The use of “joint enterprise” against Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic young people;
• The treatment of young people who were arrested;
• The link between school exclusion and youth violence; and
• The context of these problems, including the city’s large criminal economy, the demand for drugs from students and young professionals coming to the city, the need for large number of vulnerable young people to be exploited to support this, the challenges facing young people growing up in Manchester and the attraction to those young people of seeming to be able to make easy money.

Superintendent Chris Downey from GMP advised that joint enterprise was only rarely used and that he would endeavour to find the figures requested by the Member on its use by GMP and provide them to him. He acknowledged a Member’s comments that being arrested could be a very traumatic experience for a young person, although, he advised, that in some situations, it was necessary.  He stated that the use of handcuffs was now limited, rather than routine, that there were Mental Health professionals in custody suites who assessed everyone who was brought in and that young people would also have an “appropriate adult” to support them, either a family member or friend or someone from the commissioned Appropriate Adult service.

The Strategic Director of Children and Education Services highlighted that the Committee would be receiving a report on School Inclusion at its next meeting.  He reported that work was taking place with GMP and colleagues from across Greater Manchester to make improvements in relation to young people held in custody, including reducing the number of young people placed in custody suites and reducing the length of time they were held there.

In response to a Member’s question about work with faith groups, the Community Safety Lead stated that it was recognised that voluntary and community groups, including faith groups, had a wealth of expertise and skills and that they contributed to this work, and she provided an example of this work.  She acknowledged the Member’s comments about the wider context of serious youth violence and reported that the Joint Needs Assessment of serious and organised crime sought to understand these issues, looking at statistics and connections, and that work was taking place to respond to these different elements, for example, through the GMP Challenger Team and through the Complex Safeguarding Hub.  She also recognised the importance of learning from best practice elsewhere and stated that the Greater Manchester Violence Reduction Unit had the resources to seek out and share best practice.

The Chair emphasised the importance of engaging with Manchester NHS Foundation Trust on this issue.  She commented on police working with schools, expressing concern that the current arrangements were not working and asking the Executive Member for Early Years, Children and Young People to follow this up.  She also expressed concern that it was easy for children to buy knives over the internet.

Decision

To note the report.