Issue - meetings

Scrutiny Review: Rewriting the Narrative - Youth Violent Crime

Meeting: 22/01/2020 - Cabinet (Item 12)

12 Scrutiny Review: Rewriting the Narrative - Youth Violent Crime pdf icon PDF 160 KB

[To endorse a report of the findings and recommendations of the review]

 

Additional documents:

Decision:

That the recommendations in the action plan to the Scrutiny Review: Rewriting the Narrative – Youth Violent Crime, as attached at appendix 1 to this report be endorsed.

Minutes:

Councillor Jasbir Jaspal presented for endorsement the recommendations in the action plan to the Scrutiny Review: Rewriting the Narrative – Youth Violent Crime,

 

Councillor Obaida Ahmed, the Chair of the Scrutiny Review Group was in attendance for this item. She gave a brief introduction to the review and the 10 key recommendation made by the Review Group, that aimed to support, enhance and share, existing good work where it has been identified and to seek assurances that where initiatives have proven successful that all possible steps are taken to ensure that these can continue.

 

The Cabinet congratulated Councillor Armed and her colleagues on the Review Group for their excellent work.

 

Resolved:

That the recommendations in the action plan to the Scrutiny Review: Rewriting the Narrative – Youth Violent Crime, as attached at appendix 1 to the report be endorsed.


Meeting: 29/10/2019 - Scrutiny Board (Item 6)

6 Scrutiny Review: Rewriting the Narrative - Youth Violent Crime pdf icon PDF 163 KB

[Report will be sent to follow]

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Board welcomed Cllr Obaida Ahmed, Chair of the Scrutiny Review, to the meeting. Cllr Ahmed introduced the draft scrutiny review in to youth violent crime and provided an overview of the main points in the report. The review had been cross-party and provided a platform for placing violence prevention at the heart of the Council’s commitment to ensure that everyone in Wolverhampton could live their lives in a safe and supportive environment. Cllr Ahmed thanked everyone who had contributed to the scrutiny review.

 

The report considered areas of good practice already taking place within the City such as Catch 22, Eyes to Success, the Summer Squad and Believe to Achieve and the good work being carried out by the Council’s own Youth Offending Service and Community Safety Team. Alongside this, the report provided evidence and examples of successful initiatives carried out by the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit and made a number of recommendations regarding how these initiatives could be fed into the future West Midlands Violence Reduction Unit.

 

The report highlighted the importance of early intervention and the necessity of training for all those who had direct contact with young people in order that they might spot the signs of adverse childhood experiences and be able to take appropriate action.

 

Cllr Ahmed explained that the review had adopted a public health approach and had initially sought to understand and establish the facts regarding youth violent crime. One very important statistic was that only 8% of violence in the City was committed by young people.

 

Cllr Ahmed stated that no one is born violent but risk factors from birth can lead a young person to violence and it was the responsibility of everyone to try and bring in as many preventative measures as possible to mitigate the risk factors.  Cllr Ahmed stated that young people suffering from adverse childhood experiences (ACES) could be up to ten times more likely to be involved in violence by the time they were 18. The review highlighted the vital role of the community in supporting young people to overcome ACES and associated risk factors.

 

The group had visited the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit (SVRU) and the experience from this had helped to form the core of the review.  The SVRU had been on a long journey but what shone through was the passion the team had and this was vital to its success and needed to be replicated in the new West Midlands VRU. The SVRU had also highlighted the importance of involving people with real, lived experiences of trauma who could offer empathy rather than just sympathy to those in need of help and support.

 

Cllr Ahmed praised the wonderful work that had been carried out over the summer holidays by the Summer Squad which had resulted in a 48% reduction in violence. This was a perfect example of what could be achieved, and it was important that schemes such as this continued.

 

The Board praised the work done and the report; and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6