Agenda and minutes

Cllr Suresh Patel, as Chair, welcomed everyone to the meeting. People introduced themselves: Alaa Abouzanad from the Northants Association of Supplementary Schools, Luisa Jepson from Northants Police Hate Crimes Unit, Nick Stephens a Community Engagement Officer from Northants Police, Abade Ahmed from the Somali Community, Sharon Stringer from Northants County Council, Sean Silver from Northampton Borough Council, Anjona Roy from Northants Rights and Equalities Council, Noureddine Miladi from University of Northampton, Zahira Case from Pearls of Peace, Thomas Hall from Northampton Borough Council, Cllr William Strachan (NBC and NCC), John Rawlings Community Co-Chair of this Forum and from Northampton Quakers and Lindsey Ambrose from Northampton Borough Council.

During the meeting Gracie from the Northamptonshire Link joined the meeting too.

Superintendant Springer from Northamptonshire Police, Christiana and Sam Owusu-Akuffo from the Divine Prayer Society and Joe Biskupski from Northampton Borough Council sent apologies.

Correction to Minutes

The word ‘councillor’ in item 8 of the last meeting’s Minutes should read ‘counsellor’.

Minutes Agreed

Everyone agreed the Minutes of the last meeting

Matters Arising (Updates about things mentioned in the Minutes of the last meeting)

- Northants Rights and Equalities Council (“NREC”) – Anjona mentioned threats to legal advice funding through cuts to legal aid and changes to funding given out by the Equality and Human Rights Commission. NREC’s Annual General Meeting coming up soon would include Advice UK. NREC has been encouraging people to sign up to the 38 degrees campaign.

- Sikh Community Centre and Youth Club – Cllr Patel and officers at Northants County Council are looking to change the on-street parking arrangements in light of the concerns raised by the community.

- Northants Association of Supplementary Schools – Alaa said that Northants County Council had notified the association that it would end all funding to the association from March 2012.

Anjona said she had reviewed the Equality Impact Assessment done by the county council and it acknowledged that the negative impact – or harm – which could result from the decision to cut funding, could not be mitigated by the county council. She said that she felt this was helpful to argue against the cuts.

Anjona asked that this Forum give a view about the cuts.

The Forum members asked for more information to help them understand the issues. Cllr Patel referred to the fact he is a member of Northants County Council: he said that in his view the supplementary schools play an important role and his understanding was that they were told two years ago to form an association and expect the funding to stop in two years time. Cllr Patel said that currently the county council had confirmed that the funding will stop from April 2012 and that it is willing to help the association develop a business plan which should help them to apply for funding elsewhere and would help them to get discounts on using schools premises

Representatives of the Northants Association of Supplementary Schools then explained that the county council’s funding that to date has paid for teachers and buildings is all due to stop. For several reasons, the association had asked the county council to provide funding through to the end of the school year rather than to end it mid year. These included: having the full school year would help the association to adjust its running and look to obtain match-funding – particularly as it believed it had only received a months’ notice of the current funding coming to an end because N Booth at the county council had told them she had been waiting on legal advice before giving them notice of the funding now ending; also there are some students studying for GCSE and A level exams.

There seemed to be some disagreement between the county council and the association as to what arrangements should have happened over the past two  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

Luisa Jepson introduced her role as a Hate Crimes Support Officer based at the Hate Crimes Unit in Fish Street.

Luisa outlined a lot of changes which have taken place over several months.

The Police were faced with the need to make a lot of cuts. The Hate Crimes Unit was reviewed as part of making efficiency savings and was left much as it had been – only the management of it changed slightly.

The new Sergeant is Pauline Sturman, who used to be responsible for dealing with hate crime in the northern part of Northamptonshire.

The Hate Crimes Unit is now a countywide unit. This improves things for victims and other people who want to report incidents as they can be sure of a consistent approach right across Northamptonshire now.

In Northampton the officers used to deal with most of the reported hate crimes directly and just within the Hate Crimes Unit. In the northern area it was dealt with as an integral part of the work of all Police officers in the local areas.

Statistics show that most hate crime in Northamptonshire happens in Northampton.

Luisa is a Victim Support Officer. She and other officers in the Hate Crimes Unit monitor every reported hate incident and crime. If the report involves a vulnerable person or a complicated situation it is pulled into the Hate Crimes Unit. If not, it now tends to stay with the local Police team – now with support from the Hate Crimes Unit who work with them and CID.

Statistics show that there has been a steady increase in victim satisfaction with how their case is handled. The figure is now 90% being satisfied.

The number of incidents of hate crime reported has gone down locally, as it has nationally.

The new focus of the Hate Crimes Unit officers like Luisa is to go to community groups, faith places and work with organisations and local services to raise awareness of hate crime and that it is important to report it.

Some leaflets have been produced for partnership work.

Action: ALL anyone who would like Luisa or one of her colleagues from the Police Hate Crimes Unit to visit them should contact them via the main Northamptonshire Police tel: 03000 111 222 or email: luisa.Jepson@northants.police.uk

Northants Police have signed up to the True Vision website. This site has information about hate crime and helps people to report it – with reporting packs that can be downloaded in different languages and online reporting forms too.

People can also report incidents online on the Northamptonshire Police website.

The Hate Crimes Unit wants to see reported incident numbers increase. Evidence of under-reporting, and that it can be addressed, has come from work done with the Learning Disability Partnership Board – through this work hate crime reporting has increased.

Anjona said that about two years ago NREC had co-ordinated collation of all hate crime reports across the county. That funding had been withdrawn. Now, individual organisations were encouraging people  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

Thomas Hall said that ‘Prevent’ is part of the government’s counter-terrorism strategy. IT is defined now as being about preventing people from becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism.

Years ago it was wider in one sense and covered some areas otherwise considered to be “cohesion” e.g. addressing factors in the community which might get people to become terrorists. The government changed that recently. Also the 2009 strategy was much about Al Quaeda and working with the muslim community. Both Northampton Borough Council and Northamptonshire Police were asked to do work in this area. Northampton was one. As part of that we had discussions with the community and representatives of diverse mulsim communities in Northampton. We formed a group with representatives from organisations and communities. Thomas noted some people from that group were at the Forum meeting – Nouredine, Zahira and Abade.

The Reference group used to say “we should be broader, not just muslims”. Terorrism is an extreme end of hate crime and it can affect all communities. There is also the “far right” and Irish Republican movements for example. So there was a suggestion that a lot of the work, in a broad sense, would fit into the work of this Forum, especially issues on how we – everyone in the town – can work together to safeguard people from being sucked into extremist organisations. We could get an enormous benefit from working together.

Thomas said that his view is that we need to be able to think about the really hard issues and at the same time to think about how as a town we can all work together towards a town in which different groups work and live together in harmony – what is sometimes called “community cohesion” or “integration”. It was noted that neither word is ideal. There should be space too for discussing harder issues. So perhaps some things would be dealt with in an open group like this Forum meeting, and some in a more restricted environment. This approach could make the best of the Northampton Diverse Communities Forum and the Prevent Community Reference Group working together.

Thomas said that this was just his thoughts and he was very open as to what form work should take. He noted that there is no single ‘town’ approach to community cohesion in Northampton. Thomas said it was in the hands of Forum members as to what everyone feels is best.

John said that he would like to have an Agenda and Minutes for meetings.

John wondered how to get across to people the diversity that occurs within each religion as well as between them. He said he felt that getting respect for each other, in politics and in faiths, is about working together.

Thomas said that it is very valuable to talk to people in the community, not just to organisations – to avoid making big mistakes out of ignorance about how things will be perceived. Talking about people’s ideology, what makes them trust particular sources of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

Action: Thomas Hall said he would bring this item back to the next meeting.

Thomas Hall advised that arrangements are in a transitional phase. Northampton Borough Council has a grant fund which increased this year. The Council is looking at moving from 100% of the funding it provides being in the form of grants, to introducing more commissioning (where the Council and organisations together work out what is needed, what is to happen and write it up so that organisations can say how they will be able to deliver it). Thomas said the Council is midway through this process, with councillors and voluntary sector group representatives meeting to talk about it.

Thomas said it was not yet known how much money would be available for grants and commissioning for 2012-13. Last year the Council faced big challenges and was still able to decide not to decrease funding to the voluntary sector. The Council has to make more cuts in 2012-13 and the budget will need to be decided in February 2012.

Pearls of Peace were due to hold a ladies only event on 11 October.

Northants Rights and Equality Council was holding its Annual General Meeting on 13 October in Wellingborough with particular focus on defending legal services.

Northants Rights and Equality Council was organising a vigil in Kettering on 28 October evening to recognise the International Day Against Hate Crime.

Northants Rights and Equality Council was holding a fundraising dinner at the Doddridge Centre, Northampton on 9 December. For more information please contact Anjona Roy email: aroy@northamptonshirerec.org.uk .

Northampton Youth Forum would be taking their Stamp out Hate Crime campaign to a countywide Young Leaders’ Political Education Conference in Northampton on 28 October and opening nominations for the Anne Frank Awards to recognise the International Day Against Hate Crime.

Apple Day would be happening on 16 October at Wilson’s Orchard, Northampton, a chance to try different juices and find out all kinds of things about apples.

Northants Association of Supplementary Schools would be holding a countywide Parents’ Conference for parents and teachers of supplementary schools and other madrassi schools on 22 October at the Park Inn Hotel. Northants Rights and Equalities Council, Northampton Youth Forum’s Stamp out Hate Crime campaign and other local organisations would be at the event.

Diwali celebrations were due to take place on 22 October in the town centre with a procession involving lots of schools and community groups and open to everyone to join along with the Diwali lights switch-on in the Market Square. Council staff had been working to help the community to organise this.

Diwali celebrations were due to take pace on 23 October – a fundraising variety show and dinner at Northampton Academy organised by the community with performances by members of the community. Northampton Youth Forum would be providing a Stamp out Hate Crime stand with pledge sign up at the event.

Northants Association of Supplementary Schools were working with Northants County Council Libraries to provide a Language Café in Northampton Central Library on 29 October. This would be a chance for everyone to visit free and try learning a few words in other languages. The youth forum would be providing a Stamp out Hate Crrime stand at the event.

“Meet your Muslim Neighbour”, an exhibition, was due to come to Northampton. More information from Nick Stephens at Northamptonshire Police.

World AIDS Day is 1 December and plans were being made by SOLAR working with Northampton Forums for a ceremony in the Guildhall courtyard with tea/coffee from 3pm and due to finish by 4.30pm. The ceremony would involve speakers from local organisations and possibly performances too. For more information about getting involved people should contact Susie Davies at SOLAR tel: 01604 611200 or Susie.davies@acnorthants.org.uk or Lindsey Ambrose tel/text: 0779 53 33 687 email: lambrose@northampton.gov.uk .

Anyone organising any activities for World AIDS Day who wanted them mentioned on the NBC web page www.northampton.gov.uk/worldaidsday please contact Lindsey Ambrose.

Nobody had anything to bring up under this item.

It was suggested that Interfaith Week might be discussed at a future meeting.

The topics for discussion at the 24 November meeting of this Forum should be as identified in the Agenda items above.

The future meetings of this Forum should be:

-         24 November 2011

-         19 January 2012

-         15 March 2012

-         17 April 2012

-         6 Jun 2012

-         18 July 2012

All meetings should start at 6.30pm and be finished by 8.30pm.

All meetings are due to be at Northampton Guildhall.

As usual, news will be posted between meetings on the Forum’s Facebook page: www.facebook.com/NorthamptonDiverseCommunitiesForum