Agenda and minutes

Venue: The Godwin Room, St. Giles Square, Northampton, NN1 1DE.. View directions

Contact: Alice Morgan  0300 330 7000 e-mail:  alicemorgan@northampton.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

1.

Welcomes, introductions and apologies (6:30-6:35) pdf icon PDF 185 KB

2.

Minutes and matters arising (6:35-6:40) pdf icon PDF 328 KB

Minutes:

Minutes were agreed as a true record.

 

3.

Stop Search - Chief Inspector Tom Thompson, Northants Police (6:40-7:10)

Minutes:

Tom Thompson gave a presentation on Stop Search and the changes that have been made.

 

Northants Police are keeping Stop Search, although as there have been concerns as to how it was used in the past, the practice must be used appropriately. Stop Search Working Group (SSWG) was created 3 years ago and made changes to the procedure so that there is more openness and transparency. Before this there was an industry of form filling which was not engaging and there were concerns about openness.

 

Tom showed that the number of stop searches has decreased. 92% of people stopped are men. Young people are over searched compared to the population.

Tom went through other outcomes in his presentation. 

 

ACTION: AM/NM to distribute presentation.

 

Tom explained the Child Protection initiative which is being used and future plans were discussed, including engagement with the College of Policing.  There is also a recruitment drive for the Reasonable Grounds Panel.

 

ACTION: RP to send Pauline IAG application form.

ACTION: AM/NM to distribute the IAG application form to the forum.

 

 

4.

Danny Heagren - Home Fire Safety Checks, Northants Fire (7:10-7:30)

Minutes:

Danny thanked the Somalian Community representatives for completing the Home Fire Safety Check training, and presented representatives with a Fire Safety certificate.

 

Danny also informed the forum of a cadets scheme for young people and asked members to let their communities know. The scheme will start in September.

 

 

5.

Community Saftey in Schools - Nikala Elliott, Northamptonshire County Council (7:30-7:55)

Minutes:

 

Nikala Elliott is the Strategic Youth, Crime & ASB Prevention Officer for Northamptonshire County Council. Nikala explained the current community safety pilot for PSHE, which is currently being used at Sir Christopher Hatton School and would eventually like to encourage other schools to participate.

 

The forum asked about Hate Crime and how it is dealt with at schools. Nikala advised that schools are encouraged to report hate crime incidents, but more work is yet to be done. Nikala can be contacted on: NElliott@northamptonshire.gov.uk

 

AM advised that forum that she is working with Luisa Jepson, Hate Crime Coordinator for Northants Police, on a survey for the Northampton Community Forums to use to engage with local communities about their experiences of hate crime. This idea came out of the LGBTQ forum, and it was agreed this may be useful in the Diverse Communities and Disabled Peoples forum also. LJ and AM are designing a draft survey, which will be circulated to the forum for their comments. It is planned for this survey to be launched at the Umbrella Fair on 15th August, where the LGBTQ forum will have a presence, amongst other community groups.

 

ACTION: AM to circulate draft survey to forum members.

 

6.

Action plans refresh (7:55-8:25)

Minutes:

AM went through the action plans for the forum to discuss.

 

Project Diversity: In progress

 

Multicultural Festival: RN stated that the event well and the event will held again next year.

 

Black History Month: PW presented an idea to the forum about a workshop and performance for Black History Month on Friday 30th October. The forum agreed it would be good for the forum to do something collectively for Black History Month, and agreed to support BME SRP’s Black History poetry workshop and event. Attendees discussed the idea of pulling information together from all organisations holding events for BHM, to create a programme of events, to be shared on the NBC website and wider.

 

AR mentioned that there is an exhibition which can be given for free for the Forum.

 

 

Diwali Lights

 

NAS asked the Forum if they would be interested in having a presence at the Diwali parade for 2015. The idea presented by the Festive Road Company was for the forums to do a tea light workshop, to hold during the parade. The forum agreed that this sounded like a good idea.

 

ACTION: NAS to contact the forum with further details once agreed.

 

AR commented that the Solar project has been removed from the action plans. AM advised that the action plan from Solar will be put back onto the document, and offered support to Solar in general to support the work of the organisation.

 

ACTION: AR to send contact detail for Solar to AM. AM to contact to discuss support further.

 

JC would like to see updates of reports to forums. The focus needed to make people aware of outcomes of forums.

 

Housing is an issue but do we know the other issues? These should be publicised to a wider audience.

 

7.

Community Information Exchange

Minutes:

FGM Awareness organised by the Hidden Scars Project 18th July. 2-5pm at Northamptonshire Central Library.

 

AR: NREC AGM 21st July at 7pm – Guest Speaker Habib Rahman (JCWI Chief Exec)

 

Strictly Come Dancing 4 Africa event by Zimwomen Association & Majestic at Royal & Derngate 18th September. Show starts7pm – 10.30pm. Tickets £15.Tickets available from www.royalanderngate.co.uk and www.majco.co.uk

 

Fire Services recruiting Fire Cadets. Contact FireCadets@northantsfire.org.uk

Closing date 26th July.

 

The next BMESRP meeting is on 10th September 6-8pm. Venue maybe changed.

 

Inspiration FM – 2nd August. Beach party in Market Square. 12 -8pm. Inspiration FM have been awarded another 5 years funding.

Post meeting amendment: Inspiration FM have been awarded 5 years radio license, not funding.  

 

8.

Items for Discussion at the Next Meeting (8:25-8:30)

Minutes:

AR suggested the forum look at doing something for the 40 year anniversary of the passing of the Race Relations Act in 2016 – for discussion at a future meeting.

 

NAS suggested that we need to agree strategic outcomes. A brainstorming session is needed to determine a strategic direction for the forum.

 

NPH are attending a forum meeting to talk about housing and to look at ways to reduce anti-social behaviour and hate incidents.

 

RN has held the position of Co- chair for 1 year now. There will be an election at the next meeting. 

 

The forum agreed that going forward, each agenda must only have one key item to enable full discussion.

 

9.

Date Of Next Meeting

Minutes:

Thursday 17th September 6.30 – 8.30pm