The Independent Equality Advisory Group and

Partnership Against Hate Crime

Joint meeting

Agenda

Notes of the joint meeting of the Independent Equality Advisory Group and Partnership Against Hate Crime

Held on Wednesday 8th July 2015

Kaposvar Room, Guildhall

Present

Paul Cox / Bath Area & District Crime Reduction Partnership
Lores Savine / Community Safety Officer, B&NES Council
Kate Murphy / B&NES Council School Improvement
Louise Murphy / Equalities Officer, B&NES Council
Samantha Jones / Equalities manager, B&NES Council
Carol Lacey / Bath University
Nainesh Pandit / Stand Against Racism & Equality
Suzanne Morys / Sirona/Disabled Workers Group
Sam Worrell / Gypsy/Traveller Support Worker – Julian House
Kevin Thatcher / Chief Inspector, Bath Police
Aled Davies / Bath Spa University Student Union Welfare Team
Chris Bailes / Avon Fire & Rescue
Jan Bebbington / Lighthouse Victim Care & Support
David Pendle / Faith Forum
Dawn Clarke / B&NES CCG

Apologies

Roy Woods / Action on Hearing Loss
Viv Hughes / Victim Support
Dorothy / Living Springs MCC
Lisa Benham / Off The Record
  1. Welcome, Introductions and Apologies

Louise Murphy welcomed everyone to the meeting, introductions were made and apologies given.

  1. Preventative work with Children and Young People in B&NES

Kate Murphy presented, giving an explanation of her role within B&NES and an overview of some of the preventative work in Children’s Services:

  • In the past year there have been 23 equalities related incidents reported from schools and other settings. Lower level incidents are being dealt with by schools and are not reported.
  • Some schools report quite a few incidents, others don’t report at all.
  • Areas of Bath where there are more incidents are not reported on - the data is broken down into 3 areas: Bath, MSN and Keynsham/Chew valley. Individual schools data is not published as schools were anxious that when taking their responsibilities seriously they could be seen to have big problems with discriminatory bullying.
  • Equalities Teams (E Teams) have also been set up in schools. This allows children to take the lead in promoting equality and undertake projects that will make their schools safer and more inclusive places.
  • In April 2015 the core young people’s equalities group organised an E Summit which was attended by 162 young people, teachers and other professionals. The aim is to get more E Teams set up in schools across B&NES and help Equalities is embedded in school requirements.
  • The group were shown a film made by the E-Team at St Keynaschool.

It can be viewed again here on the B&NES You Tube Channel:

  • The Anti-bullying charter implemented in our schools is also led by young people. This includes input from schools, local authority and SARI
  • A very exciting piece of news is that B&NES Council has just been named the best performing local authority in tackling homophobic bullying according to the Stonewall Index 2015
  1. Hate Crime in B&NES

Kevin Thatcher from the Police presented

These are the figures for April 2014 – April 2015

Overall recorded hate crime incidents209

Racial incidents145

Homophobic incidents31

Faith related incidents5

Disability incidents19

Age related incidents3

KT reported there was a particularly high concentration of incidents during November.

KT was asked if more detailed figures could be provided for the next meeting.

Jan Bebbington was welcomed back. Jan is now working with Lighthouse Victim Care & Support.

LS reminded KT that Police input was needed for the case review panels which are held as part of the Partnership Against Hate Crime.

  1. Overview of Hate Crime cases in B&NES – SARI

Alex Raikes. Director of SARI presented.

Alex gave an overview of the past year’s hate crime incidents. SARI now hold the commission for all the equality strands relating to hate crime. .

The presentation also included brief details of some of the types of hate crime cases they are helping with.

  1. Update on Gypsy/Traveller Issues

Sam Worrall updated the group. The focus of work is helping to gain access to services for the gypsy, traveller, and boating communities in B&NES.

Sam and Connie have been liaising with Health Centres to makeup them aware of the culture of the travelling community.

The site on the Lower Bristol Road opened in May and they are now starting to receive feedback.

Other initiatives include:

Boat fire safety training through joint working with Avon Fire and Rescue - access to boats for emergency vehicles is also difficult.

Events were held for Gypsy Traveller History Month

The boating community are currently experiencing anti-social behaviour from the many hen & stag parties on boats who think it is a good idea to shout abuse and bump the boats.

KT asked Sam to encourage the community to report these incidents to the Police as they can help.

  1. Any Other Business

SJ is the local authority lead for the new Prevent legislation. Currently we have no one trained as yet. SJ will circulate training dates and a rep is needed.