London’s Local Councils: Responding to the riots and promoting safe, resilient communities London’s Local Councils: Responding to the riots and promoting safe, resilient communities 1. Overview When the riots began in August, London’s councils were faced with an unprecedented challenge. Their responses, individually and collectively, demonstrated both an organisational agility and a determination to respond in the right way to highly unpredictable events. Working alongside police, local communities and businesses, clean-up operations were carried out swiftly and effectively within hours of the disturbances ending. This was followed by a concerted effort to begin recovering from the disorder both within boroughs and across the capital to support the many residents who had been affected, as well as local businesses faced with financial uncertainty and a substantial loss of trade. The much bigger question facing London local government is how it might ensure that disturbances on this scale don’t happen again. The role of councils extends far beyond a timely and well-executed response to disruptive events. Boroughs are there to shape their communities, actively addressing a wide span of challenges across society, by early intervention with families, through work to challenge gangs, rehabilitate offenders and develop policies that sustain their local economy and build communities. London Councils develops policy and lobbies on behalf of 33 London boroughs. There are a wide range of services provided by the London boroughs which we consider to be effective at tackling the issues that undermine social resilience which the panel is considering. We wanted to focus on three areas we feel are important to draw to your attention. These are · Early intervention and prevention initiatives · Dealing with those at a high risk of offending or re-offending · Ensuring a healthy local economy and environment In order to answer one of the key points the panel has raised, namely how public services engaged with communities before, during and after the riots, we have also set out in this paper the immediate response to the riots, and the recovery work which has been underway since they happened. Background to the riots The panel is considering what might have motivated a minority of people to take part in the disorder and why, in some areas, there was no disorder. We believe that many factors lay behind the cause of the riots, and that these varied between groups of people, according to place, age and circumstance. However, there are a set of common factors which create an environment that appear to pre-dispose individuals to choose to step outside the law. 1 As the Home Office and Ministry of Justice data show, many of those who were detained over the disorder had disadvantaged and criminal backgrounds. In London, 71% of detainees had already had one conviction or caution. Riot statistics point to a large number of educational factors which may have contributed to the sense of disengagement which has been reported by several groups as a contributory factor. Only 10% of those detained had five or more grade A* to C grades at GCSE, compared with the national average of 53%. 30% were persistent absentees from school, 36% had been suspended from school at least once in a year, and their absence rates were far higher. Nationally, of those detained, 11.3% had been excluded from school, far higher than the national average of 0.1%. Sixty-six per cent of young people were classified as having some form of special educational need. This compares to 21 per cent of all pupils in maintained secondary schools. Two-fifths of them (42%) were receiving free school meals, more than three times the national average. Those brought before the court, were far more likely to be young, poor and educationally disadvantaged, and have far lower chances of work as a result. It is also clear that in some communities there are many young people, particularly young men whose disengagement with school and lack of work goes hand in hand with a lack of aspiration or hope. Youth unemployment is worse in London than the rest of the UK. In the year to December 2010, youth unemployment in the capital was 23 percent, which is equivalent to 118,000 unemployed young people. The rate of youth unemployment in the rest of the UK (excluding London) was 19 percent. For those without qualifications, their job prospects are shrinking in the current economic climate. Almost a quarter of working age Londoners are not working – 1.3 million, as of August 2011. London is home to just under a quarter of all households that have never worked in England, some 86,000 households in all. These background factors in no way justify what happened during this week in August, and borough leaders are clear that much of what took place was opportunistic crime which had a severe impact on residents and traders in the communities The rioters represented a clear minority of this group, with some 2,800 in London arrested to date, but it is equally true that many, many more young Londoners who came from the same disadvantaged background, had a poor start at school or had no job chose not to break the law. The job of councils to offer interventions which help individuals at risk of turning to crime to see an alternative future with a stake in society, whether it is through pupil referral units, or getting out of gangs, or finding an apprenticeship. Much of the work of boroughs involves looking at how the most vulnerable families and individuals can be helped to turn their lives around. Prevention and early intervention ranges from mainstream services which support children and young people through to targeted projects which provide intensive support for families with multiple problems. These projects focus scarce resources through intelligent approaches to address a considerable range of problems that individuals and families face. Underpinning all of these targeted interventions are a wide range of initiatives that support and develop a healthy local economy and environment. This includes a focus on neighbourhoods, housing estates, town centres, and the mesh of physical and skill-based development that support jobs and growth. What we understand by economic resilience is a system which 2 enables local businesses to prosper in a safe and steady environment, and creates a platform for initiatives that link disadvantaged residents to economic opportunities. The work in recovering from the events in August is not over. Hundreds of shops and dozens of high streets were damaged. At least 1,700 Londoners have been charged in connection with the riots and the police are seeking more. Although many high streets are repaired and back to normal and stores are trading once again, there are much wider questions to be answered for communities faced with a breakdown of order on such a scale. The continuing response will need to balance prevention and diversion with co-ordinated action to challenge criminality. This needs to be underpinned by strategies which create jobs and local economic opportunity. Giving councils the resources and the power to expand their tried and tested interventions, working hand in hand with voluntary groups, offers, in our view, the best opportunity to strengthen communities and develop sustainable social and economic resilience. 2. The immediate response and restoration work During 6–10 August 2011, incidents of widespread public disorder, looting and arson occurred across many parts of London. The disorder spread fast across London, with the worst disturbances centred on borough high streets and retail shopping parks. For the London local authorities, the rioting taking place at such a speed and on such a scale was unprecedented, and threatened to bring with it sizeable economic and social damage. 29 out of the 33 London boroughs suffered some form of physical damage during that period; and yet the majority went on to make a swift and significant recovery. Thanks to the hard work and co-ordinated efforts within and across the boroughs, the established London-wide systems of emergency planning and visibly strong support from communities, the damage done to high streets, shops and residential properties was tackled very fast. Borough CCTV networks were monitored through council control centres and were able to assist police in mobilising to deal with emerging hotspots, as well as providing useful evidence at a later stage. Some boroughs were able to deploy mobile CCTV vans to help with identifying rioters – building on existing strong partnerships between the local authority and local police. In London, a total of 3,461 crimes have been recorded in relation to the riots, according to the Home Office data. This represents 68% of the total riot-related crime. Within London, the boroughs of Croydon (430), Southwark (314), Haringey (303), and Ealing (279) recorded the highest number of crimes. There have been 2,879 arrests, and 71% of those arrested have a previous conviction. 16% of those are over the age of 30. Clean up As the scale of the rioting and disorder became clearer, boroughs swiftly started work clearing up the affected areas. Street cleaning teams liaised with the emergency planning departments so that the streets were swept of glass and debris, without breaking through the cordons placed around the unsafe buildings. The speed of the clean up was remarkable. Some areas had swept away all debris by 6am that morning. Volunteers also came together in a remarkable show of community spirit to do sweeping, and this in turn led to a very positive use of social media as communities co-ordinated 3 their actions to support local businesses as they dealt with the aftermath.