Agenda item - Chairs Communications

15.1  The Chair welcomed all to the meeting.

            Recent Appointments

15.2    The new VVE co-ordinator Tim Read had started in post and the new joint strategic commissioner for DVA and SV services Lindsay Adams has also started and was in attendance at the meeting .The first tranche of the new field officers had started to operate in the city. Recruitment had taken longer than expected, which meant that the team would start with four officers operating a service from 12 noon to 8pm, seven days a week. The Team Manager and remaining Field Officers had been interviewed and their start dates will be confirmed soon. The new team members would spend their first months working alongside the Field Officers already in post, training, shadowing and meeting council teams, residents, community groups and partners. The aim was to have the service running at full capacity and launched to the public from the beginning of December. For the first few months, the team would focus on enforcement functions and making referrals across the service areas.

            Rainbow Hub

15.3    The Rainbow Hub had opened on St James St, and whilst fully funded by the Rainbow Fund for the next three years, it is a discreet and separate organisation, it was a fully accessible community space in the heart of the Gay Village with information on where to access LGBT+ specific services in the city, a home for The LGBT Community Safety Forum’s outreach service, and a resource for service providers and organisations to hold drop in sessions. It was also open to any of the cities communities who might care to use the space.

15.4    The city’s hate crime vigil is being held in St James St at 7pm on October 17^th as part of Hate Crime Awareness Week, with a candle lit reception in the Rainbow Hub beforehand hosted by BHCC & the LGBT C Safety Forum for community, third sector and public bodies to meet & share the various campaigns and projects happening in and around hate crime awareness week.

15.5    The Mayor of Brighton & Hove would be holding a reception to celebrate all the good work done this year in Brighton & Hove to further inclusion, promote positive narratives and understand for Trans and Non-Binary communities in the city, honouring the work done by many of the cities prominent activists and organisations.

15.6    During hate crime awareness week (week commencing 15^th October) the council would be launching a hate crime campaign to raise awareness and encourage reporting, with the key message that all hate incidents were serious enough to report. The campaign was being led by Brighton and Hove Buses in partnership with the Council and Sussex Police and would include having posters on buses on an ongoing basis. Positive messaging would also be posted on social media throughout hate crime awareness week.

15.7    The city was taking at least three more Syrian families on the government’s refugee resettlement programme this autumn. One of these families arrived last week. Many thanks to the landlords who are offering their private rented properties at an affordable rent so that the local authority can continue to offer sanctuary to these vulnerable families. We continue to look for properties for the scheme (particularly two bed properties at the moment). The contact details for the scheme are refugeehelp@brighton-hove.gov.uk or 01273 291248.

15.8    RESOLVED – That the content of the Chair’s Communications be received and noted.