Community Consultation
As well as information provided by agencies within the area, your priorities must also be informed by local people’s views. In the next round of Public Service Agreements (PSAs) for the period 2008-2011, the proposed Community Safety PSA is likely to include a target to increase public confidence in agencies. Partners are likely to be measured on how well they respond to those issues that matter most to their local communities. In order to drive down the fear of crime and be responsive to your local community, you need to find out what their concerns are.
This should be an ongoing process throughout the year. When preparing the strategic assessment, the partnership can then consider what information has already been gathered from the community and target any further consultation activities to fill any gaps. ‘Community’ does not only mean geographic community. It is also important to consult other communities, such as communities of faith, ethnicity, age, condition. In drawing together the information that has already been collected, partners should be considering whether there are any groups within the area whose views are under represented. The partnership should then take steps to address those groups who are not involved in existing arrangements.
A number of mechanisms already exist for identifying community concerns and we suggest that partnerships draw on these where appropriate:
- Information gathered from the community through day-to-day engagement of the partners (e.g. from Neighbourhood Policing teams).
- Information gathered through specific community engagement activities being undertaken by the responsible authorities, co-operating bodies and others to fulfil their requirements.
- Information from national surveys pertaining to the area (e.g. results of Tellus2 surveys concerning the views of young people, see the Ofsted Website http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/ (link opens in a new window).
- Information gathered by Drug Action Teams and Youth Offending Teams.
- Information gathered through previous partnership projects (e.g. Weeks of Action).
- Views gathered through any public meetings (e.g. face the people sessions).
- Issues raised with or identified by the overview and scrutiny committee considering crime and disorder, where there is one.
As well as gathering information, community consultation can also be used to test hypotheses behind changes in performance and gain initial feedback on potential priorities after you have prepared your strategic assessment.
When conducting community consultation activities, some important factors to consider include:
- Making clear why you are consulting.
- Explaining how the information will be used.
- Promoting opportunities for the public to be involved in community safety.
- Ensuring that there are clear mechanisms to take actions based on community views.
- Providing feedback on the action taken.
- Feeding back any information gathered that is relevant to other individual partners so that appropriate actions can be taken.
