New model for Guildford’s Neighbourhood Teams
Innovative joint training is helping Guildford’s Neighbourhood Teams to lead the way in a new approach to reducing crime and disorder and fear of crime.
Guildford is fortunate to be located in Surrey, the safest county in England. However, for a Borough with such low levels of recorded crime, fear of crime is surprisingly high. This can be a difficult issue to tackle, but a new joint training approach, and Guildford’s success with the National Reassurance Project, has seen a new mindset emerge within the Safer Guildford Partnership.
Many things can affect perception of crime. If a place looks run down, for example, it can make someone feel nervous about walking through it, especially at night. Similarly, it can be intimidating to walk around a local neighbourhood and see graffiti, smashed widows or large groups of young people. Because of these things, people tend to question their level of safety, and their fear of crime increases disproportionately to actual crime. However, tackling these issues helps to reassure people, and makes them feel safer.
As part of the National Reassurance project and following a similar scheme in Chicago, USA, communities are encouraged to identify and prioritise their own crime and disorder issues, and tackle them together with their Neighbourhood Team consisting of Police Officers, Wardens and Police Community Support Officers (PCSO’s.) This has been piloted in one Ward of the Borough where residents are asked to attend a Neighbourhood Panel meeting and air the problems in their area. They then vote on the one issue that they would like the Neighbourhood Teams to work on prior to the next meeting in six weeks time. This model has been very successful and is now being rolled out across the whole of Guildford Borough.
Guildford Borough Council and the Neighbourhood Teams play a significant role in this process. Issues such as graffiti, abandoned vehicles and poor lighting are factors that increase fear of crime. The Council assisted by the wardens, now have a Borough wide 24-hour removal of all fly tips, graffiti and abandoned cars. Lighting strategies have been put in place to address poorly lit areas. The Teams have a key role in encouraging the community to take ownership and pride in their neighbourhood, whilst also engaging with young people to increase their interest in positive local activity. The Council, Police, Surrey County Councils Youth Services and other voluntary agencies need to tackle the disorder that causes this fear. A team effort is clearly essential, but only really works when everyone has the same objectives, and shares the same mindset.
A tall order? Not in Guildford. A new model of learning has been adapted to implement reassurance in the community through joint training. It brings together the Safer Guildford Partnership’s key partners, including Local Authorities, the Police, the Primary Care Trust, the Youth Service and Neighbourhood Teams. This new training known as ‘Learning Communities’ is being used to develop a common understanding of the issues involved in reassurance. They are also used to affect greater appreciation and understanding amongst staff, of the role each partner can play, and how they can support each other to reach a shared goal. In essence they are about realising common goals and relationship building.
This model of joint training has had a significant effect and many tangible outcomes. A shared mindset and understanding of what joint working really means within the Safer Guildford Partnership, has enabled a rapid response system to evolve when community safety triggers arise in neighbourhoods, and Guildford’s Neighbourhood Teams are at the heart of the activity.
As a result of this joint training, the Council’s Cleansing Services Department now has a much better understanding of the reassurance agenda and feels part of the process rather than feeling the brunt of it. The relationships this training has built, and a better understanding, results in further improvements to the service.
Similarly, because all parties know they are trying to achieve the same goals, information is shared better and there are joint ideas to problem solving. For example, Youth Services are taking the youths that the police have identified as being involved in disorder and encouraging them into diversionary programmes. Wardens, Neighbourhood Specialist Officers and Community Support Officers are critical in this process engaging with identified individuals and groups, and encouraging them to attend. The result of this has been extremely positive, with many key offenders now attending crime diversion initiatives, such as a new mobile youth café, and off-road driving schemes.
Guildford’s Teams have also been able to engage local communities with the Council Cleansing Department to organise ‘Community Clear Up’ days – an idea which has been so successful that communities have now taken ownership of the scheme and organise their own events.
The impact and significance of joint training in addressing fear of crime in Guildford has been recognised as evidence of best practice by the Safer Guildford Partnership following the Council having been short listed for Beacon Status for its Crime and Disorder Partnership theme. The link between joint training, implementing the ‘reassurance’ model and reducing fear of crime is clear. Joint training has helped the Safer Guildford Partnership to achieve even more in respect of its level of service and outcomes.