Audits & Audits & Strategies Toolkit
Strategies Summary of audit findings and the development of priorities section
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Here are some suggestions for information that you could include under the heading 'Summary of audit findings and the development of priorities' in your strategy document:
Use the "Summary of audit findings and the development of priorities" section to:
describe the main issues or themes that were identified in your audit.
describe the process of identifying and refining the broad priority areas
Main issues or themes identified in your audit
You should include:
a discussion about the themes and issues identified as priorities in the audit
a description of the link between the analysis in the audit and how the priority areas are subsequently identified.
Priorities identified can be described in a number of ways:
Crime related
Priorities focused on particular types of crime, such as vehicle crime, burglaryAnti-social behaviour and disorder related
Priorities focused on disorder and anti-social behaviour, such as vandalism, "nuisance youths"Drug Related
Priorities focused on targets against the national key performance indicators for all 4 aims of the National Drug Strategy and local priority targets if they are identifiedDemographic issues
Priorities focused on particular sections of society, such as old or young peopleGeographic issues
Priorities focused on particular geographical areas or hotspots within the partnership's boundariesHomogeneous groups
Priorities focused on issues that affect homogeneous groups, such as victims, offenders, crimes against students, racially motivated crimeSocio-economic issues
Priorities focused on socio-economic issues, such as problems of damage in derelict areasCross-cutting themes
You may also identify priorities that cut across a number of issues, such as drugs, young people and reassuranceVictims and witnesses
Priorities focused on improving confidence in the criminal justice system such as reducing the 'tolerance' towards crime and criminality within
Thematic priorities can allow a larger scope for activity and offer opportunities to respond to national priorities while still taking account of local concerns.
Decisions around whether to use specific crime and community safety priorities or themed priorities should be taken locally, but don't forget the need to respond to relevant national priorities.
If you decide to tackle themed priorities in your strategy make sure that you do not make them too general - strategies must be focused and succinct.
For drugs issues, make sure you take account of the guidance in the Performance Management Resource Pack.
Identifying and refining the broad priority areas
You should include:
a full explanation of the rationale behind the identification and refinement of specific priority areas
references to the audit and consultation stages as well as nationally defined priorities and targets and those of partner agencies.
The Government expects local authorities and their partners to help deliver their key priorities to reduce crime and disorder and misuse of drugs.
The Home Office's Public Service Agreement (PSA) to reduce crime and the fear of crime requires partnerships with the highest recorded crime rates per 1000 population for vehicle crime, robbery and burglary will need to set appropriate targets to have the greatest impact on reducing crime.
When you identify and refine your broad priority areas, be aware of your partners' priorities and targets, such as the relevant targets included in the Local Public Service Agreements (LPSAs) agreed between Local Authorities and Central Government.
You should also be aware that when the National Policing Plan 2005 - 8 is published in November 2004, police forces will begin preparing 3 year strategic policing plans for 2005 - 8. As these strategic plans will cover the same period as the Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership/Drug Action Team strategies, it is expected that priority areas and targets in both strategies will be aligned where local authority and BCU areas are co-terminous.
Priority is being given to tackling anti-social behaviour (ASB). Together: Tackling Anti-social Behaviour Action Plan sets out the Government’s approach to dealing with ASB and the support available to partnerships to help improve their response to ASB, including the Together Actionline and Together Academy.
You should discuss and agree crime and disorder and anti-social behaviour priorities, targets and key milestones for your strategies with your Government Office/Welsh Assembly Government, who will make further guidance and information on the arrangements, process and timing for this available in due course.
You must agree drugs priorities, targets and key milestones with your Government Office. This process will be led by the Government Office Drug staff and will be informed by the previous year's local performance against the key performance indicators, local estimates of problematic drug use supplied with the treatment demand model and local and regional priorities.
The result will be an overarching target setting and performance agreement which will include key milestones for in-year monitoring.
A sample agreement and some suggested templates for recording targets and key milestones against each of the key performance indicators are provided in the Performance Management Resource Pack.
If you choose not to include certain Government priorities in your strategy, you must make it clear that there is evidence from the audit process showing that these areas have been considered but have not been shown to be a current priority within your locality. You should refer to this evidence in this section of your strategy.
Last update: Thursday, September 07, 2006