Crime Reduction - Helping to Reduce Crime in Your Area

Police Research Series Paper 148 

January 2002

This paper is based on a survey of community safety coordinators, a brief review of audits and strategies, discussion with relevant national and local organisations and interviews and analysis in five case study sites.  It aims to identify good practice in the methods used by partnerships in England and Wales to enable further guidance to be provided on the subject of consultation.

Background to the research

Sections 5 and 6 of the 1998 Crime and Disorder Act place an obligation on local authorities and the police, in partnership with other agencies, to:

• Produce an audit of local crime and disorder problems

• Consult locally on the basis of the audit

• Produce a strategy for tackling issues identified in the audit

• Monitor and evaluate progress on the implementation of the strategy

• Repeat the process every three years

In addition to the statutory duty to consult on the audit, the other stages in the cycle of partnership working could potentially involve consultation.

Partnerships were found to have multiple aims when undertaking consultation and there was no clear consensus as to which aim was the most important.  Consultation in practice was extensive and varied with over half of the partnerships using external contractors in some capacity in consultation, especially during the audit.  The report explores the extent of consultation with various groups and the variety of consultation methods used.  The methods held in highest regard by partnerships were citizens' panels and also focus groups and public surveys.

More partnerships felt that the benefits of consultation outweighed the cost. Two fifths of partnerships acknowledged that public feedback had identified problems or shortcomings in the strategy. Limitations of consultation were identified in six key areas: methodology, timing, consistency, duplication, conflicts with other targets and costs.

Recommendations

The report makes the following recommendations:

Focus - partnerships should be clear how and why particular forms of consultation are undertaken

Streamline - partnerships should seek to utilise consultation fora set up for other purposes

Mainstream - partnerships should learn from each other to avoid re-inventing the wheel

Plan consultation - partnerships should plan a long-term consultation strategy over a three year cycle. A person responsible for overseeing the process should be identified.

Consider using contractors - partnerships should use contractors when the relevant skills are not available internally. Contractors should be carefully monitored and managed.

Consider different methods for different groups/locations - for instance, surveys are appropriate for the general population; qualitative methods may be more appropriate for hard to reach groups.

Consider different consultation methods at different stages of the process - a possible framework is outlined in the paper.

Getting a copy

Consultation by Crime and Disorder Partnerships: Briefing Note Police Research Series Paper 148 PDF (44 Kb) - 2 page summary

Consultation by Crime and Disorder Partnerships: Police Research Series Paper 148 PDF (274 Kb) - full report