Partnerships
Keeping Section 17 on the Agenda [3/5]
Implementing Section 17: benefits and constraints
In December 2001, Havering held a seminar entitled ‘Mainstreaming community safety: from theory to reality’, at which its experiences in implementing Section 17 were shared with other local authorities. Arising from the seminar, the following list of major ‘enablers and inhibitors’ was identified as facilitating and hampering, respectively, development of Section 17.
Major enablers
The top factors enabling Section 17 to be implemented were identified as the following:
The local government modernising agenda - Section 17 is implemented most effectively when it goes beyond meeting the legal obligation, and is used to support best value, join up services and assist community planning.
Ownership of community safety at senior levels of the authority - While it requires a change and shift in organisational culture, which can take time, corporate ownership is vital for achieving commitment to implementing Section 17.
Specifying the benefits of community safety for key partners - The benefits of making communities safer must be specified for departments. Quick wins should be achieved within this to show credibility and increase activity across service areas.
Staff training and awareness-raising - This is essential. It should remind staff that Section 17 is a legal duty, empower them to make correct decisions, and take effective actions, and persuade them that they can make a significent difference.
An effective corporate performance management system - This needs to be in place to ensure Section 17 is developed consistently. It should provide a mechanism for monitoring departments’ achievements in community safety, assessing impact and reinforcing accountability.
Major inhibitors
The biggest inhibitors to implementing Section 17 smoothly were identified as:
Resistance to change - In some local authorities, staff may want to continue to do things as they had been done previously.
Conflicting priorities - Local authorities have to deal with a number of issues that compete in terms of resources. However, community safety must become a core objective if it is to be developed properly.
A lack of knowledge and awareness - Insufficient knowledge and awareness of community safety can prevent opportunities to develop Section 17 from being taken and can prevent the establishment of a meaningful performance management system with performance indicators.
Ineffective community safety partnership - If partnership is not effective at the local level, the authority may not be inspired to take forward its work on Section 17.
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Last update: 09/07/03