Issues of Implementation
Projects often fail at the implementation stage. In the case of business crime
experience has underlined the difficulty of persuading small businesses in particular
to act on security recommendations, or to co-operate with other local businesses in
local crime reduction programmes. Freeing staff for crime prevention training also
poses practical difficulties.
In their study of violent crime n small shops, Hibberd and Shapland draw
attention both to the problems faced by shopkeepers and to their isolation from
potential sources of advice. Their recommendations to help address this include:
- Initiatives that take account of high business turnover
- Bringing training to shops
- Joint work involving the police, environmental health and
trading standards
- Greater investment in victim support, and in building
shopkeepers skills in dealing with nuisance.
Hibberd, M & Shapland, J (1993) Violence in Small Shops.
London, Police Foundation.
Partnerships may want to give some thought to ways of incentivising businesses
to engage in crime reduction. Options include:
Promoting and publicising the Safer Shopping Awards scheme
Grants towards security enhancements and/or practical support in putting these
in place
Negotiating insurance discounts
The checklist attached looks at some common pitfalls in implementation and suggests
ways to pre-empt and overcome these.
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Pitfalls
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Safeguards/ Response
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Partners are reluctant to commit to action.
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Identify levers / incentives, e.g. evidence of public concern, costs and benefits.
Resources
Review steps needed to seek/reinforce senior management commitment within key agencies,
and to keep all those within agencies with an interest informed of relevant developments.
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Responsibility for implementation is unclear
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Assign responsibilities to a named individual.
Review/clarify roles and responsibilities of partnership/individual agencies and
other stakeholders.
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The programme drifts and is underachieving
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Review reporting systems.
Set clear milestones for performance of key tasks.
Review commitment of partner agencies. Strengthen agreement between agencies
if necessary. Look at ways of increasing project ‘ownership’.
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Project leadership is weak
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Ensure the project leader has the time, commitment and skills to do the job, and
identify training/development needs.
As well as project management skills, project leaders need the ability to work
across traditional agency boundaries and operate in unknown/unpredictable areas.
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The project leader moves job
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Ensure key decisions and action points are documented.
Spread the work to guard against becoming too reliant on one person.
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A key partner fails to deliver
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Challenge non-delivery. Strengthen agreement between agencies if necessary
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Results don’t come through
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Review analysis of problems and causes.
Check option appraisal and that the right conditions are in place for the project
to work as intended.
Check the action plan is appropriate and well-founded.
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Problem
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Response
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There is low community participation
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Check community perceptions of the initiative.
Identify aspects of the project with greatest community appeal.
Review communications plans
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Partners lose interest
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Review approaches used (e.g. networking between meetings/teambuilding) to keep
partners enthused and motivated.
Ensure the project integrates with other local activities.
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Conflicts develop in the partnership
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Use techniques e.g. soft systems analysis to identify sources of conflict and areas
of agreement.
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