Comprehensive Area Assessment green flags show outstanding achievements or improvements, or an innovation that is likely to be successful within a local area.  In the first round of CAA assessments several areas received green flags for their approach to crime and anti-social behaviour.  This case study covers the innovative work of Trafford in tackling gun crime and gang violence, Liverpool’s work to tackle city centre violence, and Camden’s and Kensington and Chelsea’s approach to crime and anti-social behaviour

Essential knowledge

Comprehensive Area Assessment, or CAA, is an assessment of local public services in England. It examines how well councils are working together with other public bodies to meet the needs of the people they serve. It’s a joint assessment made by a group of six independent watchdogs.  Assessments provide a snapshot of each area, and act as a catalyst for improvement by identifying where more effort is needed or where exceptional improvement may help others learn.  CAA reports performance against the national indicator set and focuses on indicators that areas have selected as priorities, making an assessment of current delivery and future prospects against those priorities.

Each area across England has been independently assessed by six inspectorates, who say how well local public services are delivering results for local people and how likely these are to improve in future. Area assessments do not have an overall score or rating, but green flags show outstanding achievements or improvements, or an innovation that is likely to be successful.

Tackling crime and anti-social behaviour can help address the following national indicators:

• NI 15 Serious violent crime PSA 23
• NI 16 Serious acquisitive crime
• NI 17 Perceptions of anti-social behaviour
• NI 18 Adult re-offending rates for those under probation supervision
• NI 19 Rate of proven re-offending by young offenders
• NI 20 Assault with injury crime rate
• NI 21 Dealing with local concerns about anti-social behaviour and crime issues by the local council and police
• NI 22 Perceptions of parents taking responsibility for the behaviour of their children in the area
• NI 23 Perceptions that people in the area treat one another with respect and consideration
• NI 27 Understanding of local concerns about anti-social behaviour and crime issues by the local council and police
• NI 28 Serious knife crime rate
• NI 29 Gun crime rate
• NI 30 Re-offending rate of prolific and priority offenders
• NI 33 Arson incidents
• NI 37 Awareness of civil protection arrangements in the local area CO DSO
• NI 38 Drug-related (Class A) offending rate
• NI 39 Rate of Hospital Admissions per 100,000 for Alcohol Related Harm
• NI 40 Number of drug users recorded as being in effective treatment
• NI 41 Perceptions of drunk or rowdy behaviour as a problem
• NI 42 Perceptions of drug use or drug dealing as a problem

What works?

Trafford: Tackling gun crime and gang violence

Trafford has experienced gang-related problems for a number of years along the north border areas of Old Trafford and Stretford, with strong links to problems across the border in Manchester.  About 400 people, many of them under 18, were thought to be involved. Competition between drug dealers was part of the driving force.  Since 2007 Trafford and Manchester councils and Greater Manchester Police have run a major joint project to tackle the problem.

The partnership has focused on developing a clear governance structure bringing together local partners with suitable levels of responsibility.  The Most Serious Violent Crime (MSVC) Group developed a partnership plan.  This group evolved from the Violent Gangs Strategic Group into the MSVC Group so that violent gang activity is now viewed within a broader serious youth violence context and the learning to date used effectively to tackle knife crime, violent extremism and serious sexual violence.  A strategic co-ordinator was appointed to kick start the partnership approach to this issue.  This specialist resource was vital while the work was starting, but has now been mainstreamed into a core funded Strategic Co-ordinator for Community Safety role.

The scheme has improved joint working between partners.  For example, the council are now involved in a range of settings which were previously police exclusive, including risk management meetings following serious incidents, tasking and co-ordination groups and operations.  Some police operations have been in partnership with council staff such as social workers and the youth offending service to ensure they address safeguarding needs and engage prevention services as early on as possible.

Workforce development is also a vital part of the project.  At the start of this work, there was anxiety and fear among practitioners and managers whose services came into contact with this client group and this contributed to poor decision-making and reluctance amongst services to take ownership and responsibility.  More than 200 staff within core services have now received training in tackling violent gangs and a developmental workshop now runs four times a year as part of the mainstream Children and Young People’s Service (CYPS) training programme.  This has ensured that violent gang work is now viewed by core staff as part of their day to day business.

Working with the local community has been a key aspect of the project.  Examples of this include:

• There was funding and practical support to a group of local community members to launch Peace Week 2009 in Old Trafford.  Through a series of events and a local peace march / lantern parade, it engaged residents in challenging gang culture and violence.  It ran in conjunction with an event in Manchester and is due to run again during 2010.
• The Living to Die film was made in partnership with a group of local young people and Mothers Against Violence, a local group of women whose children have been involved in gang violence. The film explores the consequences and emotions of a gang following the stabbing and murder of one of its members.
• There has also been funding and practical support to a group of local parents in Old Trafford to set up their own peer-led parent support project.
• The Old Trafford Inspiring Leaders project, designed to build local leadership, has led to a number of residents getting involved in activities directly tackling gang violence.
• An Independent Advisory Group in the Old Trafford area has been working alongside the police to tackle gang violence effectively while minimising the potential negative impact of targeted policing activity.  This has included meetings following serious incidents and ahead of high profile police raids.
• Older ex-gang members have been able to speak to young people in youth club settings to give advice and guidance on making better decisions and choosing positive lifestyles.
• Funding has supported a group of local young adult musicians to attend a series of assemblies within schools across Trafford and Manchester as positive role models with a positive message about peace.
• A specific mentoring project is being developed with Trafford Youth Offending Service to develop a cohort of their existing mentors to be specialist mentors working with young people at risk of, or involved in, violent gang activity.

Over the past two years, the Trafford Partnership has had significant success in tackling violent gang activity. Gun crime has fallen by 40 per cent in the past three years, confirmed firearm discharges also reduced by 54 per cent compared to 2007/08, and were at their lowest since 2004/05.  There were no gang-related firearms discharges at all during 2008/09. This trend has continued into 2009/10 were there has been only one confirmed discharge in the first four months of the year.  The findings of the 2008 MORI Residents Survey compared to the 2007 results also show improvements in key perception indicators within particular wards in Trafford where the bulk of the work around violent gangs has been undertaken.

Measure	Stretford	+ / -	Clifford / Gorse Hill	+ / -
% satisfaction in local area as a place to live	84%	+ 8	86%	+ 7
% who viewi antisocial behaviour (ASB) as a problem in local area	21%	- 7	24%	- 9
% concerned about ASB in local area	38%	- 12	36%	-22
% who experienced no crimes in last 12 months	75%	+ 20	69%	+ 9
% who are satisfied with Neighbourhood Policing	45%	+ 9	52%	+ 7

From the onset the partnership has also focused on ensuring sustainability for the project.  Initially all of the funding for tackling violent gangs came from external grant funding but by April 2009 all funding was from internal sources, with the required funding being reduced from nearly £200,000 per year to £46,000 per year, provided by the Safer Trafford Partnership Board.

Liverpool: promoting a safer night-time economy

Promotion of a safer night-time economy is a key component of the overarching regeneration strategy for Liverpool and is a key consideration in the reputation and image of Liverpool.  Liverpool’s City Centre Joint Agency Group (JAG) – a sub-group of Citysafe, Liverpool’s Crime & Disorder Reduction Partnership, serviced by the City Council – was established in 2004, and incorporates all of the main agencies and stakeholders in the city centre.  It meets regularly to promote the city centre as a safe place to visit, invest and live in, and it has put in place a number of activities to address particular challenges and issues highlighted as a result of its proactive environmental scanning. The aim of the JAG is to work together in partnership to promote a safer night time economy whilst managing all of the issues in a proactive and integrated manner.

The JAG supports the strategic and operational activity of all partners and uses analytical data and information from a range of surveys, partnership data and knowledge.  Partners recognise the importance of public perceptions and communication, so the JAG routinely collects data through an Annual City Centre Feelings of Safety Survey, to bring a clearer understanding of the city centre, its market and consumers.  The JAG can then target its pooled and aligned resources to identified needs, shared priorities and outcome targets.

It delivers a number of projects and partnership activities to address these shared priorities and outcome targets:

• Goldzone – enhancing partnership resources in the city centre through a dedicated team agreed by the City Council and Merseyside Police.  The team of one sergeant and 12 constables has been in place for several years and contributes to crime reductions and community safety initiatives. To reassure and support people enjoying a night out, a taxi rank marshalling initiative has targeted potential trouble makers and stopped taxi drivers from ‘cherry picking’ fares.  Dedicated partnership patrols work closely with the Security Industry Authority accredited taxi marshals in key locations. The scheme has proved popular with residents and visitors and has helped reduce incidents of violent crime and other crime. A nine week taxi rank marshalling partnership operation held in 2007/08 resulted in a 55 per cent reduction of total crimes.  In particular, there was a 34 per cent reduction in violent offences.
• Liverpool’s city centre Pubwatch scheme has 110 pubs, bars and clubs on its membership list.  Pubwatch activities include radio alert communications – sharing information among premises; distribution of photographs and details of offenders and criminal activity, a Best Bar None Scheme – a scheme that provides an incentive for the operators of licensed premises to improve their standards of operation to the level of a commonly agreed national benchmark, Smoke Free schemes, conflict resolution training, and use of Banning Orders.
• Seasonal alcohol awareness campaigns have also been in place.
• Youth diversionary activities to divert up to 200 youths from causing anti-social behaviour in the city centre, for example a live music event for the young people resulting in high attendances and correspondingly low levels of anti-social behaviour.
• Targeted work with students has included marketing campaigns linked to safer alcohol consumption, and a new Students Health and Wellbeing Group led by the Primary Care Trust (PCT) which will take forward actions on this issue.
• Predictive crime pattern analysis provided evidence of an increase in street crime in the city centre during the Christmas shopping period.  A street crime reduction plan was therefore developed and the main hotspot areas targeted by partners including a multi-agency robbery reduction team supported by neighbourhood policing with support from the Council’s CCTV and Street Crime Wardens to gather intelligence and identify potential offenders.
• Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs) have been used successfully against prolific offenders.  A quarter of all ASBOs in Liverpool have related to the city centre.

The City Centre JAG has pre-empted huge changes to the city which have an impact on the night time economy and have delivered key outcomes including:

• Levels of recorded crime in the city centre encompassing all crime categories have fallen in the last year by 23 per cent (2,760 offences) and by 40 per cent (6,187 offences) since 2005/06.
• Year on year, anti-social behaviour incidents have reduced in the city centre.  There has been a two per cent reduction (72 offences) since 2006 despite a booming and revitalising city centre economy.
• Injury violence offences have reduced every year since 2004/05 with a 20 per cent reduction (287 fewer offences) in 2008 compared to 2007, and a reduction of 39 per cent (722 offences) since 2004/05.

• Results from the Public Perception Survey in 2007 also show a great success in the improvement of safety feelings in the city centre, including feelings of safety in the night time. There has been an increase of two per cent in feelings of safety for women (43 per cent) during the night time in the City Centre, from 2006. For the same period, men have shown an increase of twelve per cent in their feeling of safety during the night time (four per cent).[?]
• The fear of becoming a victim of crime in the City Centre has reduced as well. This has fallen from 34 per cent of people questioned in 2006 to 24 per cent in 2007.
• The Public Perception Survey has also shown that those interviewed had witnessed fewer incidents of disorder at taxi ranks at night. This has fallen from 40 per cent of people questioned in 2006, to 26 per cent of people in 2007.

Camden – tackling crime and anti-social behaviour

In Camden significant and innovative partnership working has focused on tackling crime among the most vulnerable people in the area. In 2008/09, crime reduced by 18 per cent compared to the previous year. There have been significant reductions in theft from motor vehicles (down 32 per cent), robbery (down 25 per cent) and burglary (down 22 per cent). Camden has performed particularly well at reducing theft from the person, and assault without injury. Public confidence in Camden’s police is 78.24 per cent.

The Youth Disorder Engagement Team (YDET) was introduced in 2007/08 and expanded in 2008. The YDET work with the police Youth Engagement Team and Safer Schools Officers, carrying out regular patrols, for example at lunch times, after school and other peak times, to stop young people from causing and getting into trouble and diverting them into support services.  As trained mediators, the YDET also mediates between young people to ease hostilities, and to build trust. Five Youth Inclusion and Support Panels have provided further focussed support and monitoring to more than 190 young people in the last year and more than 3,000 Camden school pupils have taken part in “Prison Me? No Way!” and “It’s no Joke” programmes, to educate them about the consequences of getting involved in ASB and crime.

A new reparation scheme has also been introduced to reduce the number of first time entrants to the youth justice system.  Under the scheme, when a young person is arrested for the first time for a low level offence, there is an assessment of their suitability for the scheme and rather than entering the criminal justice system, the young person would be given a ‘one time deal’ to complete a set amount of reparation and be referred to relevant services, such as YISPs, for ongoing intervention and support.  Serious youth violence in Camden is rare and the approach taken has led to reductions in serious youth violence (21 per cent) and knife-enabled crime (34 per cent).

Innovative and strong partnership work by the safer streets team and local communities has contributed to a 92 per cent reduction in rough sleeping. The Safer Streets team has a key role in reducing levels of street activity such as rough sleeping and begging, street drinking, sex working, and drug related activity. The team monitors the levels of this activity, putting people in touch with support services. It has a key role in the on-going implementation of the approach, which is managed at a case-work level through the borough-wide Tasking and Targeting (T and T) model. Key to the approach is the geographically specific multi-agency meetings, which bring together all agencies working with members of the street population, and agree an intervention package.

In 2007 an extra 18 Police and Community Support Officers (PCSOs), alongside 10 borough police constables formed an enhanced team to tackle drug dealing and crime in the Camden Town area. Funding for the PCSOs came from the council and the Metropolitan Police Service. The team has contributed to a sustained decrease in crime with local analysis showing a bigger reduction in Camden Town than in the borough as a whole. To tackle drug dealing in the area there have been two major police-led operations resulting in over 60 drug related arrests over recent months.  In addition, antisocial behaviour legislation was used to address gang-related crime in the Camden Town area, with twelve members of the TMS gang being given full ASBOs.

Tackling antisocial behaviour continues to be a top concern for Camden residents.  The introduction of Antisocial Behaviour Coordinators in each District Housing Office led to increased reports of antisocial behaviour on housing estates. The new Casework system, which records and maps cases of housing related antisocial behaviour, allows more accurate targeting of resources to support this. The Housing Patrol Service has merged with Parks Patrol and the new structure has improved the response to low-level crime and antisocial behaviour.  The areas covered by the street warden team also changed so that wardens patrol areas of the borough with the highest levels of antisocial behaviour. Wardens now cover areas identified through analysis as having significant levels of antisocial behaviour and higher levels of need.

To tackle and prevent burglary, there have been extra police patrols in hotspot areas and more than 500 older and disabled people had home security checks in the last year through the Safe as Houses scheme.  In addition, to reduce the likelihood of re-offending, work is ongoing to ensure all prolific and priority offenders (PPOs) receive a post conviction ASBO with a condition not to associate with other PPOs. Together with other work these actions have helped reduce the number of burglary victims by 20 per cent. The skills and experience of private businesses’ security staff are also successfully used in partnership – such as the night time economy or the radio scheme, which expanded during 2008, to address shoplifting and other crimes against businesses.

Kensington and Chelsea – tackling crime and anti-social behaviour

As a result of local services working together and the effective use of uniformed officers there are significant and lasting falls in crime in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Most types of crimes are reducing in the area including burglary , theft from cars,  violence and knife crimes.

Joint working with the police has included:

• funding to enable the number of PCSOs in every ward in the borough to be, at least doubled to six – in some wards there are ten, with very positive feedback from residents
• appointing four council Safer Neighbourhood Managers  to work alongside Safer Neighbourhood Teams (SNTs) and make sure that issues needing council attention got a quick response
• council funding for

• motorbikes to help catch criminals on scooters or motorbikes who snatch valuables from passers-by
• forensic equipment to increase the chances of capturing useful information at a crime scene to help identify and successfully prosecute criminals
• buttonhole cameras for use in covert operations to catch drug dealers
• a joint police and council target hardening service that secures the homes of vulnerable residents.

Enforcement campaigns and measures to reduce reoffending include:

• multi-agency joint enforcement operations where an area is filled for a day or two at a time with enforcement staff from as many different agencies as possible working together to tackle offending behaviour.
• Making intensive efforts to make Community Payback work in the borough. One of the SNOs has a team of offenders doing clear ups across the borough. Most recently they cleared snow from the homes of vulnerable people.
• a multi-agency protocol for dealing with street drinkers that doesn’t just  move drinkers on or focus on arrest.  Outreach services are available to help tackle the problems street drinkers have. Areas are made less ‘attractive’ to street drinkers, for example taking away walls for them to sit on. Work is contiuning with local off licences to discourage them from selling strong alcohol to known street drinkers.  A borough wide controlled drinking zone has also been introduced, making it an offence to continue drinking when told to stop by a police officer or PCSO.
• a multi-agency protocol for closing down crack houses. This has proved very successful and enabled public landlords to move swiftly and close down such establishments at the same time as supporting what is usually a very vulnerable tenant being preyed on by unscrupulous drug dealers.
• the introduction of the Drug Intervention Programme (DIP). DIP offenders are those caught up in a vicious cycle of drug taking and criminal activity. By motivating and preparing them for the challenge of treatment DIP offers them the opportunity to kick the habit and rebuild their lives.

Preventative measures are also in place such as:

• securing vulnerable properties to prevent burglaries. This usually involves improving locks on doors and windows and, where necessary, replacing weak doors. The service, which uses trusted private contractors, also works with public and private landlords to secure the front entrance doors to properties in multiple occupation. The team also provide enhanced security for vulnerable members of the community, for example victims of domestic violence or race or homophobic crime.
• drawing attention to the dangers of using cannabis.  A particularly effective initiative was a competition for schools (including the Pupil Referral Unit) and youth groups to develop a poster for a major anti-cannabis campaign and to produce a play or film on the same subject. The quality of the posters produced was very high and the winning entry formed an important part of the campaign.
• The Information Exchange Scheme (IES), a groundbreaking initiative in partnership with the London Borough of Camden and the Greater London Authority, draws together information about crime and antisocial behaviour from a wide range of different agencies and enables the results to be analysed and mapped so that complete profiles of hotspot areas can be developed.  This, in turn, enables the police and other agencies to focus their efforts on these hotspot areas. The council is now looking at the second stage of this initiative to make information available to local residents on what is happening in their area.

Why it works

The following are key success factors identified within the case study examples:

• Strong partnerships incorporating a range of partners with a shared vision at both the strategic and operational level
• The willingness of a range of partners to share responsibility for the agenda

• Workforce development so that the approaches to tackling crime and anti-social behaviour are mainstreamed throughout all partners and service areas.

• Incorporation of crime and disorder into wider issues such as regeneration and safeguarding
• Horizon scanning so that partners can target their limited pooled / aligned resources towards identified needs (including communities’ issues)
• Community engagement including involvement in identifying the problem and developing the solution
• Evaluation of activity to see what works and whether plans need to change
• The ability to deal with real-time issues alongside strategic planning
• Showing communities the results and showing that all partners are engaged in dealing with their problems
• Building relationships between staff in different agencies that continue after short-term project work has finished

References and further reading

Audit Commission CAA information

Oneplace – The site includes CAA results for each area, of different local public services and a wide range of information on how these public services are performing.

Trafford

Liverpool Citysafe

Camden Community Safety

Kensington and Chelsea Community Safety