Gateshead District Council are leading a new joint working between CDRPs and local Criminal Justice Boards.

Download as PDF: Improving the Link between CDRPs and Local Criminal Justice Boards

Background

Gateshead is the largest of the five Tyne and Wear districts in North East England, has a population of 190,643 and a mix of urban and rural areas.

The Safer Gateshead Partnership is led by six Responsible Authorities: Gateshead Council, Northumbria Police, Northumbria Police Authority, Gateshead Primary Care Trust, Northumbria Probation and Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service. The partnership also involves a range of other public, private, voluntary and community sector organisations including The Gateshead Housing Company, Gateshead Magistrates court, Victim Support and Nexus.

Northumbria Criminal Justice Board (NCJB) is one of 42 across the country and works to prevent crime and work together on issues relating to victims, witnesses and offenders.  The NCJB has a number of multi-agency sub groups, such as Domestic Violence, Youth Justice and Victims & Witnesses. Each Local Authority area has a Local Delivery Group.  In Gateshead this is chaired by the Deputy Justice Clerk and there is representation from the CDRP.

The Northumbria Criminal Justice Board identified the need for much stronger joint working to tackle public perceptions of crime. It was recognised that, while considerable progress had been made in reducing crime, public perceptions did not correspond with this.  Criminal Justice agencies were all looking to develop methods of consultation and engagement to improve confidence.  The Board approached Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships (CDRPs) across the region and Safer Gateshead responded positively to joint working, resulting in a number of activities.

WHAT THEY DID

Public Reassurance and Engagement Group

The partners formed a Public Reassurance and Engagement Group, which at first was Gateshead-wide, involving partners such as the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), Police Authority, Probation Service, Criminal Justice Board (CJB) etc.

The group started by mapping out exactly what consultation and engagement activities each of the partners were currently doing and then organised joint activities to bring the partners together.

Improved structures

The courts were not historically part of the CDRP and vice versa.  The structures were amended so that the Chair of the Local Delivery Group sat on the Safer Gateshead Executive Group and a representative from the Safer Communities team sat on the Local Delivery Group.  At all times the requirement of the courts to maintain judicial independence is respected.  There were some common agenda items, including community engagement and building confidence. The move towards greater community engagement began with a programme called Magistrates in the Community, run by the Magistrates Association, including interactive mock trial sessions with junior school children.  The courts enjoy a longstanding good relationship with the Council and were also able to call on the expertise of the community safety team when it came to community engagement.

Events

“What happens to Robert?”

One of the Gateshead Local Delivery Group’s most successful initiatives was to organise a full day workshop called “What happens to Robert?”. This event, held in March 2009, gave community representatives and front line workers the chance to find out exactly how the various agencies would work together in Gateshead to deliver criminal justice for a fictitious young man. The partners worked together to plan and deliver the range of presentations and materials.

“Robert” was already known to the Police and was picked up by the Youth Offending Team, and arrested.  Early intervention methods were explained, including the young persons substance misuse team SMART demonstrating work they carry out with young people – including using beer goggles. A DVD showed viewers what went on inside the arrest suite and the CPS explained how they brought evidence forward and supported and cared for witnesses. There was a mock trial with the magistrate explaining the court process and sentencing guidelines   Community orders were explained and probation officers took part in role play to explain their role and what community payback was all about. The day ended with a Question Time panel.

Feedback from participants was interesting: while there is usually tendency for the public to say the authorities are too lenient, when Robert’s case was fully explained, most of those who observed said they thought he was innocent of the charges.

“Access to Justice”

Another initiative was the “Access to justice” event, which was structured around giving people with disabilities information about the Criminal Justice System and what agencies can do to support them through the system. The event also explained disability hate crime. Scenario’s were used with each agency represented to try and bring criminal justice to reality.

Focus on Felling – Connecting Communities – Week of Action

The Government’s Connecting Communities budget seeks to provide a programme of activity in communities suffering disproportionately from the effects of the recession and where there is potential disengagement and disaffection. Gateshead made a successful bid in respect of Felling Ward (a rather isolated neighbourhood in Gateshead where engagement levels were poor).  The Gateshead bid was threefold: to develop a Neighbourhood Agreement, to improve confidence in the criminal justice system and to myth bust with local councillors.  A Week of Action was planned in March 2010 during which all the activities would take place.  The week included story-telling, archery, hula hoop fitness and after-school activities. Healthy ‘Cook and Eat’ sessions are also being organised, with free fruit and vegetable packs, as well as health walks and free health MOTs. The Gateshead Housing Company organised a series of clean-up days where local people could get involved in making their area a cleaner place to live.

During the week residents also had the chance to speak to organisations involved in the criminal justice system.  They were invited to share their views and contribute to developing a criminal justice ‘myth busting’ leaflet which will be distributed throughout the area. Residents could join the Police Area Commander on a walkabout and raise issues or concerns.  One local councillor said “this week is [also] about learning, gaining a proper understanding of the criminal justice system and having some of the myths around immigration dispelled. The Chief Superintendent said: “We’re very keen to increase public confidence and that starts with understanding their issues. This week of activity forms a key part of that work.”

Progress and roll out

Public Reassurance and Engagement

As the partnership progressed, involvement has widened across the region and the group became a formal Northumbria-wide subgroup of the Criminal Justice Board for Public Reassurance and Engagement, involving:

• Northumbria Criminal Justice Board
• Northumbria Police
• Northumbria Police Authority
• 6 CDRPs
• CPS
• Courts
• Government Office North East
• Prisons

The partners are now looking at how they can run practical campaigns together.

Perception Surveys

In the past each locality carried out its own resident community safety survey but there was clear duplication of effort among the various agencies involved.  After careful analysis of existing surveys, community safety partner agencies across different geographical boundaries (Sunderland, Newcastle, Gateshead, South and North Tyneside) decided to work together to develop a single safer communities survey.  The work, led by Northumbria Police, has resulted in a single data source, giving the partners a collective understanding of residents’ local priorities and thus driving a partnership response to improving public confidence.  The Tyne and Wear Community Safety Survey stripped out duplication and identified critical community safety questions that could inform action to improve public confidence, feelings of safety and confidence in the criminal justice system.  Expert advice came from Newcastle University through a research project with the Northumbria Local Criminal Justice Board.

The quarterly survey findings will help the Public Reassurance Group target its work more effectively.  For example, where residents feel that sentencing is too light or community payback is a soft option, information may be targeted to help tackle myths. The partners needed to agree a governance framework for the survey, covering analysis and reporting; agreement of strategic aims; delivery of local actions; the central collation of all actions across the partnerships and an assessment of their impact on community safety.

Structures

The improved structure has meant that communication and understanding have improved through better representation and information sharing.  This has helped with some practical and, on the face of it, quite banal issues such as the layout of the courts, which was unhelpful to witnesses and victims.  There had been only one approach to Gateshead Law Courts, but the CDRP was able to fund the building of a new path to the rear of the court building, which gave witnesses and victims safer and more private access to the building.

THE IMPACT

The Tyne and Wear Community Safety Survey is in a way, an outcome of the mapping and better partnership working.  Up to this point each locality did its own survey but these have now been consolidated into one quarterly survey which will help to drive the work of the Public Reassurance group and provide a measure of impact.

There is scope now for better cooperation on specific policy campaigns, for example during the World Cup period, a concerted campaign to tackle domestic violence, with localities able to help each other in a more joined up way.

The separate access to the law courts has also been widely regarded as significant in reassuring victims and witnesses.

The partners in the courts and CDRP have spoken on both sides of a new accessibility in their dealings with each other, which was simply not present before: “we can just pick up the phone”.

LESSONS

The experience of those involved suggests the following lessons for others:

A great deal of information is now available to partnerships: research, conferences and consultations, but in the end “you just have to get on with it”.  You need to work across the spectrum of engagement – from front line one-on-one engagement mechanisms to big, high profile events where all the partners are represented.

Big events need to be targeted and focus on the needs of the public. Partners need to be well prepared and fully briefed about their audience. “Keep talking and don’t think that people are not interested in what you’re doing, because they are”.

The partners have recognised the value of investing in innovative approaches: make DVDs, create role plays, mock trials and other interactive processes.  Once the materials have been developed they can be re-used as subsequent events. Using a fictitious character (Robert) rather than real life examples was the best approach because it removed any concerns about confidentiality, whilst bringing the Criminal Justice System to life.

Make sure structures are right and embedded.  The partners in Gateshead are confident that they have the right structures in place to encourage dialogue and discussion between the CDRP and LCJB. At a local level don’t get bogged down with theory about what the meaning of community engagement: you need effective structures and practical measures.

Working well together suggests that you should:

• Identify common agendas. Potential key areas of common interest between CDRPs and LCJBs are:

• tackling prolific and other priority offenders
• engaging communities – including work to increase confidence in the wider Criminal Justice System
• reducing domestic violence
• reducing re-offending

• Focus on specific geographies:
  • Develop CDRP clusters or mergers
  • LCJB working with targeted CDRPs – use the National Intelligence Model
  • LCJB operational sub-groups on particular themes relating to common agendas

• Communicate

• Make sure links at a strategic level are formalised
  • Use overlapping membership at meetings to improve communication channels
  • Formalise responsibilities – who is doing what.
  • Talk to each other and be receptive. Remember why you need to engage in the first place.

The courts have gradually been getting to grips with how far they can go with community engagement – it is a delicate path to tread, but it has been helpful for them to explain to people how witnesses are treated and the rationale behind sentencing.

Evidence

The new survey will be the main measure of changes in perceptions.  It is only in its first cycle at present and so comparing it directly with earlier surveys (which measured slightly different things in a slightly different way) would not be appropriate.  There does however already seem to be an encouraging shift in residents’ perceptions about antisocial behaviour.

FURTHER INFORMATION

Contact:

Carole Gibson

Community Safety Co-ordinator

Safer Gateshead Partnership

Gateshead Council

carolegibson@gateshead.gov.uk

Louise Fletcher:

Deputy Justice Clerk

Gateshead Magistrates Court

louise.fletcher@hmcourts-service.gsi.gov.uk