Agenda item

The following officers/ representatives will be in attendance to provide the Panel with an overview of locality working and the impact this has had in the community towards crime and anti-social behavior.

 

Adam Parkinson- Senior Neighbourhood Development Manager

 

Melanie Boyce Neighbourhood Safety Officer. 

 

Kim May Streets Ahead

 

Councillor Chris Cooke – Ward Councillor for Newport Ward

 

Sgt Steve Pattison- Cleveland Police

 

The Chair welcome Adam Parkinson, Senior Neighbourhood Development Manager to the meeting along with fellow colleagues from the Council, Streets Ahead and Cleveland Police to provide an overview of locality working and its impact on local communities.

 

The Panel members were advised of the purpose of locality working:

 

Locality working involves a system change to the current operational delivery model across Council services. It seeks to achieve joined-up systems and reconfigure relationships between statutory organisations, partners and the community. It will involve developing collaborative approaches to address the underlying causes of community problems and build capacity within the community in order for residents to take charge of their own future, to have a strong voice and to build social capital and connections within the community. It was agreed that Locality Working would commence with two pilots in North Ormesby and Newport

.

The Manager outlined that one of the main aspects of locality working was to provide communities with a strong voice and to allow joint working with a specific area to tackle issues.

 

The two pilot schemes commenced in April 2020 and would run for 2 years.

A business case was drawn up at the beginning of the pilot for each area and the Manager provided information surrounding this:

 

Business Case

The Newport Ward is the 5th most deprived ward in Middlesbrough moving from the 123rd most deprived ward nationally in 2007 to the 38th most deprived ward in 2015.

 

The North Ormesby Ward is the most deprived ward in Middlesbrough and the 2nd most deprived ward in England. Newport had the 3rd highest number of recorded Racially Motivated crimes with only Central and North Ormesby having more. With all three wards having more than double the Middlesbrough average per 1,000 population.

 

In addition, these wards had the highest level of antisocial behaviour per 1,000 population in 2018/19. Newport Ward had the 2nd highest rate of female victims of violent crime per 1,000 population in 2018/19 with only North Ormesby having more. When looking at alcohol related hospital admissions to James Cook University Hospital, Newport Ward had the 3rd highest number of admissions in 2018/19 and in the previous year it was 2nd highest. When looking at alcohol and substance related ambulance pick-up data, Newport Ward had the 3rd highest level of recorded pick-ups with only North Ormesby and Central having higherlevels. When looking at incidents reported to Middlesbrough Council in 2019, Newport Ward had the highest number of low level antisocial behaviour and environmental crimes and 2nd highest level of fly-tipping.

 

From consultation, and data, a number of high level objectives were put in place for each area:

 

·         Healthier population

·         People feel safe

·         Increase satisfaction in environmental standards

·         Improve perception of community cohesion

·         Improve physical appearance of neighbourhood

·         Improve customer experience (Council and partners)

·         Build Community Capacity

·         Improve economic outcomes

·         Better outcomes for children

 

The Panel were made aware that each objective was tracked through 7 overarching action plans in each locality and has an assigned officer. These action plans are reviewed monthly however they do a monthly run through of actions to professionally monitor and work with partners to address issues.

Through developing the model, and as community priorities become apparent, or certain issues have been identified, sub groups and action plans have been developed to respond specifically to the ward level issues.

In terms of benefits and outcomes, the Manager explained some of the following benefits from the pilot:

 

Benefit	Description
Improved public perception within the 2 localities	Improved perception of: Crime, ASB, ability to influence decision making, community cohesion, ability of LA and partners to tackle local issues . The Manager advised that a perceptions survey is sent out every 6 months  . this looks at perceptions and interests and these are used to track and improve services. The responses are used to direct the action plans. Despite Covid, there has also been social action which has been extremely effective.
Improved outcomes for Children and families	Reduction in the number of Children looked after. Reduction in the number of children subject to sexual exploitation and criminal exploitation Increased educational attainment
Improved physical environment	This was a clear community priority for both areas. Cleaner environmental standards engaging with the community to share responsibility. Reduction in the number of people raising issues that have been reported but not dealt with.
Stronger communities	Communities that engage and take shared ownership of local issues.  Increasing community resilience and ensuring they feel listen to and valued, especially with the environmental areas e.g. recent art work installed in Ayresome gardens which involved the local schools and defined the space for the whole community.
Improve user experience	A single point of contact within the community for the public and professionals will remove time spent navigating services improving user experience. The ethos of ‘make every contact count’.
Right service first time.	As the pilot areas will provide a single source for coordinating referrals and signposting information
Having a multifaceted team will encourage the sharing of knowledge and skills and result in an improved customer experience	The pilots will bring together staff from multiple areas across the Council and partners agencies, meaning more knowledge and information will be available to inform decision making on referrals which will lead to efficiency gains. This is not replacing any referral pathways but it means we are able to respond more appropriately.
Utilise all services	By having access to all services available including voluntary sector, the load will be spread across a wider range of providers easing pressures particularly on social care.
Support for integrated working	The pilot will put into practice the key principles of integrated working including relationship building, improved communications, information sharing, pooled budgets, joint planning and management of resources. These will provide a governance framework and working practices that can be re-used by future integrated working initiatives

 

 

The Manager provided information on the staffing resource within the locality areas, this was allocated at the beginning of the pilot, however since, the partners have widened including housing solutions team, Project adder, Fire and Cleveland Police and a stakeholder group has been developed (including the community , partners and schools) will allows joint working.

 

Following the initial information regarding the model, the Manager provided information regarding work undertaken in the pilot areas to combat crime and anti-social behavior:

 

•       Allocated resource for both Localities

•       Working groups for specific issues and actions.

•       Police led action plan around People feeling safe.

•       Dedicated action plan for Drugs and drug related issues.

•       Weeks of action and ward specific operations (last week of action completed in January in Newport on speeding)

•       Joint meetings with dedicated officers to assist with diversion, engagement and assistance (youth provision, drug and alcohol)- moving forward that issues do not occur.

•       Community engagement- placing and residents and business owners at the heart of the community.

•       Regular drop in events for Police and Council teams to offer assistance and opportunities for face to face reporting.

•       Regular community feedback.

•       Increase in high level intervention – life of model, in Newport, there has been 9 successful house closures. These were all linked in some way to drug dealing and high level anti-social behaviour. Property close for 3 months and no access is permitted during this time.

•       Increased community intelligence and officer knowledge due to wider team and joint working.

 

In terms of indicators used by the locality model, the latest data was as follows:

 

Incidents of ASB	Q1 20/21	Q2 20/21	Q3 20/21	Q4 20/21	Q1 21/22	Q2 21/22	Q3 21/22
Newport	523	349	374	244	258	232	172
North Ormesby	157	86	122	76	98	106	64

 

Incidents of Police reported crime	Q1 20/21	Q2 20/21	Q3 20/21	Q4 20/21	Q1 21/22	Q2 21/22	Q3 21/22
Newport	151	185	177	144	219	196	165
North Ormesby	46	68	60	51	67	65	67

 

Incidents of Public reported crime	Q1 20/21	Q2 20/21	Q3 20/21	Q4 20/21	Q1 21/22	Q2 21/22	Q3 21/22
Newport	595	694	672	588	685	672	632
North Ormesby	192	214	215	232	244	297	247

 

The model has also increased information sharing and helped to centre the approach to dealing with high levels of anti-social behaviour, which has resulted in an increase in high level interventions  with 9 House Closures, 3 Civil Injunctions and 9 injunction breaches taking place within Newport.

 

There has also been a noticeable decline in incidents of anti-social behaviour.

The incidents reported to the Police and incidents of public reported crime were comparable to 2019/20 data and what can be seen is a spike in the data in Q2 20/21 when covid restrictions were eased.

 

In terms of perception data, key questions are asked every 6 months and from there actions are put in place to ensure they are responded to. 

 

Feeling that Crime and ASB is improving in Newport

* % of individuals indicating measure is a very or fairly big problem, desired outcome percentage decrease.

April 2020 - 80.65%                                                                            October 2021-            44.29%

Improvement in perception of gang nuisance Newport * % of individuals indicating measure is a very or fairly big problem, desired outcome percentage decrease.

April 2020- 64.51%                                                                 October 2021- 36.91%

Feeling that Crime and ASB is improving North Ormesby

April 2020- 86.95                                                                                October 2021-            74.12%

Improvement in perception of gang nuisance North Ormesby

April 2020- 71.74%                                                                 October 2021-             77.14%

Whilst the figures were promising, the officer advised there was always room for improvement.

Perception survey in both localities were completed in September 2020 a further survey linked to indicators was completed in March 2021 and again in October 2021.  The survey was open to everyone who lives in in the pilot areas and covid significantly affected the way the survey way carried out. At the last survey, there were around 200 respondent’s (approx. 2% of the ward) , and therefore whilst its pleasing , there was further work to be done to capture perceptions. The Manager advised that in the next round of surveys, they would be taken to community events to try and capture more views.

·         Perceptions of feeling safe during the day in Newport have risen from 31.18% of respondents feeling very safe or fairly safe in September 2020 to 35.49% in March 2021 to 68.65% in October 2021.

·         Perceptions of feeling safe during the day in North Ormesby have risen from 32.61% of respondents feeling very safe or fairly safe in September 2020 to 51.51% in March 2021 to 77.14% in October 2021. 

·         Perceptions of feeling safe after dark in Newport have risen from 9.68% of respondents feeling very or fairly safe on an evening in September 2020 to 12.90% in March 2021 to 48.98%.

·         Perceptions of feeling safe after dark within North Ormesby have risen from 13.04% of respondents feeling very or fairly safe on an evening in September 2020 to 21.21% in March 2021 to 31.42%. 

The Manager further outlined that they had been successful in funding from safer streets , which was used to increase CCTV in the ward, which has added to further levels of safety amongst residents. Further funding through VWAG (Safer Streets 3) has also been secured and this along with Street Warden visibility adds to increasing perceptions, along with other resources within the area.

The Panel acknowledged the success of the two pilots, but queried whether locality working would be rolled out into other areas of the town. In response, the Director of Environment and community services advised that once the two year pilot has completed, an evaluation would be carried out and from there, other areas would be explored for locality working to go forward.  This would explore timescales for rolling out in further areas, however locality working would not be stopping in Newport nor North Ormesby.

At present, in areas where there are high levels of anti-social behavior, the council and partners are working with residents to put in place other preventative measures.

 

Additional officers in attendance provided their account of the success of the scheme:

 

Councillor Cooke- Ward councilor

 

“locality working is the best thing that was introduced. People faith has increased and have started to report things, however no one believed in the council to report these (which is why the reporting has gone up), however now issues get resolved and we have an all whole system approach e.g if an alley is trashed, we look at why ,and how this can be prevented from happening again- this is a success”.

“locality working was needed in Newport and from the perceptions surveys, it shows that the model works”.

 

 

Kim May- streets ahead

 “ Streets ahead has been here since 2006, we are a community and charity organisation and we provide a one stop shop and we were at one point the only one. The difference that locality working has made to the area has been amazing. You used to have to go round the houses to find an officer to report a problem, but we now go to Adam and his team and we know that things will be sorted. Residents feel safer and I am really pleased that locality is continuing as without it we would be lost and we are working smarter”

 

Detective Steve Pattison, Cleveland Police

“ Locality working does work, and by talking to each other, we get results through partnership working and breaking down barriers which were once there. The statistics show that when you start making an impression in an area, crime reporting may increase, because public perception has increased with the services that are being delivered and you get more intelligence”.

“The police work closely with the local authority , for example, there are officers currently working alongside trading standards and officers have helped the local authority do untaxed vehicles “.

 

Melanie Boyce -Community Safety Officer for selective landlord licensing. 

“ from my perception locality working has helped me and enhanced what I can do in the community. We work with other partners e.g. the police, but I know I have that direct contact and if I have to go on visits I can go with them. I do foot patrolled with PCSO’s and therefore residents get to know who I am, and what I am trying to achieve. If there is an issue relating to anti-social behavior, I look at a holistic approach and talk to other partners e.g. children’s services/ schools to ascertain the problem and work out how we can address these”.

 

The Chair thanked the officers for their time and information.

 

AGREED: That the information be noted.