Safer communities peer challenge

Overview

We have completed 26 Safer communities peer challenges (CSPs). The challenge has evolved over the last three years and provides a challenging but supportive process. Its central aim is to help community safety partners improve how they deliver outcomes to make local communities safer, drawing on the experience of peers and the best practice in the sector. 2012 is likely to be a challenging year, with the appointment of Police and Crime Commissioners and tightening public sector funding.

A number of CSPs are looking at how the peer challenge process can help them cope with these changes and this means we will be undertaking more peer challenges in 2012 across partnerships and also with a specific focus on coping with large scale change.

Moving with the times

Our approach has been remodelled to:

• have a specific focus on improving partners' productivity
• accelerate practical improvement
• continue to be built around a peer-led 'critical friend' challenge
• be focused around issues agreed with the partners in advance, rather than an assessment against a standard benchmark.

In a time of reducing public sector funding, partners are approaching the LGA to identify practical actions to improve outcomes and productivity. The challenge is designed to closely meet this need.

How the challenge works

The challenge is tailored to meet the specific needs you have. The onsite phase of the challenge takes place over two days in smaller local authority areas, and three days in larger unitary or county areas. There is a small charge for the peer challenge. The challenge will consist of the following stages:

• a scoping exercise with the area's community safety partners
• document review
• onsite work - principally interviews, discussion groups and meeting observation
• key findings and practical suggestions for accelerating improvement, feedback through a workshop event at the end of the team's onsite work
• a brief written report with recommendations
• optional follow-up support.

One option for the challenge is to focus in on a known challenge or area of under-performance the partners are experiencing. This would be determined by the partners themselves. In the past we have focused on youth crime and anti-social behaviour.

The peer challenge team

We take a flexible approach to the composition of the peer team. Tell us what peers would best meet your needs. A standard peer challenge team is made up of five people:

• the team will be led by a serving senior officer with a lead responsibility for community safety
• a police service peer with direct experience in community safety - at least at a Basic Command Unit (BCU) level
• an elected member peer with a community safety portfolio or Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership (CDRP) chair role
• a senior officer with wider community safety experience, for example, fire and rescue service, drug and alcohol action team (DAAT) or anti-social behaviour - focused on a specialism identified by the partners
• an LGA programme manager to act as challenge manager.

The number of people on a challenge team can be flexed, for example, to focus on a specific area in more depth.

Making an impact

In Spring 2011, we undertook a detailed evaluation of our peer challenges, demonstrating the real difference they have made. The headlines from the evaluation included:

• community safety partnerships having the support of a peer challenge have experienced on average a 31 per cent reduction in overall crime compared to a national reduction of 15 per cent over the last two years
• the challenges delivered more than £445,000 of revenue budget savings in 2011.

Safer communities programme evaluation report (PDF, 27 pages, 580KB)

What others say

Julia Stephens-Row, Assistant Director, Suffolk County Council, November 2010:

"For some years now in Suffolk we have been looking at way in which we address community safety. The dynamics of working in a two-tier environment are challenging and it was difficult to look at radical solutions when we were all so close to it.

"One of the key benefits of having the LGA look at us in detail was their ability to review the way we work from an independent and unbiased viewpoint. The options that they showed us really helped to focus our thoughts."

Averil Price, Director of Safer Communities, Chelmsford Borough Council, October 2010:

"You really get out of the process what you are putting into it. If a council provides a good scope of what they want the team to look at they will get a good piece of work back. For us this was about showing that working together in partnership (with another district) would be a good way forward."

Sarah Pickup, Director of Adult Care Services, Hertfordshire County Council, June 2010:

"The peer challenge moved on our thinking on community safety. We had these vague thoughts we might want to go for integration with the police but we really needed a trigger to move that forward. The council was really pleased with the outcome."

Further information

For more information on the Safer Communities peer challenge and peer challenges in general, please contact:

Neil Shaw
Programme Manager, LGA
Telephone: 07876 688987
Email: neil.shaw@local.gov.uk