MPA update on the Community Engagement Commitment Action Plan

Report: 5
Date: 14 February 2011
By: Chief Executive

Summary

The following report provides examples of the community engagement work which has been undertaken by the MPA.

A. Recommendation

That Members note the content of this report.

B. Supporting information

1. The MPA/MPS Community Engagement Commitment was approved at the July 2010 meeting of the MPA Full Authority Committee.

2. The accompanying MPA community engagement action plan was not signed off at this time. The Communities Equalities and People (CEP) committee Members were keen for the MPA action plan to be bought to a future meeting of the CEP Committee along with the draft MPS community engagement action plan. Members wanted to assess and explore the alignment between the two plans and ensure that opportunities for collaboration were identified and acted on. However as the MPS have not yet produced a draft action plan for Members, this assessment of the two action plans has not yet taken place at committee.

3. The MPA action plan is therefore still in its draft format. However as community engagement work is key to MPA delivery, the activities outlined in the plan are being taken forward by MPA officers.

4. Some of the MPA community engagement work outlined in the draft plan is ‘business as usual.’ For example:

• Ensuring the MPA public website is kept up to date;
• Ensuring the MPA takes up opportunities available within the GLA family to promote the work of the MPA;
• Providing opportunities for Community Police Engagement Groups members and their member organisations to inform MPS policy and service development.

5. However, alongside these day to day activities, the last six months have also included a few notable and successful community engagement activities. Three examples are listed below:

• The Policing, Planning and Performance Improvement (PPPI) Unit are responsible for the annual public consultation entitled ‘Have Your Say on Policing in London.’ This consultation is undertaken to inform the Policing London Business Plan. It takes the form of a survey and is a key method the MPA utilises to find out what Londoners want from their police service. The consultation asks Londoners (or anyone who works or travels in London) for details of their priorities for policing in London. The consultation comprises two parts, a long qualitative questionnaire (available on line, paper copy or telephone survey) and a short tick box questionnaire. The long qualitative questionnaire asks people for their priorities for policing in London, reasons why these are their priorities and what they want the police to do to tackle these priorities. The short tick box questionnaire asks people to identify their top three policing priorities for London from a set list. Both types of questionnaire collect demographic information.

Questions around policing priorities are also included in the MPS Public Attitudes Survey and MPS schools survey. Both surveys are considered by the PPPI unit together with results from other relevant surveys around London during the consultation analysis stage.

Initial analysis of the 2010 consultation responses indicates the best response to date with almost 900 long qualitative questionnaire submissions and over 1,000 short tick box questionnaire submissions. In addition, business (an often under consulted group) were specifically targeted in the consultation and they submitted 72 responses.

The majority of the community/public events that the PPPI were invited to attend in order to conduct the survey was via invitations from Safer Neighbourhoods (SN) teams. SN Teams were asked by the PPPI to send the MPA information on upcoming events at which PPPI could utilise the survey. Examples of events attended, included: attendance at the annual Biggins Hill Air Show youth day; attendance at a number of local SN community consultation events at supermarkets, public parks and youth clubs; and, taking part in a crime prevention and community safety event at Westfield Shopping Centre.

A number of SN teams reported back to PPPI that they had found the MPA consultation helpful. It had provided them with opportunities to hear from Londoners who did not normally take part in community police engagement opportunities.

Responses to the 2010 consultation are currently being analysed to present to MPA members and MPS officers/staff for consideration when formulating the MPA/MPS policing priorities.
A newsletter setting out results of the consultation and MPA/MPS work to address priorities will also be sent to all members of the public who took part in the consultation.

• In the summer 2010, The MPA Civil Liberty Panel undertook a survey into Londoners views on the National DNA database and the use of DNA in policing. The panel was set up to develop an understanding of civil liberties and human right issues and the consequences this has for policing within London.

Recognising that it was necessary to provide a range of opportunities to encourage community involvement in the DNA consultation a number of consultation methods were provided to Londoners. These were: invitations to Member led open public meetings; opportunities to submit written submissions; borough consultations via Community Police Engagement Groups and an on line survey to which over 600 Londoners responded.

Analysis of the findings has been completed and Policing Policy Oversight and Scrutiny (PPSO) officers are now working on the DNA report.

• Finally, the MPA has recently completed a comprehensive six month consultation for the SN scrutiny. It was agreed the MPA would undertake targeted, rather than open consultation, with experts and community volunteers in order to ensure responses were focused on the scrutiny objectives. Again a range of consultation methods were utilised by PPSO in order to provide multiple opportunities for experts and community volunteers to take part. These included: six formal scrutiny session facilitated by scrutiny panel Members, four focus groups with police officers of various ranks and grades and Police Community Support Officers; one community volunteers focus group with SN panel chairs and Community Police Engagement Group members; attendance at a meeting of the Enfield Community Police Engagement Group Management Board; informal visit and interview with the Hackney Safer Schools Partnership; a shadowing visit with the Greenwich West SN team and finally a number of informal meetings with Home Office and Greater London Authority representatives. Information from public meetings, such as the London Assembly plenary session into policing and MPA Full Authority meetings was also taken into consideration.

Whilst the individuals who took part in the consultation could not be said to be representative of the police service or Londoners, the information highlighted a uniformity of opinion about what is needed in regards to SN policing.

The draft SN scrutiny report will be presented at the February 2011 joint meeting of the Finance and Resources and Strategic and Operational Policing Committee.

C. Other organisational and community implications

Equality and Diversity Impact

1. The MPA/MPS are committed to providing accessible, multiple opportunities for Londoners to engage with the MPA and MPS in sharing policy and practice. The above examples of MPA community engagement over the last seven months demonstrate how the MPA has taken forward this particular commitment.

Met Forward

2. Ensuring the MPA had a corporate community engagement approach was a key requirement of Met Connect.

Financial Implications

3. There are no financial implications to this report.

Legal Implications

4. There are no legal implications to this report.

Environmental Implications

5. There are no environmental implications to this report.

Risk Implications

6. There are no risk implications to this report.

D. Background papers

None

E. Contact details

Report author: Hamera Asfa Davey, Community Engagement and Neighbourhood Policing Officer, MPA

For information contact:

MPA general: 020 7202 0202
Media enquiries: 020 7202 0217/18

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