TP thematic performance report

Report: 8
Date: 2 April 2009
By: Assistant Commissioner, Territorial Policing, on behalf of the Commissioner

Summary

This report lists the major areas of attention for Territorial Policing (TP) in the context of improving current performance. It sets out strategic and tactical measures being put in place at both TP and borough level to improve performance in these areas, and contains an update on key aspects of the MPS Safer Neighbourhoods Programme.

A. Recommendation

The Members note the report.

B. Supporting information

Current Performance Priorities

1. Overall performance for the MPS measured against the “critical performance areas” (CPAs) is discussed in detail in another report to this meeting (Headline Performance Report by the Director of Resources - q.v.). That report shows that performance is good, with the MPS on course to achieve all except three of the CPA targets (overall user satisfaction, satisfaction gap between white and minority ethnic victims, and the sanction detection rate for serious acquisitive crime).

2. TP command team is therefore giving attention and resources to these three areas, and two others – (1) reducing residential burglary and (2) increasing public confidence.

3. Analysis suggests that, in common with other police forces, residential burglary is the most vulnerable area of crime reduction performance for the MPS, not only in terms of this year’s target, but in the 2009 / 2010 performance year too. MPS Performance Board has recognised this and has designated burglary as a corporate priority.

4. Internally and externally, increasing public confidence in policing is being seen as one of the most important measures in the delivery of the Citizen Focus agenda, with the Policing Pledge taking a central place in this activity. TP is therefore addressing how the MPS can secure and maintain high levels of satisfaction and confidence, through the consistent delivery of a first class policing service that meets the needs of individuals and of communities and how the MPS can make its services more accessible and improve people's experience of their contact with it, especially victims and witnesses.

5. TP has the lead responsibility for most of the CPAs and also for many of the priorities determined by MPS Performance Board. TP Command Team is mindful of the need to achieve the right balance of resources and effort in all the “priority” areas in which it has lead responsibility. This means that whilst a great deal of strategic and tactical focus is on the subjects mentioned in paragraphs 3-5 above, this cannot be at the expense of other corporate priorities (terrorism, sexual offences, serious youth violence, gun crime, drugs, robbery etc.)

Public confidence

6. Territorial Policing (TP) holds Crime Control Strategy Meetings (CCSMs), organised around the geographical links (South, East, West) where boroughs meet with their link counterparts to discuss a particular theme, review performance to date, share good practice, and explore ideas for improvement. The current theme (late February to mid March) is “Confidence in Policing” and the ideas emerging from each link will be pulled together at a showcase event on March 20th. This will be led by A/DAC Rod Jarman, and 300 key delegates from both the MPS and local authorities have been invited. The Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson and Government Crime Advisor Louise Casey will provide keynote addresses at the event. Delegates will have opportunities to discuss and consult acknowledged leaders in the development of Confidence In Policing from across the organization.

7. The showcase draws together in one place the essential context and connections between the Policing Pledge – Our Promise to the Public, the Confidence In Policing Model and how this work is taken forward within the framework of the Commissioner’s 5 Ps. (Presence, Performance, Productivity, Pride and Professionalism). There will be presentations and discussions about practical operational progress in the four main drivers of confidence:

• effectiveness in crime prevention
• community commitment / engagement
• treatment of the public
• alleviating local anti social behaviour (ASB)

8. The presentations will include examples of practical initiatives. For example, there will be a talk on how Hillingdon’s Community Safety Team and the local authority have together tackled anti-social behaviour over the last twelve months, demonstrating how this links with a notable improvement in the local confidence measure for policing in the borough over the same period. Other boroughs and business groups will demonstrate examples of, and advise on, good practice in keeping victims of crime informed, customer service (including the winners of the customer service awards), engagement with the local community, youth engagement projects, how to improve management of voicemail systems and other initiatives aimed at increasing public confidence.

Residential burglary

9. In order to maintain the effort towards reducing and detecting burglaries, Operation Spotlight continues, with particular concentration on maximising forensic opportunities, enforcing outstanding warrants, and allocating pan-London units to boroughs for anti-burglary operations.

10. TP funding assistance for additional operations carried out on overtime by borough officers will be heavily weighted towards residential burglary operations.

11. The TP Tasking meeting has identified boroughs most at threat in terms of performance on residential burglary from the start of the new performance year. These boroughs will be the first in line for consideration when the deployment of pan-London resources is being discussed and determined.

Sanction Detection Rate for Serious Acquisitive Crime

12. In order to improve sanction detection rates, TP Command Team has set out to improve arrest rates for suspects who are wanted on warrant. Officers from central TP units will be helping boroughs to ensure that they have put in place the right processes, and that these are being followed to good effect.

User satisfaction

13. TP is leading the organisation by introducing new methods (or improving new ones) for keeping victims informed, providing front counter services, training front line officers (e.g. “Key Encounters” training package), and dealing promptly and efficiently with traffic collision incidents. These matters are discussed in another report to this meeting (Headline Performance Report by the Director of Resources - q.v.)

14. A full update on the satisfaction gap between white and minority ethnic victims is presented in a separate report for this meeting.

Public order

15. Public order does not feature noticeably in any performance indicators or measures. However, the requirement to supply officers from boroughs and central units for public order events should be considered when assessing overall performance, particularly as the new performance year will continue to see a heavy commitment of officer numbers to ensure public order and safety at both planned and unplanned events - large demonstrations, sporting events, cross-Borough marches, festivals, ceremonial and state occasions, spontaneous gatherings, security or confidential operations, pan-London events or significant occurrences within the capital. For example, just one week (28th March to 3rd April) will demand a substantial policing commitment for the G20 summit, a TUC march, a fuel demonstration, a “Financial Fool” day, a “Climate Camp in the City”, a BNP protest, the Boat Race, an England World Cup qualifying football match and other events.

Safer Neighbourhoods

16. Safer Neighbourhoods Teams (SNTs) provide visible, accessible and familiar faces to local policing, reducing fear of crime and anti-social behaviour (ASB), and increasing public confidence in the MPS. They provide regular uniformed PC/PCSO patrols in areas of high prominence, regular public meetings to engage the community, ease of contact via telephone, email etc and named officers within the area.

17. This report sets out the current projects that will enhance the success the introduction of Safer Neighbourhoods Teams has been in increasing local confidence in police. At the core of present and proposed approaches is the commitment to teams of 1-2-3 on each ward in London working on priorities agreed with the local community and working in partnerships with residents, statutory partners and others to solve the underlying problems leading to crime, disorder and fear.

18. Compared to the last financial year (07/08) there has been a recent step change in performance for Safer Neighbourhoods with a notable and sustained rise in ‘confidence in local policing’ – an 8% increase over this financial year. MPS performance is detailed within paragraph 44 of this report – q.v.

19. Each of the following projects will complement the SN primary objective – reducing the fear of crime and ASB, and increasing public confidence in the MPS, and will be in addition to the core 1-2-3 model. There will be a more robust supervisory structure, focusing on an enhanced SN Inspector’s role. This will enable improved joint working, better coordination with a complete ‘routes to school/work/leisure’ package, and a visible champion for local youth engagement projects:

A summary of the main projects within the Safer Neighbourhoods portfolio (in addition to the standard Safer Neighbourhoods Team):

Transport Hub Teams (Op. Tyrol):

20. Operation Tyrol was the immediate and visible response to the Mayor’s priority to provide additional resources to enhance policing on the transport system. The operation was launched at 3 pilot sites where analysis had shown high levels of crime and anti-social behaviour. Those locations were West Croydon, Wood Green/Turnpike Lane and Canning Town.

21. Operation Tyrol has three phases:

• Phase 1 - May 2008 to September 2008 - Now completed. During this phase the MPS worked within existing resources to develop the concept at the three pilot
• Phase 2 - September 2008 to December 2008 - In this phase the original three sites were subject to further development. Three full time teams were identified and started work at the locations. Each team consists of 1 PS, 1 PC and 7 PCSOs, replacing the temporary MPS resources. Twenty-seven further suitable locations were jointly identified.
• Phase 3 - January 2009 to June 2009 - Having evaluated phase one and two, the MPS will continue full rollout of the agreed twenty-seven Enhanced Safer Transport Teams, plus an additional two totalling 32 hub teams.

22. The rationale behind the hub identification was agreed with all partners and included; analysis of all bus crime, driver incident reports, calls through the 999 system (CAD), bus-stop and shelter criminal damage and youth data forms.

Safer Transport Teams (STT):

23. Currently there are 21 STTs in place on the outer Boroughs; the staffing levels were recently increased to 3 sergeants, 3 PCs and 21 PCSOs.

24. Please see Appendix 1 for the full details of the hub teams and proposed launch dates.

Safer Schools Partnership (SSP):

25. Each of the 181 priority secondary schools and 59 pupil referral units across London will have a ring fenced dedicated SSP officer. The priority schools have been identified by DCSF data around various indicators, including free school meals, attainment and attendance. All remaining schools, both secondary and primary will have a designated police contact, which in most cases will be from the Safer Neighbourhoods Team (SNT) on the ward where the school is located.

26. An SSP is a mechanism for ensuring a structured joint working between a school and other partners including the police to deliver a safe and secure environment for staff, pupils, parents and visitors.

27. The specific aims of an effective SSP are for that partnership to:

• reduce the prevalence of crime, anti-social behaviour and victimisation amongst young people and to reduce the number of incidents and crimes in schools and their wider communities;
• provide a safe and secure school community which enhances the learning environment;
• engage young people, challenge unacceptable behaviour and help them develop a respect for themselves and their community;
• ensure that young people remain in education, actively learning, healthy and achieving their full potential.

Diamond Districts

28. The London Criminal Justice Board (LCJB) and the MPS are working in partnership to look at reducing the re-offending rates of prisoners released from custody. The London Diamond Initiative will seek to explore the potential for justice re-investment by testing whether enhanced criminal justice and community outcomes can be delivered through a combination of:

• targeting multi-agency resources on resettlement, in areas with high volumes of resident offenders and
• deploying those resources through a model of multi-agency working, anchored to the existing model of Neighbourhood Policing, and compatible with the Integrated Offender Management (IOM) approach.

29. The hypothesis is that it is possible to break the cycle of re-offending, and therefore the demand for custody, by allocating resources ‘at the front end’ on key neighbourhoods where offenders reside. The initial project was rolled out in Lambeth, Lewisham and Newham, with the second phase in Croydon, Southwark and Hackney.

Met Volunteer Programme (MVP)

30. The MVP is now active in all 32 boroughs of London. A key focus of the MVP is on Safer Neighbourhoods and Front Counter support, with over 70 other volunteering roles across the MPS. Currently (December 2008) 185 Met volunteers support SN teams and 570 Met volunteers give their time to front counters. The Met Volunteer Programme is also represented in the Olympic Security Directorate and the training unit at Hendon.

31. Met volunteers bring a range of benefits to SN teams including volunteer support for the Policing Pledge, and represent the diversity of SN wards (the MVP volunteer BME mix is currently 39%, compared to the last London census of 29% and the MPS mix of 11%). With a total of 1467 active volunteers, 18% are aged between 18-24, 42% between 25-49, 20% between 50-64, 14% between 65-75 and 5% aged 75+. 69% are female and 31% male.

Special Constabulary (MSC)

32. The role of MSC officers is predominately to support crime reduction strategies by patrolling and thereby targeting hotspots or undertaking other duties in trained structured groups. In addition they provide aid for pre-planned public order events and crime reduction initiatives throughout the MPS. Many MSC are aligned with Safer Neighbourhood Teams and assist with providing a visible and familiar face to local policing. In addition there is the Operational Support Unit that operates from two bases. The OSU is a dedicated team of MSC and regular officers who are tasked to tackle night time economy and violent crime on a Friday and Saturday night across the Capital.

Employer Supported Policing (ESP)

33. This is an innovative and very powerful partnership between the MPS and employers in a number of industries and services, to help towards making London safer by training and fully empowering their staff members as special police constables. Their employer grants them special leave for their initial training and one day a fortnight for patrols. Successful recruits are usually deployed in an area directly related to the employing industry so that existing skills can be best used i.e. High Street/Town Centre to support the policing model. Backers include HSBC, BT, Mothercare, JD Sports, John Lewis, Sainsbury's, NHS Trusts, universities and around 1/3rd of Local Authorities. In support of the scheme the MPS runs its own scheme for police staff.

The Safer Neighbourhoods Performance Framework

Performance measures

34. The business case for Safer Neighbourhoods rested upon the desire of the MPS to introduce a community-based policing style of operation that would meet the needs of Londoners. It was specifically intended to identify and tackle those crimes and events that disproportionately impact on the quality of life and feelings of security.

35. The criteria for selection of the high level outcomes of the Safer Neighbourhoods programme were that they should reflect the original business case, and were those for which the Safer Neighbourhoods teams could reasonably be held solely or overwhelmingly responsible for the delivery of activity that would affect the relevant outcome measure. The following measures have been identified as the key outcomes of the programme:

• confidence in local police
• understanding the issues that are of concern to the community
• dealing with the issues that are of concern to the community
• community feel informed about local policing
• levels of worry about anti-social behaviour (ASB).

36. The MPS focus on ‘confidence in local policing’ has received added significance by virtue of the fact that since the beginning of the new financial year (2008/09), it is the single Home Office success measure for Policing. However this does not mean previous targets are not relevant, as studies by the Strategic Research and Analysis Unit have identified local confidence is driven by local effectiveness in the following areas:

• effectiveness in crime prevention, crime detection and managing public order/major incidents
• community commitment and engagement
• fair treatment in interactions with the police
• alleviating local ASB

Public Attitude Survey (PAS)

37. In order to assess public perceptions in these key areas, the Safer Neighbourhoods Unit (SNU) monitors relevant survey questions within the quarterly PAS. This currently samples approximately 21,000 adults across London, in face-to-face interviews, and is representative of the diverse nature of our communities. By aggregating these results over a 12-month period, the MPS is able to provide results at CDRP/BOCU level on a quarterly basis.

Performance Management

38. In order to improve public confidence performance significantly across the MPS, a new enhanced and higher profile performance management framework (PMF) is now in place; a diagrammatical representation can be found at Appendix 2. This incorporates performance scrutiny both centrally and at a local level and the provision of detailed performance data to Borough Commanders. Each part of the PMF is detailed below:

39. Matrix visits: the central SNU now undertake monthly visits to all 32 BOCUs. These are based upon a published and circulated matrix of good practice. BOCUs have been required to complete a self-assessment process to identify any areas for improvement, and produce an action plan in order to address these. The SNU link Inspectors discuss progress on the BOCU at both SMT and practitioner level, giving them the opportunity to discuss performance and to identify good practice. These findings are reported to the SNU at monthly performance meetings, with good practice being promulgated to all Boroughs by the link Inspectors.

40. Local performance framework: within the PMF, BOCUs are expected to have in place a local SN performance framework and meeting structure, driven by PAS results and the problem-solving activity around community-selected priorities. This framework should link into the BOCU tasking process, be NIM compliant, and involve key players in tactical and strategic meetings. All BOCUs have been provided with an example meeting structure collated from good practice across the MPS; this can be found at Appendix 3. Compliance with this area is assessed during the matrix visit as per paragraph 40.

41. Link Commanders Performance Meeting: the two Boroughs on each link that are identified as having the most potential to positively impact on MPS performance (as measured by PAS) will be offered a bespoke package of specialist assistance from the centre. This is intended to support them in their identified areas for improvement, and can take the form of advice or a review of processes in a number of areas, including communication, problem solving, ASB management etc. They are then required to attend the Link Commanders Quarterly Performance Meeting (LCQPM), co-chaired by the Link Commander and the ACPO lead for SN, where they will be held to account for their performance, areas for improvement identified, and actions assigned. They are required to put in place an action plan to address the identified areas.

42. Crime Control Strategy Meetings (CCSMs) and showcase: There is an annual Safer Neighbourhoods CCSM, where the ACPO lead holds all the Borough Commanders to account for their performance against the PAS. These meetings, along with the ongoing monthly matrix visits, are used to identify the effective practice that makes up the Showcase event. Here the Boroughs identified as particularly strong in the different drivers of confidence, present their processes to the other Boroughs to assist corporate learning. February-April 2009 sees on-going separate CCSMs covering Public Confidence and Neighbourhood Policing.

Current Performance

MPS Performance

43. Since the beginning of the current financial year (08/09) there has been a significant increase in the levels of public confidence in local policing as measured by the PAS. This is repeated across all the main performance indicators, except worry about anti-social behaviour (ASB) and this is shown in Table 1.

Table 1

Statistically significant improvement against last financial year

N.B. Data is reported quarterly as rolling 12 months. This means that the four quarterly reports are:
Q1 - April, May, June + the previous 9 months
Q2 - July, August, September + the previous 9 months
Q3 - October, November, December + the previous 9 months
Q4 - January, February, March + the previous 9 months

Borough Performance

44. Boroughs are held to account for performance against the above indicators. There is quite a substantial difference in the rates of confidence in local policing, when all the MPS BOCUs are compared. The top and bottom five BOCUs are shown in Table 2. There is ongoing work by the SRAU to identify how the drivers of confidence vary from borough to borough, and many of the good and poor performers are involved in this study.

Table 2

Local recording of activity

45. As the PAS only reports down to BOCU level, there is clearly a need to ensure that individual teams are performing effectively and delivering a quality service to the local residents and businesses. The MPS has a system of recording the day-to-day activity of all its Safer Neighbourhoods Teams on EPIC (an acronym for ‘Enforcement, Prevention, Intelligence and Communication’). This reports the nature of the priorities selected and the number resolved by the team. It also records the level of activity of the team, their partners and the community during the problem solving processes. In addition, it records other general activity, such as the number of pre-planned meetings held, the number and type of public engagements tactics, how many ASB interventions (letters, home visits etc) are completed, the number and type of proactive operations and the number of arrests etc. Details of some of this activity are shown in Table 3 (FYTD).

Table 3

Additional activity to improve satisfaction and public confidence

Communication

46. Studies by the Strategic Research & Analysis Unit show a key component to raising public confidence is their feeling informed about local policing. To this end, the MPS have undertaken a newsletter project, where every household in London will receive a publication every six months, including news and information local to their ward and contact details for their local team. These are produced and distributed centrally, at no cost to the BOCUs. These will be produced in addition to any local newsletters already published.

Internet

47. Every SNT now has an individual Internet page. This includes team photographs, contact details, priorities, events and a ward map. This will be linked through the boroughs web page or the postcode search facility.

Training

48. A Public Attitude Survey and confidence training package was designed and delivered with the assistance of the Central London Training Centre in December 08 to all Safer Neighbourhood Inspectors and Chief Inspectors. This incorporated several practical examples and scenarios to work through in order to improve the confidence levels of a fictitious borough. The feedback from these sessions was overwhelmingly positive, and will be complemented by the Confidence CCSMs in February and March 09.

Research

49. The SRAU have agreed to undertake a research project into “what works” whereby they will examine in detail the drivers for confidence, and the processes in place in 6 differing BOCUs. These will include two Boroughs from both the top and bottom of the confidence tables. This is due to report May 09 and the results will be cascaded to all Boroughs.

Victim visits

50. SN officers will provide a victim reassurance service to those affected by crime. Currently the majority of SN teams visit burglary victims, with some teams visiting other crime victims, but there is no corporate approach. All victims of crime will be offered the opportunity to meet with their local SNT. This will be driven by the first contact with the victim, either by the initial reporting officer or the investigator. The provision of victim visits is seen as a key driver when it comes to providing reassurance and it is felt that this will lead to positive improvements in PAS results.

C. Race and equality impact

1. The MPS cannot achieve its aims without the support of our communities and we are sensitive to the potential impact of the initiatives outlined in this report on particular groups in relation to age, ethnicity and social/cultural background.

2. The activities that form this report and the data content are arrived at with a regard to delivering SN policing services to an equal standard for all Londoners. The PAS data is produced by surveying a demographically representative sample of the community.

3. Improved performance within SNTs will continue to provide improvement in service provision by the MPS to the diverse communities in London. This remains a key driver for ensuring the PMF is effective in both improving confidence and organisational learning.

D. Financial implications

1. As part of the annual budget process, TP includes a tasking fund to support targeted activity during the financial year. This fund is used to give additional financial support to boroughs for specific crime operations.

2. The funding for all of the above projects is constrained within the current MPS budget. The funding for the six Diamond Districts is only to cover a two year pilot and continuation funding for the original three pilot sites has been included in the medium term financial plan. Any extension of the additional three sites, or expansion to cover additional boroughs, would need to be through a future business planning process.

E. Background papers

None

F. Contact details

Report author: Commander Paul Minton (TP Thematic) and Commander Rod Jarman (Safer Neighbourhoods), MPS.

For information contact:

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

Appendix 3

Example local performance meeting structure

DMM

 Daily Management Meeting

TTCG

 Tactical Tasking and Coordination Group (Police tasking)

JAG

 Joint Action Group (Partnership tasking)

Send an e-mail linking to this page

Feedback