Measuring community engagement

Report: 6
Date: 25 June 2003
By: Commissioner

Summary

MPA members are keen to tailor consultation to local conditions. This report informs the MPA of proposed MPS work to measure consultation at a local level and seeks comment to guide the scoping work.

A. Recommendation

That members note the report.

B. Supporting information

1. One of the key elements of implementing the draft consultation strategy will be to understand exactly what consultation is currently occurring across London and how effective it is. This will enable us to tailor future consultation mechanisms to local or crime specific conditions. We will need to know this at two levels - pan London Operational Command Units (OCUs) and local Borough Operational Command Units (BOCUs). The MPS intends to scope how this can be achieved.

2. The potential size of this work could be daunting. At its most extreme we could try to measure consultation for each of the eight priority groups plus general citizens across each of the 32 BOCUs - creating a matrix of 288 measures immediately. Adding in the pan London functions of gun crime, murder, sex offences, diversity and hate crime, economic crime, and terrorism takes this to 345 measures. The scoping work will aim to:

• explore how this work can be tackled cost effectively whilst still providing information of sufficient detail to drive this element of the Consultation Strategy;
• examine whether to measure consultation activity and/or how engaged communities feel after the consultation;
• examine how frequently the work can/should be repeated;
• estimate the resource and cost implications of the work.

3. Other benefits will be:

• identification and elimination of overlap and duplication
• identification of areas of over-consultation;
• identification good practice;
• increased transparency and accountability.

4. This report aims to inform the Consultation Committee that we are starting this scoping work and seeks comments that might help guide our thinking.

5. Timescales –the scoping work should be completed in time for a further report back to the September Consultation Committee. The scoping report will contain an estimate of when the actual measurement of community engagement could be complete.

C. Equality and diversity implications

There are no equalities and diversity implications other than those routinely considered whilst arranging consultation and performance measurement.

D. Financial implications

The cost of the scoping work, estimated at £2,250, can be met from existing budgets and part of the scoping will be to estimate the costs of measuring community engagement.

E. Background papers

None.

F. Contact details

Report author: Supt Chas Bailey, Strategic Consultation Manager, MPS.

For more information contact:

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

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