Measuring community consultation – scoping paper

Report: 8
Date: 22 September 2003
By: Commissioner

Summary

In order to deliver their joint consultation strategy, the MPA and MPS need to know the current situation with respect to community consultation and engagement activity being carried out by the MPS. Currently no clear picture exists of this activity across London, so no assessment can be made about its effectiveness. This paper describes the key stages in a process which will be used to identify what community consultation and engagement activity MPS units are currently undertaking.

As a result of carrying out the process, the MPA/MPS will have a snapshot, from the MPS’ point of view, of the community consultation and engagement activity being carried out by the MPS with Londoners at a point in time. It will provide a baseline position from which further questions can be asked and future plans can be made.

A. Recommendations

That

1. the proposed process for identifying what consultation and engagement is currently being carried out by the MPS is adopted; and
2. that further work to develop the proposed process, as described in the Next Steps section of the paper, is commissioned.

B. Supporting information

Background

1. In order to deliver their joint consultation strategy, the MPA and MPS need to know the current situation with respect to community consultation and engagement activity being carried out by the MPS. Currently no clear picture exists of this activity across London, so no assessment can be made about its effectiveness.

2. The MPS’ Internal Consultancy Group (ICG) was asked to scope a process which could be used to identify what community consultation and engagement is currently being carried out by the MPS.

3. This paper describes the key stages in a process which will be used to identify what community consultation and engagement activity MPS units, both Borough OCUs and HQ OCUs, are currently undertaking. If this process is agreed, further work needs to be commissioned to develop and implement the process.

4. Since this process will only identify the activity which is being carried out, more work will be required, in the future, to find out how effective the activity is.

Scope of the process

5. The scope of the process was agreed with Julia Smith, Manager of Consultation & Diversity, MPA and Chas Bailey, MPS Consultation Co-ordinator. The process will not include an assessment of how effective the consultation is or the impact it has. The process will only cover activity undertaken by the MPS across London.

6. This includes:

• work undertaken in partnership with other organisations
• work undertaken on behalf of the MPS by other organisations

7. This does not include:

• work undertaken nationally or internationally by the MPS
• work undertaken by the MPA or GLA

8. At this stage only MPS units will be asked for their views, views will not be sought from representatives of the communities being consulted.

Product

9. As a result of carrying out the process, the MPA/MPS will have a snapshot, from the MPS’ point of view, of the consultation and engagement activity being carried out by the MPS with Londoners at a point in time. It will provide a baseline position from which further questions can be asked and future plans can be made.

The process

10. Appendix 1 outlines the key stages of the recommended process.

Who is being consulted?

11. It is proposed that MPS personnel on all Boroughs are consulted, from Chief Superintendent to Sector Inspector level, and representatives from selected Business Group units (to be determined during the planning stage). This will be a total of around 500 people.

What questions are being asked?

12. This is a key element of the process. Appendix 2 makes proposals about the questions to be asked. It would be impossible to gather information on all the consultation activity taking place. Therefore it is proposed that respondents are asked to identify the last 5 occasions on which they consulted, during the last 12 months, as the basis for their responses.

13. The committee is asked to agree the proposals in Appendix 2.

How are the questions asked?

14 There are a number of methods that could be used and advice has been sought both inside and outside the MPS. It is recommended that, following an initial focus group or groups with unit representatives to agree the questions to be asked, an electronic survey is carried out, based on the MPS’ Intranet. This is a process that has been used successfully within the MPS on several occasions recently. As the information collected will provide a snapshot of the current situation, the results of the survey should be followed up by more targeted interviews and/or focus groups, based on identified good practice, patterns or gaps in the information.

Who asks the questions?

15. See the Financial Implications section below.

Other characteristics of the process

16 It was also agreed that the process must be:

• Repeatable (i.e. not so expensive and/or time consuming that it would not be effective to repeat it in the future)
• The process outlined could be completed by the end of March 2004 in order to inform next year’s planning process. The process outlined would not be so expensive as to make it in uneconomic to repeat in future.
• Compliant with the Race Relations Amendment Act. See Equality & Diversity section below.
• Compliant with Home Office’s Policing Performance Assessment Framework (PPAF)
  PPAF is still in the early stages of development, but indications are that the process described here will be compliant. It is recommended that links are maintained with the PPAF team.

Next Steps

17. The following action is required to implement the process:

• Commission the project from an external supplier (see Financial implications below)
•  Develop the ideas in Appendices 1 and 2 into a more detailed project plan.

C. Equality and diversity implications

Asking units to identify those groups they consult using the agreed 8 GLA priority groups will help to identify where there are gaps in the current approach and where the involvement of some groups may be underrepresented. Implementing this process will give the MPS an opportunity to work towards closing the gaps with the units concerned and to enable them to reassure and demonstrate to those community groups that their views are not being overlooked.

D. Financial implications

1. Having considered various options, it is concluded that the most effective approach to implementation would be to commission an external company with specialist knowledge of consultation to project manage the work as a joint venture with internal MPS resources. Three companies with relevant expertise in this area are currently working with the MPS and have contributed views to the research carried out for this paper.

2. An estimated daily rate would be £550 for a Researcher and £1350 for a Senior Consultant. The number of days required would depend on the input available from internal staff and this would need to be identified more clearly at an early stage in the planning.

3. The MPS has the skills and resources to run the electronic survey internally, including producing the data analysis, therefore the costs for this part of the process would be the opportunity cost of using the MPS Corporate Performance Group’s (CPG) Research and Survey Unit staff to conduct this part of the work. A broad indication is that for a current online survey the CPG resource requirements are around 16 days of a Band D’s time.

4. Including the amount of time required for the questionnaire to be ‘out in the field’, estimates are that the whole process would take between four and five months’ elapsed time to complete. The daily rate quoted in paragraph 2 above would only be charged for the actual days worked during this period. More details of the anticipated costs will be reported back to the committee as soon as they become available.

E. Background papers

• Draft MPA/MPS Consultation Strategy

F. Contact details

Report author: Caroline Bridgman, Managing Consultant, Internal Consultancy Group, MPS.

For more information contact:

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

Appendix 1

Key stages of the proposed process for identifying what consultation and engagement is currently being carried out by BOCUs and Business Groups.

Appendix 2

Options for Questions

The process described in this report will identify what consultation and engagement is taking place by asking respondents to reply to the following questions for each of up to 5 occasions when they have consulted in the last 12 months.

Why is consultation taking place (the aim of the consultation)?

Who is being consulted?

Who is doing the consulting?

What consultation methods are being used?

How frequently is consultation taking place?

What does consultation cost?

Send an e-mail linking to this page

Feedback