Involving the public: The Role Of Police Authorities

Report: 10
Date: 26 July 2004
By: Clerk

Summary

This report reviews the main findings and recommendations of the Home Office Report – Involving the Public: the Role of Police Authorities. These will be incorporated into the Community Engagement Strategy to be submitted to the Committee in December 2004.

A. Recommendation

1. officers undertake a review of the MPA's publicity strategy and report back to the Community Engagement Committee on how it might better enhance the MPA’s profile with Londoners;

2. officers strengthen the links with appropriate staff in other police authorities through the Association of Police Authorities and the Home Office led Citizen Focused Policing Practitioner Panel;

3. officers draw up community engagement good practice guidelines, drawing on the experience of the MPA and the other police authorities that were part of the Home Office research; and

4. officers incorporate the findings of this research into the development of the Community Engagement Strategy to be submitted to the Committee in December 2004.

B. Supporting information

Introduction

1. The Consultation Committee received a presentation at its 13 November 2003 meeting based on the findings of the Home Office report “The Role of Police Authorities in Public Engagement”. The Committee requested that a review of the report and MPA involvement in public consultation be made to the next Consultation Committee. A copy of the full report has been placed in the Members’ Room or obtained from the Home Office.

2. The methodology employed by the Home Office included a telephone survey of all police authorities, in England and Wales as well as case studies in undertaking its research of 6 police authorities: Avon and Somerset, Greater Manchester, North Yorkshire, South Wales, West Yorkshire and the Metropolitan Police Authority. This work was carried out between November 2002 and February 2003.

• Chapter 2 of the report examines the views of the public on accountability in policing and the extent to which authorities are visible and their activities transparent to the public.
• Chapter 3 discusses the approach by the different authorities to consulting the public and relating to police forces and other partners.
• Chapter 4 looks at the mechanisms used by police authorities to engage in dialogue and the degree of success attained.
• Chapter 5 discusses the impact of consultation.
• Chapter 6 examines barriers to public engagement and proposals to overcome them.
• Chapter 7 draws together the research conclusions and recommendations.

Main findings

3. The vast majority of those consulted had not previously heard of police authorities and did not know what their role was. Even those who had heard of them had no clear idea about their function and purpose. When respondents learnt more about the role of police authorities they thought that they were necessary and useful, if they were effective. However, many people were sceptical whether they were effective, largely because of their low public profile. There was a strong view that police authorities should publicise themselves more effectively

4. There was a consensus that the public does not have a say in decisions about policing. Most respondents thought that the public should participate in decision making although there was some cynicism about whether it would make a difference. Awareness of police public consultation was low.

5. People wanted better communication, information and involvement. Interest in performance related information was mainly concerned with a very local level and it was felt that this should be linked to policing priorities.

6. The role of police authority members in community engagement is acknowledged as vital although the level of involvement by individual members across England and Wales is far from even. Where members are linked to a geographical area and have a genuine stake in the area they are more likely to act as community leaders.

7. The report does however recognise that at the time that it was written the MPA in particular had already made considerable progress in the field of consultation and community engagement. The example given was that the MPA is one of only two police authorities to have a committee responsible for consultation at a strategic level supported by a dedicated staff team.

8. The report concludes that, although police authorities have begun to develop more innovative and strategic approaches to engaging the community, progress has been patchy. At the time of writing the report, many police authorities were reviewing their approaches.

9. The conclusion of the Home Office study that gives rise to the greatest concern is that the major obstacle to engaging the public, let alone providing accountability is the near invisibility of police authorities to the public. The debate proposed by the report has subsequently been launched by the Home Secretary’s Green Paper “ Policing: Building Safer Communities Together”.

The report’s recommendations

10. The report contains 24 recommendations, which are grouped under the following nine headings.

Public Profile of Police Authorities (recommendations 1-3)

11. “Police authorities should review locally their public profile and give greater emphasis to marketing their role in providing opportunities for public participation. Highly expensive advertising campaigns, though, would not necessarily be good value for money. Authorities should consider a personal approach towards trying to engage people in consultation, for example, through outreach work and tapping into existing community networks.”

12. “Police authorities, forces and other agencies should improve the provision of information to the public about policing and crime, according to the needs of local communities. This should include basic information about services.”

13. “Police authorities should continue to develop their use of the internet to engage people, by, for example, using this to feed back on the outcome of consultation events and by the use of attractive links from non-policing websites. However, authorities should not over-rely on the Internet due to limited public access and should ensure its use is appropriate to the aims of the consultation and target audience.”

14. In response to these recommendations it should be noted that the MPA, through its Community Engagement Committee, is constantly overseeing and reviewing the profile of the Authority with the people of London through its direction of work on consultation and community engagement.

15. In addition the MPA is redesigning and diversifying the means whereby consultation is carried out e.g. first, by strengthening the use of community partners such as the London Civic Forum; secondly by establishing a Pan-London Citizens Panel; and thirdly though the work done to ensure a robust analysis of the function and future direction of Community Police Consultative Groups through the introduction of a rigorous annual bidding round which will ensure for the first time accountability for public funds and a clear focus on how the work of these groups assists the MPA in carrying out its statutory consultation duties.

16. In addition to these initiatives, a review be carried out of the MPA’s publicity strategy in order to improve and enhance its profile with Londoners. This needs to take into account the generally poor public grasp of constitutional procedures, which are particularly complicated in London, given the relationship between the MPA, GLA, the Mayor and the borough councils.

17. The use of appropriate media to target different groups of Londoners is essential, but the review should not only deal with formal publicity resources but also the role of link-members in promoting the MPA in ‘their’ boroughs via CDRPs, CPCGs and other appropriate local avenues.

18. The annual visit of the Chair of the MPA to the boroughs is extremely important and could be developed further to provide high profile of promotion the role and work of the MPA.

Purpose of consultation (recommendations 4-7)

19. “Police authorities should regularly review their strategies for consultation and ensure that aims and objectives are clearly defined and built on a thorough understanding of the nature and composition of local communities.”

20. “Police authorities should consider whether the scope of their consultation fully reflects issues of concern to local communities. They should be prepared to adapt their consultation schedules to incorporate issues of local concern as and when they arise.”

21. “Police authorities should adopt some simple targets with which to assess their performance in terms of reach, quality and impact of consultation.”

22. “Police authorities should co-ordinate their consultation strategies and activities with the force and other partners. Authorities should combine consultation with other agencies wherever this would add value. They should also be aware that it is possible to add value to the process by empowering other agencies to consult and adopt a more strategic or scrutinising role.”

23. In its short existence, the MPA has already undertaken a number of comprehensive reviews and reports:

• Best value Review of Consultation (Dec 2000)
• Review of Police-Community Consultation Arrangements in Greenwich
• Draft Consultation Strategy 2002/05 (Oct 2002)

24. The MPA has also begun to review its local consultation process by the use of temporary/seconded community consultation co-ordinators who are currently working in a number of different boroughs. This work coupled with the new rigorous process for CPCGs to bid for funding for 2003/04 will allow the Authority to move towards new and different consultation models that do not rely solely or mainly on the work of CPCGs. The Home Office report itself provides examples of different models from outside London.

Member Support (recommendations 8-10)

25. “Police authorities should ensure that training is provided for all members to familiarise them with the benefits of community engagement, good practice, and, where appropriate, practical skills such as facilitating meetings. Authorities should also consider setting a minimum level of activity required of members in terms of community engagement.”

26 ”Police authorities still relying on PCCG-style public meetings as their principal form of consultation should diversify their methods. Public meetings should be used only if they satisfy a particular aim or it can be demonstrated that they are preferred by the public in a particular area or community. Regular, non-specific, public meetings should not be retained merely because they satisfy a statutory requirement to consult.”

27. The issue of the future framework for the funding of CPCGs has been addressed above. The role of ‘Link Members’ in their respective boroughs is of even greater significance. If properly developed such a role would allow the MPA much greater authority and influence at the local level which, in turn, would considerably assist in increasing the public profile of the MPA and its relevance to ordinary Londoners.

Making contact (recommendations 11-13)

28. “Public meetings tend to work better if they are well chaired and police authorities should ensure that members have appropriate skills in this area. Chairs should make clear the purpose of the meeting and emphasise the role of the police authority in the consultation process. They should also be able to keep the meeting focused on its aims and prevent it being ‘hijacked’ by individuals or specific interests. Authorities should also be aware of a wider range of facilitation methods that can be used to maximise the value of public meetings (given a suitable target audience).”

29. “Police authorities should build targeting hard-to hear groups into their consultation plans and strategies. Authorities should identify both which are the most relevant groups they need to engage in their local community and which methods are suitable to achieve this.”

30. “Police authorities should continue to seek wider opportunities to encourage people to apply to become independent members. They should also ensure that the public is aware of the make-up of authorities and should emphasise that the criteria for independent members means that it is open to all.”

31. In responding to these recommendations the MPA has already begun to make some headway with the way hard to hear groups are targeted for consultation. The MPA does not always expect the public to come to them but has undertaken and supported a number of events of engaging people in their own situations and locations.

32. In terms of training needs it is unlikely at this stage of its lifetime that training is a big issue for Members, but it may be useful to carry out training needs assessment when the new Authority is appointed in the Summer of 2004. This would certainly assist officers in their member support role.

Good practice (recommendations 14-15)

33 “Police authorities should not expect the public to come to them to be consulted; they should go out and engage people on their own terms and in locations and situations in which they feel comfortable. They should also make use of existing organisations and meetings if this is appropriate or would add value.”

34. “Police authorities should ensure that their members and staff are aware of existing good practice literature on consultation and community engagement. Authorities should also be pro-active in sharing good practice with other partner agencies including the force. Agencies producing guidance should consider alternative formats to traditional reports, such as interactive CD-ROMs or e-mail networks. More active sharing of good practice should be encouraged.”

35. Although there are examples of good practice contained in MPA reports, these inevitably will become out of date. It would be a useful first step if a good practice briefing was produced as part of the strategic review and then updated on a regular basis. This should include good practice from police authorities outside London starting with the five other authorities studied in the Home Office report.

Staff skills (recommendations 16-17)

36. ”Each police authority should have at least one post solely or partly dedicated to promoting and coordinating consultation and community engagement. The post-holder should attempt to map all consultation undertaken by partner agencies to prevent duplication, ensure opportunities to extend their reach are fully exploited and that feedback from consultation reaches the appropriate people.”

37. “Police authorities should review the skills base of staff with a remit for consultation and public engagement. They should ensure that these staff have the necessary skills to deliver their consultation strategy, for example in the areas of social research methodology, diversity awareness, marketing and communications and community development.”

38. The MPA is in the vanguard of Police Authorities throughout England and Wales having both a Member Committee and a staff unit dedicated to public consultation. The report suggests that a review of the skills needed by staff working in this field would be desirable This should be carried out as part of the recruitment process and followed up with an analysis of training needs.

Consultation feedback (recommendations 18-19)

39. “Police authorities should build systematic feedback into consultation. This should include not only feedback to the people who participated, but also to the general public. If the public perceives that consultation is worthwhile, the pool of potential consultees will increase. In particular, authorities should attempt to get positive messages across, about what has changed as a result of consultation.”

40. “Police authorities should make clear if consultation is designed to inform strategic plans and will not have short-term impact. They should seek to manage expectations and to avoid the public becoming disillusioned if action is not taken on their views.”

41. These recommendations need to form both part of the regular reporting to the Community Engagement Committee and part of the proposed review of publicity and consultation.

Feedback to police and partners (recommendations 20-21)

42. “Police authorities should make sure that there are effective mechanisms for feedback of consultation to the force and other agencies.”

43. “Forces should ensure that there are effective mechanisms to respond to consultation and to cascade information down to front-line officers.”

Monitoring evaluation and communication (recommendations 22-24)

44. “Police authorities should build evaluation of the quality, reach and impact of their consultation exercises, or at least of those which are most key, into their plans. This should also include some assessment of cost-effectiveness. Evaluation will entail cost (unless the authority has professional skills in-house) but should repay the investment.”

45. “Police authorities should ensure that the impact of consultation and their own contribution to it is clearly identified and communicated to their own staff and members, police forces and partner agencies. For example, policing plans and annual reports should show the results of consultation and how they fed into decision-making.”

46. “Police authorities should monitor and follow-up what action forces are taking as a result of issues raised by consultation.”

47. The MPA in response to these recommendations has already begun to ensure that the results of consultation are fed into the annual policing priority setting process and annual reports. Through the work of the Community Engagement Committee, the MPA expects to play a more robust scrutiny role in monitoring and following up what action is taken by the MPS in response to issues raised through consultation.

C. Race and equality impact

The report addresses issues that have a real impact upon the way police authorities are visible and their activities transparent to the public not least to police authorities are visible and their activities transparent to the public diverse communities

D. Financial implications

There are no direct implications

E. Background papers

None.

F. Contact details

Report author: Christopher Calnan

For more information contact:

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

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