London Criminal Justice Board and Metropolitan Police Service London Diamond initiative - further development of the safer neighbourhood concept with a proposal to break the cycle of re-offending 

Report: 7
Date: 4 September 2008
By: Assistant Commissioner Territorial Policing on behalf of the Commissioner

Summary

This report updates the Co-ordination and Policing Committee (CoP) on the London Diamond Initiative following the papers submitted to CoP on 5 June and to Finance Committee on 19 June. CoP is asked to note that the resources to support three additional pilots sites have been identified and to delegate authority to the Chief Executive to sign the joint agreement on behalf of the Authority.

These additional sites will greatly enhance the evaluation process which will be subject to national scrutiny and allow for a wider scope to test the initiative in a variety of different neighbourhoods within London by using an Integrated Offender Management (IOM) approach through a enhanced model of multi-agency working, anchored to the existing model of Neighbourhood Policing.

A. Recommendations

That members

1. Approve three further pilot sites at Hackney, Southward and Croydon for a period of 2 years and note that the LCJB and Metropolitan Police Service will work in partnership to deliver the London Diamond Initiative to these three further boroughs, so that it is piloted in six areas of London.

2. Agree the strategic governance of the project remains within the LCJB Reform Programme Board.

3. Delegated authority be given to the Chief Executive to sign the joint agreement on behalf of the Authority.

B. Supporting information

Background

1. The Diamond initiative will seek to test and evaluate a new approach to offender management at neighbourhood level, using the current structures and local knowledge of the Safer Neighbourhood teams in a multi agency environment. This new and innovative activity will seek to build a model of crime prevention that will support and enhance situational crime prevention activities currently undertaken by the Safer Neighbourhood teams.

2. The pilot of the initiative will be in place for two years and will deliver multi-agency teams of five key partner agency workers (one from the London Probation service) selected to meet the needs of an identified area, and an additional sergeant, six constables and two PCSOs as an enhancement to the existing Safer Neighbourhood Team. These resources will be co-located and tasked with delivering a range of interventions through an integrated offender management process which supports individual offenders, their families and the wider community.

Progress to date

3. A number of boroughs were identified as having wards with high volumes of resident offenders. Six boroughs expressed interest in participating in the project and all were assessed by the LCJB on their capacity to match fund resources for the initiative, the strength and quality of local partnerships and existing resettlement provision in the borough. All six fully met the criteria set by the LCJB. Central governments funding contribution was sufficient to pilot the initiative on three boroughs only, as a result a finer selection process was undertaken and Newham, Lewisham and Lambeth boroughs were selected as early adopters whilst efforts to find other funding streams for the remaining three boroughs was undertaken. Approval for the first three sites has been given by the MPA

4. Local Community Safety Partnerships in the other three boroughs of Hackney, Southwark and Croydon have maintained a strong interest in piloting the initiative and further activity has been progressed to identify the match funding required enabling the initiative to operate in the additional boroughs. This will greatly enhance the evaluation process which will be subject to national scrutiny and allow for a wider scope to test the initiative in a variety of different neighbourhoods within London.

5. An evaluation strategy is being formulated and will be led by Professor Betsy Stanko, Head of Strategic Research within the MPS, with links being established to the national programme evaluation on Integrated Offender Management.

6. This project has gained the support of the Minister of Justice and the Attorney General as well as the Home Office, Probation Services and local authorities. The LCJB will manage communication with Ministers, Ministry of Justice and the Home Office.

Project dependencies

7. The expansion to six sites is dependent on:

•  Additional Metropolitan Police funding over the two years towards the costs
• Local authority funding over the two years for the three extra pilots sites
• Sufficient offenders leaving custody and living in targeted areas during the project to provide a sufficient sample size for analysis
• Co-operation from Primary Care Trusts, Mental Health Trusts, Jobcentre Plus, Learning & Skills Council, National Treatment Agency, local authorities and third sector organisations.
• Funding from London Probation

Governance

8. The proposed pilot has been fully endorsed by the London Criminal Justice Board (Police, HMCS, CPS, Probation are core members). The board will provide the governance structure for the project. The Regional Offender Management team are playing a crucial role in developing the proposal and the mapping work that is currently underway. Discussions have also taken place with: Government Office for London; HM Prison Service; Youth Justice Board; Greater London Authority. The details of the formal governance arrangements have yet to be confirmed. Local authorities will be a crucial partner in the areas concerned and will be engaged in any governance arrangements.

Communication

9. The MOJ and Home Office have released a media statement launching the initiative in the boroughs of Newham, Lewisham and Lambeth. This was managed through a joint agency communications group that agreed the appropriate ‘lines to take’ for the media. The same action will be required before the information is released into the public domain if a decision to include the additional boroughs within the Diamond initiative is made.

C. Race and equality impact

The LCJB Project team will be commissioning an ‘Equalities Impact Assessment’ for the project as a whole. This will be adapted and refined for use and publication by the project boards on each of the selected boroughs.

D. Financial implications

1. Approval has already been given to roll out the original three pilot sites. The costs of these are summarised in table 1 below:

Table 1 - Roll out costs for the original three pilot sites

Table 2 below summarises the costs of implementing the additional three pilot sites (assuming each pilot area is a ward), which would run over a two-year period.

(Pay costs are based on 2008/09 pay rates)

Table 2 - Summary of costs for the implementation of three additional pilot sites

2. The costs are based on the assumption that an existing neighbourhood team, within each of the proposed pilot wards, will be enhanced by one sergeant, six PCs and two PCSOs, together with five other multi agency staff. The costs above are lower than for the original three sites as the central project costs for both the MPS and other agencies can be mostly contained from costs included in the previously agreed paper.

3. The MPS contribution to the pilot costs includes the current Safer Neighbourhood Team and two PCSOs per team from within TP’s current PCSO pool (funded). The other police officers will be provided from within the 320 allocated as additional officers to boroughs (at a reduced pay cost). The accommodation costs shown are based on an estimate of enhancing existing safer neighbourhood bases to accommodate the new staff. The intention is to house these teams in existing MPS accommodation, this has not yet been agreed with PSD though discussions are underway.

4. It is anticipated that the additional police officer posts will be in excess of the 320 posts already agreed by the MPA. TP will need to meet this additional cost (£168k), from within its baseline budget .

Impact on the deployment plan

5. The provision of additional officers for the original three Diamond Initiative sites has been included in the deployment plan under the provision of the 320 additional officers on boroughs. TP will be able to cover five of the additional 21 police officer posts required from within its current deployment plan. As this is considered a priority TP will need to reprioritise its current deployment of resources to ensure that the 16 posts required this year can be met. However the deployment plan for next year will need to be adjusted to include the 16 posts for 2009/10 and 2010/11.

External funding contributions

6. As part of the original business case for the three sites that have been agreed, it was stated that any shortfall of MOJ/HO funding (£1.5m), would be covered from within the deferred income carried forward from 2007/08. This stands at £3.2m. It is unlikely that there will be any Ministry of Justice (MOJ) or Home Office (HO) funding to cover the three additional sites and therefore costs for these extra sites would also need to be covered from within the deferred income (£1.46m after taking account of the £600k agreed as part of the initiative on the prevention and reassurance in reducing youth crime). TP has made a commitment from this income to contribute towards a safer neighbourhood publicity campaign (£700k) and thus there could be a possible shortfall of around £460k. In this event, this would have to be managed within TPs overall budget within the years covering the pilot site.

7. If the pilot was successful, then a further report would be required to identify the costs of continuing with the six pilots and rolling the scheme out to additional boroughs.

Accommodation

8. The teams will be located in existing MPS accommodation.

E. Background papers

• London Diamond Initiative Project Initiation Document.
• CoP 5 June 2008 Report 6
• Finance Committee 19 June 2008 Report 16

F. Contact details

Report author(s): Detective Superintendent Martin Stevens (TP SNU/ LCJB), MPS

For more information contact:

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

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