Update on the MPA implementation of the CDRP scrutiny recommendations

Report: 14
Date: 8 May 2003
By: Clerk

Summary

During the February Full Authority members agreed with the recommendations made by the scrutiny panel on how best the MPA should fulfil its role of responsible authority in CDRPs. This report highlights the progress made by the MPA to implement these recommendations.

A. Recommendations

That the Committee note the report.

B. Supporting information

1. The recommendations to be implemented by the MPA are given at Appendix 1. Many of these recommendations have long-term implications and await the recruitment of CDRP officers at the MPA (recommendation 33). In the meantime Sergeant Steve Bartlett, who is on secondment at the MPA for three months, is responsible for making the interim arrangements.

2. The scrutiny report was published on the MPA web site in early March. A letter was then sent to all CDRP chairs and MPS borough commanders to inform them of the MPA statutory responsibility. The letter is attached in Appendix 2. In addition, Richard Sumray and Claire Lambert presented the outcome of the scrutiny to Local Authority Community Safety Managers during their quarterly meeting at the Government Office for London (GOL) in March. Many queries followed, mainly asking further information on the new funding stream allocated to BOCUs for partnership work (recommendation 12) and on the recruitment of the six CDRP officers by the MPA (recommendation 33).

3. Sgt Bartlett has contacted all Community Safety Units Managers and asked them to supply details of future CDRP meetings. This information will form a database accessible on the MPA web site for people, primarily link members to keep track of when their respective next meeting is to take place. All OCU Commanders are being visited, the topic of CDRPs and link members discussed and appropriate materials about CDRPs collated. This work will form the foundations of the CDRP project team.

4. Six CDRP officers have to be recruited, as agreed by the Authority in February 2003. Funding has been secured for a CDRP policy development officer, four CDRP policy support officers, and a CDRP consultation officer (£238,000 overall). A job description for these six positions has been drafted.

5. The MPA is aware that the involvement of MPA members is being discussed or already taking place in the following boroughs:

• Bexley
• Brent
• Camden
• Hammersmith and Fulham
• Haringey
• Harrow
• Southwark
• Tower Hamlets

6. Other CDRPs and link members may already have established contact and discussed the MPA involvement, but this is not known centrally. Some CDRPs have contacted the MPA to discuss barriers to their link member’s involvement, such as Brent. Brent CDRP does not include any partners related to a political party and is reluctant to change this norm to include Lord Toby Harris. Alternatives for the MPA involvement may have to be found for boroughs like Brent. At best they should be discussed locally between members and their link CDRP.

C. Financial implications

There are no financial implications, outside those highlighted in the scrutiny report and already discussed and agreed during previous committees earlier this year (Finance Committee and Full Authority).

D. Equality and diversity implications

There are no identified equality and diversity implications outside those highlighted in the scrutiny report.

E. Background papers

None

F. Contact details

Report authors: Sergeant Steve Bartlett and Claire Lambert

For more information contact:

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

Appendix 1: List of recommendations from the CDRP scrutiny to be implemented by the MPA

Recommendation 12:
That the MPA considers as high priority allocating annually an additional £40,000 to £50,000 to each BOCU for partnership work.

Recommendation 20:
As part of its new statutory responsibility in CDRPs, the MPA should develop good practice case studies on CDRP structures to be distributed to all CDRPs in London. This task should be conducted jointly with the MPS corporate community safety and partnership unit.

Recommendation 21:
As part of its new responsibility in CDRPs, the MPA should encourage each CDRP to have in place appropriate performance monitoring arrangements for its strategy.

Recommendation 23:
Each CDRP should find appropriate mechanisms for ensuring that the communities and key voluntary organisations are represented in the partnership. The MPA should assist in helping to fulfil this aim, including helping to identify appropriate community representatives.

Recommendation 25:
The MPA should establish a process and publish timescales for CDRPs to show how local CDRP, force and national policing plans fit together. The MPA and MPS should be transparent to CDRPs in respect of how objectives are set and how these relate to local crime and disorder issues.

Recommendation 26:
The MPA policing plan should include a section on local anti-social behaviour and disorder and should encourage the setting of local targets in this area, within a corporate framework.

Recommendation 27:
The MPA should develop good practice consultation guidance for CDRPs to improve representative community consultation.

Recommendation 28:
The MPA recommends the problem oriented policing model as good practice for boroughs and CDRPs. It recommends that the MPS evaluate how the model works in those boroughs where it has been implemented and considers how it can be developed for use in all London boroughs.

Recommendation 29:
The number of funding streams should be reduced so that less time and effort is spent in completing numerous funding applications. Funding streams should be transparent, co-ordinated under one central government department and should give CDRPs enough flexibility to set their own initiatives under the funding and appropriate timescales. To facilitate long term planning, funding streams should have a minimum life of 5 years. The MPA supports the Home Office in its work to simplify the funding arrangements.

Recommendation 31:
The MPA should provide CDRPs with information on its overall roles and responsibilities. It should also ensure that all CDRPs and pan-London agencies understand the reasons for its involvement in CDRPs and how it will fulfil its statutory obligation.

Recommendation 32:
MPA members should sit on the board of their link CDRP(s). To ensure a consistent approach across London, the MPA should establish minimum standards relating to the MPA link members’ role on CDRPs (or alternative representation).

Recommendation 33:
A team of MPA officers should be created. Its responsibilities would include supporting MPA link members’ involvement in CDRPs, assisting CDRPs in consulting with their communities, and collecting and disseminating examples of good practice across CDRPs. This unit should work closely with other pan-London agencies and help to address CDRP needs at a strategic level.

Recommendation 34:
To avoid duplication, the MPA should ensure that it understands and takes account of other pan-London agencies’ roles in CDRPs when undertaking its new responsibilities.

Recommendation 35:
The MPA should ensure that the key agencies with an input in CDRPs at a pan-London level co-ordinate their actions and agree on a common way forward.

Appendix 2: Letter to: CDRP chairs, MPS Borough Commanders

11 March 2003

Re: Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) forthcoming role of ‘responsible authority’ in Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships (CDRPs) in London.

As you may be aware the Police Reform Act 2002 makes police authorities and fire services in England and Wales ‘responsible authorities’ in CDRPs, with effect from April 2003. This gives them the same statutory responsibility in CDRPs as the local authorities and the police currently have.

The MPA was created in 2000 to secure an effective, efficient and fair police service for London’s communities. As a result of the Police Reform Act 2002, the MPA will have to work jointly with the local authority, the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), and the London Fire Brigade in each CDRP to design and implement a strategy for the reduction of crime and disorder in the 32 London boroughs.

Over the past year the MPA conducted a scrutiny into the MPS contribution to CDRPs. When conducting this scrutiny, the MPA also looked at how it could usefully fulfil its forthcoming responsibility in CDRPs. The scrutiny panel made some recommendations on this issue, which were discussed during the Full Authority meetings in January and February 2003. MPA members agreed that they should sit on the board of their link CDRP, and that their involvement should be supported by a team of MPA staff. This was considered to be the best way by which the MPA could fulfil its role of responsible authority. However, you and your MPA link member may want to consider alternative arrangements to take into account your local situation.

The MPA has to implement its forthcoming responsibility by April 2003. If your MPA link member does not already sit on the board of your CDRP, I would be grateful if you could contact the MPA to discuss how you plan to incorporate him/her in your partnership. You can do so by contacting either directly your link member, or Claire Lambert at the MPA and whose contact details are above.

The scrutiny panel is aware of the need to ensure consistency in the MPA engagement across CDRPs, and we hope that the team of MPA staff to be created will help achieve this objective. Decisions regarding the MPA involvement in CDRPs were made on the basis of the written and oral evidence collected during the scrutiny. The scrutiny report is available online on this website. Paper copies are available on request.

If you have any queries, please contact Claire Lambert. She was the officer in charge of the scrutiny and she will be happy to address them.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Lord Toby Harris, chair of the MPA

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