Improving policing for Londoners: MPA Joint Engagement Meetings complete first round

14/10
24 February 2010

All 32 London boroughs have now taken part in the Metropolitan Police Authority Joint Engagement Meetings (JEMs).  These ground breaking sessions are held on a borough by borough basis to encourage joint problem solving work between the police, local authorities, and other borough partner agencies, to tackle local crime and safety issues and to drive forward good practice  across London.

Chair of the MPA Kit Malthouse, who leads the JEMs meetings, said:

“JEMs are designed to improve policing in London. Met Forward – the MPA’s mission statement for London’s police – sets out how we want the Met to reduce crime and criminality, increase public confidence and provide value for money, and this is the JEMs agenda.

“In line with Mayoral priorities, ‘Serious youth violence’ and ‘ASB, disorder and other drivers of public confidence’ were the two key themes in the first round.

“Our over-arching aims are to develop new solutions to problems, to work with and support anti-crime strategies already established on boroughs, and to bring together London-wide partners at a borough level.

“The JEMs also highlight pan-London issues and potential good practice.

“Our thanks go to everyone who took part for their support and we look forward to working together in the future to make London a safer city.”

The JEMs are chaired by Kit Malthouse, supported by the Assistant Commissioner Territorial Policing and the relevant local authority lead, with each local borough commander attending with other key partners. The next round is due to start in May 2010.

Notes to Editors

1. Further information

JEMs

The JEM process offers considerable potential for wide-ranging service improvement across London. It allows for the identification of potential new work and for a wider dissemination of current good practice across partner agencies. The meetings are held at the MPA and discussions are facilitated by PowerPoint slides that cover a range of topics such as deprivation, historic hotspots, drivers of crime, attrition, exclusion/truancy data, youth services, offender management and youth justice. The meeting identifies long-term, chronic problems on the borough and agrees practical solutions along with identifying potential good practice and pan London issues.
The objective of JEMs is not to hold the borough to account for performance, and the meetings are not intended to replace existing tasking and deployment processes within the borough.  Rather they are to focus on developing new solutions to problems, to sit alongside and support existing mechanisms, and to bring together London-wide partners at a borough level.

Attendees

Discussions, and therefore, attendees are those operating at a strategic rather than operational or tactical levels and numbers are kept to a minimum to enable an effective discussion to take place.
The JEMs are chaired by Kit Malthouse Chair of the MPA, assisted by the Assistant Commissioner of Territorial Policing.  The relevant Local Authority leads attend together with the Borough Commander and members of his/ her senior management team.  Key pan-London partners also attend as appropriate.  These may include TfL, BTP, London Criminal Justice Board, Youth Justice Board, probation, prisons, health and the CPS.

Outcomes

Actions, good practice, and pan London issues are recorded and circulated to all attendees by the MPA after the meeting.  The MPA will also follow up on actions to ensure that the work is taken forward and report back on this in six months time.

Next round

The next full round of JEMs, planned to commence in May 2010, will review progress since the first round and also extend the discussion from youth to all violence.  For those boroughs that do not have a particular problem with these issues, again a theme of ‘ASB, disorder and other drivers of public confidence’ will provide the basis for the discussion.

2. Further details can be found at: www.mpa.gov.uk/partnerships/jems/

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