Developing Our Strategy

Jump to a section: National Influences | Local Influences

 

In developing our priorities for 2010-13 we have taken into account national policing and community safety priorities, local priorities including the policing pledge, partnership priorities, force-wide and cross-border priorities together with any recommendations made within external assessments of our performance.

The force has also commissioned a comprehensive review to ensure that it is configured, structured and resourced appropriately to deliver our priorities. This review is taking place within the context of a changing financial climate.

National Influences

Public Service Agreements (PSAs)

As part of its 2007 Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) the Government has set out the top national priorities for community safety for the next three financial years. Those that relate directly to the police service are:

• Make communities safer (PSA 23)
• Deliver a more effective, transparent and responsive criminal justice system for victims and the public (PSA 24)
• Reduce the harm caused by alcohol and drugs (PSA 25)
• Reduce the risk to the UK and its interests overseas from international terrorism (PSA 26)

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Home Secretary's Strategic Policing Priorities For The Police Service in 2010/11

• Continue to increase public confidence so that by March 2012 60% of the public agree that the police and local council are dealing with the anti-social behaviour and crime issues that matter in their local communities.
• Work jointly through partners and local communities to reduce and prevent crime and anti-social behaviour and the problems caused by drug and alcohol misuse and youth offending, in line with PSAs 14, 23 and 25, and in a coordinated approach with other CJS (Criminal Justice System) partners deliver an effective criminal justice response in line with PSA 24, putting the needs of victims, including young victims, at its heart.
• Work jointly with police forces and other agencies, such as SOCA (Serious Organised Crime Agency) and UKBA (UK Border Agency), to ensure that the capability and capacity exists across England and Wales to deliver effective protective services, including tackling serious and organised crime.
• Work jointly with and through partners and local communities to tackle terrorism and violent extremism in line with the counter terrorism strategy (CONTEST) and PSA 26.
• In all of the above, ensure that value for money is central to the strategic vision for improving policing; that best use is made of resources in line with the policing White Paper and the Efficiency and Productivity Strategy for the Police Service, both within forces and through collaboration between forces and with the wider public sector; and that chief officers and senior leaders are visibly associated with this organisational priority.

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Recent And Current Government Strategies/Papers:

• Home Office (2009) Cutting Crime: Two Years On
• Criminal Justice Strategy 2008-11
• Three-year plan for tackling violence: Saving Lives, Reducing Harm, Protecting the Public
• Policing Pledge
• Single top-down target to improve the public's confidence that the crime and anti-social behaviour issues that matter locally are being tackled
• Policing and Crime Act 2009
• Crime and Security Bill
• Policing White Paper - Protecting the public: supporting the police to succeed

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Local Influences

User Satisfaction Surveys

We want to provide the best service we can to our communities and understand the positive affect providing a good quality of service has on peoples' feelings of trust and confidence in their local police service. We carry out surveys of victims of crime on a regular basis. The vast majority of people are very pleased with the service they received but this is not the case on every occasion. Listening to people's views helps us identify what lessons we can learn and how we can continually aim to do things better. It also enables us to give good feedback to officers and other staff when people have been particularly pleased with the service.  

Crime And Safety Partnership Survey

The Crime and Safety Partnership Survey is sent out to approx 60,000 households during the year in 4 phases. The survey asks residents about their opinions of the police and other local agencies and seeks people's views about local issues of concern.

The survey findings for April 2009 - September 2009 show that the following issues are perceived to be the biggest problem in respondent's neighbourhoods:

1. Speeding traffic
2. Groups of people loitering or hanging around in public places
3. Underage drinking
4. Rubbish or litter lying around
5. People being drunk or rowdy in public places

 

When respondents were asked which issue needed to be addressed as a priority, the top five issues were as follows:

1. Speeding traffic
2. Groups of people loitering or hanging around in public places
3. Underage drinking
4. Cars parked inconveniently, dangerously or illegally
5. People being drunk or rowdy in public places
   

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Partners And Communities Together (PACT)

The most frequently raised PACT priorities from January-December 2009 were:

1. Speeding traffic

2. Cars parked illegally/inconveniently

3. Anti-social behaviour - inappropriate gathering/loitering/nuisance (youth related)

 

Particularly noteworthy in terms of local issues is speeding, which features prominently both in the Crime and Safety Partnership Survey and PACT.  One of our key priorities for 2010/11 is to work together with the Safer Roads Partnership, and other partner agencies to reduce speeding and anti-social and dangerous driving in order to make the roads in our region safer for all users.

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Local Area Agreements

Local Area Agreements are three-year agreements, negotiated between Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs) and central government which describe how local priorities will be met by delivering local solutions.  There are four LSPs in West Mercia covering Herefordshire, Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin and Worcestershire.   The table below lists where West Mercia Police and/or the Police Authority are, either as named partners or part of a partnership, working to deliver improvements against the indicators.

	Indicator	Hereford -shire	Shrop -shire	Telford & Wrekin	Worcester -shire
NI 1	% of people who believe people from different backgrounds get on well together in their local area	√	√	√
NI 2	% of people who feel that they belong to their neighbourhood				√
NI 5	Overall/general satisfaction with local area			√
NI 16	Serious acquisitive crime rate		√ *
NI 17	Perceptions of anti-social behaviour			√	√
NI 18	Adult re-offending rates for those under probation supervision				√
NI 19	Rate of proven re-offending by young offenders	√	√
NI 20	Assault with injury crime rate		√ *	√	√ * (LI)
NI 21	Dealing with local concerns about anti-social behaviour and crime by the local council and police	√			√ *
NI 30	Re-offending rate of prolific and priority offenders	√	√	√
NI 32	Repeat incidents of domestic violence		√	√
NI 39	Alcohol-harm related hospital admission rates	√ (LI)	√	√	√
NI 40	Drug users in effective treatment	√
NI 47	People killed or seriously injured in road traffic accidents	√	√
NI 110	Young people's participation in positive activities	√ (LI)
NI 111	First time entrants to the Youth Justice System aged 10-17			√
NI 123	16+ current smoking rate prevalence				√
LI	Strengthening resilience to and recovery from civil emergencies which may have a long term impact on Herefordshire communities through effective partnership planning and co-ordination	√
LI	Children who have experienced bullying				√

 

 * = lead partner

LI = Local Indicator

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Crime And Disorder Reduction Partnerships (CDRPs)

There are seven Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships (also known as Community Safety Partnerships) within West Mercia. Each CDRP focuses on local crime and disorder issues, common themes across the CDRPs in West Mercia are:

• Drug and alcohol issues
• Anti-social behaviour
• Young people
• Feelings of safety

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The Local Criminal Justice Board

The West Mercia Local Criminal Justice Board (LCJB) is responsible for the local delivery of national criminal justice system targets and priorities. The Board is made up of senior officers from each of the criminal justice statutory agencies (Police, Crown Prosecution Service, Her Majesty's Courts Service, Probation, Prison Service, Youth Justice Board) together with representatives from the Legal Services Commission, Victim Support, the CDRP network and the criminal defence community.

In 2010/11 the Board will focus on the national PSA target 24 to "Deliver a more effective, transparent and responsive criminal justice system for victims and the public" by:

• Increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of the criminal justice system in bringing offenders to justice
• Increasing public confidence in, and staff awareness of, the fairness and effectiveness of the criminal justice system
• Increasing victim and witness satisfaction with the criminal justice system
• Identifying and addressing race disproportionality at key stages in the criminal justice system
• Increasing the quantity of criminal assets recovered from offenders
• Ensuring compliance with and enforcement of court orders and warrants.

To find out more about West Mercia Criminal Justice Board and the plan for 2010 / 11, click here.

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Policing Matters Groups

These public meetings provide residents with the opportunity to meet their Divisional Police Commander, Police Authority members and partner agencies to give their opinion on more strategic policing issues in their area. Examples of issues raised during 2009 by the Groups, and explored by Divisional Policing Boards, which we took into account when developing our priorities include:
• Satisfaction with follow up and contact following Road Traffic Collisions
• Delivering the local agenda with Partners, particularly any concerns about anti-social behaviour and crime identified by the PACT process
• Integrated Offender Management
• Alcohol abuse by young people and related anti-social behaviour
• Visibility of Local Policing Teams, how to contact them and knowing who they are
• Maintaining or reducing levels of burglary

Consultation Events

In developing the 2010/11 Policing Plan, we circulated the broad principles of the plan to partners, business and community representatives, met with strategic partners and invited individuals to attend one of four consultation events held around the force area.

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