"Building Safer, Shared and Confident Communities" - Consultation Response Booklet
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“Building Safer, Shared and Confident
Communities”
A CONSULTATION ON A NEW COMMUNITY SAFETY STRATEGY FOR
NORTHERN IRELAND
Consultation Response Booklet
January 2011
11/17669CONSULTATION RESPONSE BOOKLET
The purpose of this consultation is to seek views on a new Community Safety Strategy
for 2011/12 to 2014/15, in line with the Budget 2010 period, and sets out proposals to
create safer, shared and confident communities and contribute to the Department of
Justice’s wider vision of a fair, just and safer community.
The consultation paper is available on the Department of Justice website at
www.dojni.gov.uk and at www.nidirect.gov.uk, where information can also be found on
consultation events throughout Northern Ireland.
To assist you in considering the proposals and responding to the consultation we have
set out below the proposals and associated questions detailed in the paper. Type your
response in the grey box below each question. If required you may attach additional
pages to this booklet.
2SAFER COMMUNITIES
Aim: A safer Northern Ireland with lower levels of crime and anti-social behaviour.
We will:
• consider views on the approach to tackling anti-social behaviour, and the use of
available powers including ASBOs;
• support early interventions with Executive Departments, and promote it at local
partnership level;
• work with partners to reduce the opportunities to commit crime:
support efforts to ‘design out’ crime in communities;
maintain the historic downward trend in levels of domestic burglary;
address business and retail crime to promote safer towns and cities and
the night-time economy;
increase our efforts to address rural crime;
• work with strategic partners to reduce the harm caused by alcohol and drug
abuse;
• lead on addressing domestic and sexual violence and work in partnership with
DHSSPS and other agencies.
3ANTI-SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR – DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Q.1 What should the priorities be for addressing anti-social behaviour? How can
we best measure success in tackling it?
Your response:
A clearer definition and shared understanding with organisations and local communities
as to what constitutes anti social behaviour and potentially a grading system in terms of
defining anti social behaviour would be useful.
It must be recognised that in some cases behaviour which local communities are
classing as anti-social should not be classed as such. Rather their opinions are due to
a lack of understanding or a fear due to misperceptions. For instance in some cases
low-level anti-social behaviour may be tackled through simple interventions to build up
trust and community spirit, for instance intergenerational projects.
All relevent agencies need a working definition of anti-social behaviour and the different
degrees of severity. There is also a need for a statutory requirement to be placed
across all relevent agencies to play their part in tackling anti-social behaviour, it should
not been seen as simply a police issue.
Early intervenion plays an important role in extreme cases of anti-social behaviour as
such behaviour is often caused by factors in a child's early life and their early influences
and experiences. The Southern HSC Trust is currently exploring involvement in the
implementation of Roots of Empathy, a classroom-based social and emotional
competence promotion programme for primary school children. Given the longer term
benefits to wider society, programmes such as this should be considered from a
community safety perspective as well as traditional health and wellbeing.
Q.2 Do you agree that the prevention, intervention, enforcement approach to
antisocial behaviour is the right one? What more needs to be done?
Your response: We welcome the prevention, intervention and enforcement approach
in relation to anti social behaviour. The research indicates that there is a need to
4particularly focus on early intervention before behaviour patterns become established.
We would also welcome a longer term strategy in order to allow actual outcomes to be
realised.
Local District level ASB Fora have proved very effective in facilitating information
exchange about ASB between key partner agencies which in turn has enabled a more
appropriate joined-up response to addressing ASB in terms of individuals.
The enforcement approach will be needed in extreme circumstances, however we need
to find alternatvies to enforcement where other interventions can be put in place to
avoid giving young people a criminal record which may harm their futures.
For example, in-depth one-to-one support and mentoring may be required to help them
with the underlying issues which causes them to act in this way, look at anger
management, career development etc.
There is a clear requirement for more joined up work with education and other agencies
at the early stages to build on preventative approaches. Information sharing across
agencies to "map" anti social behaviour would facilitate multi sectoral approaches to
identified hotspots.
Q.3 How can we support local communities to address anti-social behaviour?
Your response:
Local communities require capacity building and the development of the necessary
support infrastructure to join together to tackle root causes of anti social behaviour and
ideally work together at early stage prevention e.g. through developing parental support
groups and fostering a greater sense of support and belonging within local
communities. There is potential for creative developments around social enterprises to
enable communities to develop business opportunities to meet local need in this regard.
Communities/groups will require funding and wrap around approaches in a joined up
way from Councils/Trust/Education/DSD, etc. to ensure general community
5development and capacity building is taking place to strengthen local community
infrastructure. We must also recognise however that communties also need to be able
to access police support as anti social behaviour requires a joined up response
between local communities, key partners and police working together to address the
issue in a more holisitic way. The evidence suggests that restorative justice and
community payback programmes are important in building links within the community.
The Preventative Spending review paper highlights "Restorative Justice has reduced
reoffending by an average of 27%, by up to 33% when delivered in prison and by 55%
when delivered in the community". (NI Assembly ; Jan 2011, 41.) It is also vital to have
ongoing community development work to build relationships e.g. intergenerational
activities to heighten shared understanding.
If a statutory requirement could be placed on relevant agencies to address anti-social
behaviour then an interagency approach can be implemented in assisting local
communities.
Q.4 What is your view on the effectiveness of ASBOs in addressing anti-social
behaviour? What, if any, alternatives to ASBOs should we consider?
Your response: ASBOs are a useful tool in addressing anti social behaviour, however a
more pro active approach needs to be taken in terms of ensuring that ASBOs are put in
place and acted upon. ABCs (Acceptable Behaviour Contratcs) are also a useful tool in
deterring anti social behaviour and providing a practical, preventative approach to
reducing anti social behaviour. Combined with programmes which work alongside those
offenders e.g. NIACRO's Assisting People and Communities programme, and if used
alongside a mentoring approach, these can usefully transform behaviours.
However it must be noted that ASBOS have now been abandoned in England and
Wales, and their use in N Ireland is patchy.
6Q.5 Are there any other powers that should be considered to address anti-social
behaviour?
Your response:
The root causes of anti-social behavior are numerous, including poverty,
unemployment, boredom, substance misuse, etc. Therefore, greater congisance should
be taken of government policy and legislation in all of these and other areas to ensure
that positive outcomes for ASB are planned across this wide range of arenas.
Examples of other powers that might be considered include:
A legislative framework to promote more active engagement with parents of young
offenders where the parental influence is key;
Legislation to address e.g. alcohol consumption on hired vehicles (private bus, taxi, etc)
to avoid anti-social behaviour when people arrive at their destination;
Minimum pricing for alcohol
Simplified procedures around alley-gating or the creation of dispersal zones (as a
temporary and a last resort measure) will stop certain areas being used as focal points
for anti-social behaviour of people are simply not allowed to gather there, though it must
be remembered that this will just displace the problem and not solve it.
The combined resource within statutory, community and voluntary agencies needs to
be better focused to find innovative and, in some cases, radical solutions to the problem
of anti-social behaviour to enable communities to design out crime and anti-social
behaviour.
EARLY INTERVENTIONS – DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
7Q.6 Do you agree with the greater emphasis on early intervention to help reduce
the risk of crime and anti-social behaviour?
Your response: Yes, current research gives a strong rationale for the overwhelming
benefits of early intervention in terms of reducing crime and anti social behaviour. The
social and economic benefits of this early stage intervention are well documented in the
Assembly Research paper "preventative spending", January 2011. Whilst there is an
argument that such early intervention is less a criminal justice issue, it is clear that the
combined forces of parental influence, economic and social deprivation, education,
family and community support all have a considerable impact on child and young
peoples' development. There is a need to foster healthy relationships within the home,
provide improved life chances for those experiencing greatest poverty, disadvantage
and marginalisation and provide meaningful support to those are experiencing
difficulties. As with all work however there is a need to measure this in a meaningful
way so that we can find out what works and doesn't work and best place resources.
Early intervenion will benefit from a more joined-up approach between agencies such
as social services, schools, medical profession, PSNI etc. with appropriate information
sharing protocols.
Q.7 How can the Department of Justice support early years and early stage
intervention approaches?
Your response: It is essential that there is a joined up approach at departmental levels,
a moving away from a "silo" mentality through shared target setting, distribution of
resources and accountablity systems which provide a more cohesive, joined up
approach to local government which is fully equiped to respond to local issues in a
more holistic people centred way, in a scaled approach across Northern Ireland. This
needs to filter down through local agencies which are delivering services on the ground,
to ensure that resources are shared, targets are jointly set and monitored to ensure
holisitc, comprehensive provision of services on the ground that do not compete or exist
in isolation. It is important that this is grounded in legislation, especially given that
Community Planning is not yet enacted in Northern Ireland. Too often the successes of
partnership working depend on relationship building between key personnel at local
8levels and it is important to give organisations greater power to work together in a more
cohesive fashion, to make sure this process is standardised throughout Northern
Ireland and is intrinsic to the culture of each government department. It is important to
utilise existing area level partnerships (Southern Investing for Health, Neighbourhood
Renewal, Community Safety) as examples who could lead this work.
A lot of vital early intervention is beyond the realms of community safety, rather it is
through social services, voluntary agencies and key partners working more closely with
at-risk families, however more information sharing could mean that these families can
benefit from community safety projects which would assist them.
REDUCING CRIME – DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Q.8 Do you agree with our approach to reducing crime? What else can we do?
in partnership with the community to reduce the risk of crime?
Your response: The overall principles contained within the document are useful,
however we would suggest that these could be strengthened e.g. in relation to
designing out crime that it would be helpful if this was made a core component of public
and private sector planning laws in order to ensure the ‘Secured by Design’ standard is
fully adhered to and not merely given lip service. We welcome the evidence based
approach and building on best practice issues where possible.
We would welcome legislation which would tackle the crimes caused by alcohol misuse,
for instance legislation on drinking on hired vehicles. Work could be carried out with the
business community to tackle the sale of alcohol to minors.
Q.9 What more needs to be done to address the unique community safety needs
of rural areas?
9Your response: Linkages with DSD in terms of developing rural communities through a
community development process and expanding on the concept of "neighbourliness"
which helps to reduce fear of crime and build local communtiy support networks. Whilst
schemes such as Neighbourhood Watch are useful in this process, there is also a
requirement for development in terms of overall social capital and building capacity
within local communties. A key part of this is also the use of local community and
interagency fora which enable rural communties the opportunity to put forward their
views and to have a greater knowledge and relationship with key statutory and
voluntary providers in the area. We welcome a move away from overly bureaucratic
processes which can often be viewed with scepticism by the local community and as
"tick box" exercises. Many rural communities already have excellent but informal social
networks (local school, church etc) and these should not be underestimated as ways of
getting information out to people about how they can better protect themselves.
Colloboration is needed across agencies/public sector bodies to develop and sustain
community partnership organisations which coordinate and build capacity at "large
community" scale and support social enterprise approaches.
ALCOHOL AND DRUG MISUSE - DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Q 10. Do you agree with the proposals for preventing and addressing this issue?
What more should we be doing?
Your response: Alcohol and drug misuse remains a growing difficulty within our society.
A joined up strategic approach is required specifically involving health, mental health,
education, support to parents, community support, tackling licensing laws, police
intervention and stronger sentances within the courts. There is a need for a radical
rethink of how we can successfully tackle the issue and work alongside the media in
promoting cultural change in what is a fast growing pandemic and becoming socially
acceptable. There is a need to change the cultural norm..
10A two pronged approach is required, media campaigning about the dangers of alcohol,
needs to continue, however it would be helpful if this took place alongside changes in
legislation to prevent activities such as the supply of alcohol to young people through
taxi deliveries, drinking on hired vehicles and a more co-ordinated approach amongst
local licensees to preventing underage drinking.
Young people are not the only section of our community that interfere with Community
Safety due to the use and/or misuse of Alcohol and/or Drugs and any approaches that
will be taken in relation ot this subject must have a total societal approach to avoid
blame allocation and stigmatistation of any section of society. This total societal
approach is endorsed by NSD which although it has designated targets includes all of
society and has actively supported this through it's past history of funding. This is
further supported through other funding streams such as BIG and it's Impact of Alcohol
programme which seeks to reinforce the partnership method fully involving the
community and voluntary sector by designating 80% of the funding available must be
utilised by them. No longer should the intertwined issues of Community Safety and
Alcohol/Drugs be seen as the responsibility of Health, Law Enforcement, Education and
Local Government but should involve in a co-ordinated and co-operative manner
partners such as the Drinks Industry, the Retail Sector and Public and Private Transport
that can work together in a constructive manner.
TACKLING DOMESTIC AND SEXUAL VIOLENCE – DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Q.11 Do you agree with the approach to tackling domestic and sexual violence?
What other approaches should be considered?
Your response: We welcome the emphasis on tackling violence and domestic and
sexual abuse. We would welcome preventative approaches aimed at children and
young people. Womens Aid refuge is reporting much younger women are accessing
their services. There is also a rising incidence of young people becoming abusers of
their parents, especially in cases where there previously has been abuse within the
11home between the parents. Further work around parenting skills and healthy
relationships could help to reduce these instances. Best practice from the Sanctuary
Project in Nottingham, highlights the benefits of a person centred, holisitc approach to
addressing the issue. This project enables survivors to stay at home with extra security
and support , which improves phyiscal safety and structured specialist domestic
violence support. At a practical level we would also welcome work with the courts and
legal aid services. Costs of restraining orders are prohibitive. Under the current
proposed changes of legislation within England and Wales from April 2011, there will be
a focus on mediation and an associated "saving" for the tax payer in reducing legal aid
and financial support for court fees. We would be wary of this kind of approach within
Northern Ireland as this would potentially disadvantage many vulnerable women who
have reduced earnings owing to being the primary child care provider. If faced with
large legal bills, this would potentially act as a deterrent to women for taking forward
cases within the legal system.
12SHARED COMMUNITIES
Aim: A society where every person is safe to live free from threat or intimidation, free to
take employment or travel to work without fear and free to access and utilise all public
services and facilities in all places and at all times.
We will:
• engage with government departments, service providers and communities to
maximise the impact and focus of the efforts of government in interface and
other areas facing significant community safety problems exacerbated by
economic and social disadvantage and the legacy of the conflict;
• work with communities seeking the reconfiguration or removal of physical
barriers and engage with other agencies to address inhibitors to progress;
• support communities in seeking to overcome community safety related
constraints to the use of shared spaces;
• develop and publish draft proposals for a strategic approach to addressing hate
crime.
13SHARED COMMUNITIES – DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Q.12 Do you agree that the Community Safety Strategy should recognise the
particular challenges facing interface areas? Are there particular approaches you
believe should be adopted?
Your response: We support the shared communities approach to interface areas in
terms of working with local communities to address sectarian issues and the legacy of
the troubles in Northern Ireland. There are benefits of a joined up approach at
government level as well as local level, and proactive initiatives which promote working
together. This is not an area Community Safety should tackle in isolation as Good
Relations will be best placed to advise in relation to local sensitivities.
Q.13 Can more be done to enable the safety of all in communities without relying
on physical barriers?
Your response: A community approach to working together and building a shared
understanding through targeted good relations work is essential. In some areas this is
best met through investment in voluntary delivery agents who are well positioned to
work at a grass roots level with local communities. In extreme circumstances physical
barriers will still be required and this must be recognised and respected.
Q.14 Do you agree with the proposals on addressing hate crime? What more do
we need to do?
Your response: We welcome the approach in relation to hate crime and enhanced
preventative work with schools, however we also need to be mindful that often young
people within school are more accepting of a diverse society due to the work in schools,
and perhaps more needs to be done to tackle prejudice, misperceptions and hatred
amongst adults. Programmes such as Craigavon's anti-Rascim project which is aimed
at adults as well as young people could be replicated in other areas. Local Social
Inclusion projects may also help to break down barriers and build relationships at a
14local level.
15CONFIDENT COMMUNITIES
Aim: to build confident communities, which feel safe and have confidence in the justice
agencies which serve them.
We will:
• support efforts to improve public confidence in the criminal justice system;
• support efforts to build the capacity of local communities;
• continue to support the rollout and development of Community Safety Warden
Schemes by local partnerships;
• explore ways in which the principles of community-based restorative justice can
be used to address local crime;
• continue to promote Neighbourhood Watch and other ‘Watch’ schemes with our
partners to communities across Northern Ireland;
• encourage reporting of crime, particularly for those crime types which are
underreported;
• ensure that the safety of older people remains a priority;
• consider our approach to measuring and understanding the fear of crime.
16CONFIDENT COMMUNITIES – DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Q 15. What more could be done to empower local communities?
Your response: Practical community investment in both economic and social terms,
coordinated across agencies and focused on natural communities. Close working with
DSD and the voluntary sector in terms of practical community development support. In
most cases the people best placed to help local communities live within those
communities, and may just require simple skills to get started. Grass roots projects
usually bring most long-term success, and we need to avoid agencies 'parachuting' into
an area for a short-term project and then leaving again without having developed the
skills of local residents to continue the work.
Q 16. How might we encourage reporting of crime and anti-social behaviour?
Your response: Use of interagency community fora which build direct links with the
PSNI and communities and have the potential to remove barriers to reporting crime and
increasing community confidence.
Neighbourhood Watch Schemes also play a very important role as many people do not
have the confidence to report activitiy to the PSNI but will report it via the local
neighbourhood watch Co-ordinator; it is therefore imperitive that there are excellent
relationships developed between neighbourhood watch Co-ordinators and their local
Neighbourhood Policing Team. This utimately needs to link in the overarching multi
agency lead partnership.
Community Safety Wardens are also often used as a way of reporting crime by people
who do not have the confidence to go to the police directly, and therefore investment
should be put into further developing and promoting Community Safety Wardens
Schemes and building on best practice examples e.g. Banbridge Community Safety
Warden Scheme.
Further improvements to both PSNI's call handling service and the perception of
Crimestoppers to instil confidence in the local community to report on crime would be
17beneficial. The promotion of 'Fearless' will be important in encouraging young people to
report crime and the fact that this can be done on-line in a safe way will hopefully take
away fear and feelings of vulnerability.
Q 17. What crime types might we prioritise to encourage reporting?
Your response: Domestic abuse remains under-reported, generally by women who are
suffering, but also for men, older people, people with disabilities and marginalised
groups. Hate crime is also an area where victims simply accept that it is happening to
them and do not have the confidence to report it. e.g. the Rainbow Project research
showed that the Banbridge District had the highest fear of crime of the LGBT
communities in ‘E’ District but the police reports consistently show no reports of
homophobic-related hate crime. Disability-related hate crime is also an under-reported
crime type from the DPP work over the last few years. Both of these crime types
require a specialist single point of contact who can build up a relationship with and gain
the confidence of these thematic communities.
Q 18. How can we continue to address concerns around community safety
issues, including those of older people?
Your response: Greater community cohesion, inter-generational learning and
awareness raising on the steps that are being taken to address community safety
concerns.
In addition to tackling actual crime, it is vital we tackle the fear of crime which often
damages the quality of life for older people the most. Intergenerational projects and
social inclusion projects may help to remove alot of the misconceptions which lead to
this fear. Neighbourhood Watch Schemes and Good Morning Schemes are also
important in this respect. The damage caused by sensationalism in the media also
needs to be addressed.
18Q 19. How can we gain a greater understanding of issues around the fear of crime
to better address it?
Your response: Build relationships within the community through use of community fora,
Community Safety Warden schemes and neighbourhood policing input, encourage
reporting and undertake audits with local communities. Work with local media to
encourage sensitive reporting of issues so as not to heighten or sensationalise fear of
crime.
19DELIVERING IN PARTNERSHIP
Aim: to ensure the effective delivery and implementation of the new Community Safety
Strategy
We will:
• work in partnership with the Policing Board and local councils to develop and
support new PCSPs to deliver safer, shared and confident communities at local
level;
• continue to work with the third sector to explore its role in the delivery of
community safety solutions at a strategic and local level;
• continue to maximise investment in community safety issues by levering
funding from a range of partners;
• develop and build capacity at all levels to improve the delivery of community
safety;
• develop a communications strategy to highlight and share key messages to
help reduce crime and make communities feel safer;
• produce a range of short, medium and long term indicators to achieve the
strategic outcomes of the new Community Safety Strategy. These will align with
other key measures, e.g. Policing Plan confidence measures.
20DELIVERING IN PARTNERSHIP – DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Q 20. What should the role of community and voluntary sector be in supporting
delivery of safer communities?
Your response: The Community and voluntary sector should be supported in the
delivery of safer communities, but require practical resourcing and investment at grass
roots levels. Given the current economic crisis many groups have lost out on practical
funding support and also many networking organisations that provided invaluable
assistance and guidance to smaller community groups have ceased to exist, leaving a
dearth in local provision. There is a concern of an over reliance on a community based
model which is insufficiently supported and will lead to greater problems in the longer
term if resourcing and support issues are not addressed.
The community sector should be better represented around the decision making table,
and their voice be heard more at CSP level, however they may need financial
assistance to do so.
Q 21. How do we best enable local partnerships deliver evidence-led solutions?
Your response: Strengthening links and appropriate sharing of information between
agencies in terms of crime statisitics and local issues is essential in developing
successful joined up solutions. An emphasis on research, best practice and a sound
evidence base is vital given this time of scarce resources. It would be useful to have
information sharing protocols between agencies that feed into the new PCSPs to
ensure that when local action plans are being developed that relevant statistical
information is shared and used in an appropriate manner, evidently some of this
information will be of a sensitive nature and there would need to be agreement on how
information is shared in the public domain.
Q 22. How can we communicate effectively with communities?
21Your response: Build relationships with local practitioners and local communties at
grass roots levels. Avoid what can be viewed as bureaucratic "tick box" exercises and
engage at local levels in a practical way through linking into existing groups e.g.
community fora which have an emphasis on practical outputs, information sharing and
empowering local communities to have their say. It would be useful to have both a
communications budget and a reactionary budget built into the new action plans. A
communications budget is vital to enable us to get our message out across the
community, but without a reactionary fund we cannot react to problems as communities
bring them to us. While it is vital that there is sufficient two way communication and
consultation with communities before an action plan is written, alot can change during
the delivery of that action plan. If the community come to us with a problem and we
cannot react to it due to being tied into an action plan, then they will loose confidence in
us and communication and relationships will break down.
Q 23. How should we measure success?
Your response: It is essential to be mindful of short, medium and long term benefits of
this approach, given that many of the community interventions are outcome based that
will yield the greatest results in the longer term, this can be difficult to evidence in a
short term strategy. Robust research based on ongoing monitoring and evaluation
which has the necessary flexibility to respond to changing needs and demands on an
ongoing basis.
22EQUALITY QUESTIONS
Q1. What is the likely impact on equality of opportunity for those affected by this
policy, for each of the Section 75 equality categories? Minor/Major/None
Your response:
Q2. Are there opportunities to better promote equality of opportunity for people
within the Section 75 equalities categories?
Your response:
Q3. To what extent is the policy likely to impact on good relations between
people of different religious belief, political opinion or racial group?
Minor/Major/None
Your response:
Q4. Are there opportunities to better promote good relations between people of
different religious belief, political opinion or racial group?
Your response:
23YOUR DETAILS
Name
Organisation
Address
Tel
Email
Date (dd/mm/yy)
In order to promote environmental sustainability respondents will not receive an acknowledgement letter.
A list of all respondents will be placed on the website. In addition, we intend to publish responses (in full
or in part). If you do not wish your response or name to be published on the Departments website please
tick the box below.
Please return your completed questionnaire or other response by email, letter or
fax to:
Strategy Consultation
Community Safety Unit
4th Floor Millennium House
Great Victoria Street
Belfast
BT2 7AQ
Telephone: 028 90 828555
Fax: 028 90 828556
Textphone: 028 90 527668
E-mail: csuconsultation@dojni.x.gsi.gov.uk
Comments should be returned by 5pm on Friday 15 April 2011.
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