The Scottish Government

« Previous | Contents | Next »

Listen

Building strong, safe and attractive communities: Guidance for submissions

2 STRATEGIC AND COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT ISSUES

The initiatives funded under this programme can only be fully effective if they are set within a strategic context that reflects the input and priorities of local communities and the range of agencies who have an impact on anti-social behaviour and if they are properly monitored and evaluated. For that reason, we believe that Neighbourhood Compacts and Anti-Social Behaviour Frameworks should provide the context for developing proposals for tackling anti-social behaviour and preparing submissions for funding under this programme.

This section of the guidance explains our requirements in these areas.

9. Neighbourhood Compacts/Good Neighbour Declarations

Neighbourhood Compacts (also known as Good Neighbour Declarations) should be the starting point for developing proposals to tackle anti-social behaviour. Compacts allow local people to be in the driving seat to help determine priorities and ways of addressing them, at the community level. A Neighbourhood Compact is an agreement between the local Community Planning Partnership and the community. It should state in clear terms:

• the support and services that will be delivered by relevant agencies to tackle anti-social behaviour - the local authority, police, registered social landlords etc.; and
• the standards of behaviour that are expected from local residents.

The Neighbourhood Compact should be drawn up in consultation with the key stakeholders. We would expect the key stakeholders to include, at a minimum, tenants and residents, landlords and the police. Other agencies, for example, social work departments, education, environment, etc. should also be involved, where appropriate. Organisations representing young people, or local young people themselves should be consulted during the development of schemes. Local authorities should have clear ideas about how they intend to engage key stakeholders to ensure that the Neighbourhood Compact has widespread community support.

The actual process of setting up a Neighbourhood Compact and its specific content will vary between neighbourhoods, but in most cases it is likely to include:

• determining residents' priorities;
• agreeing services to be included and service level agreements;
• defining providers' roles and responsibilities;
• setting realistic targets; and
• agreeing monitoring and evaluation arrangements.

The compact should also be subject to regular review.

¹Cole, I, McCoulogh, E, and Southworth, J. (2000) Neighbourhood Agreements in action: a case study of Foxwood, York, Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

10. Anti-Social Behaviour Frameworks

Most local authorities will already have in place strategies for dealing with anti-social behaviour. It is a condition of funding that there is a clear framework or strategy for tackling anti-social behaviour at the local authority level and effective co-ordination between relevant agencies.

These Anti-Social Behaviour Frameworks need not be lengthy or complex but should complement relevant existing strategies under Community Planning. They should take account of the nature and severity of the problem, identify those communities most at risk, identify key players and specify the role each must play in implementing the framework against clear objectives and targets.

The frameworks should provide a clear statement of what is already being done to tackle anti-social behaviour and how the additional resources for both community wardens and other measures will fit into this.

It will be possible for Community Planning Partnerships to seek to use some of the resources available to strengthen co-ordination at the local authority level, for example, to appoint an anti-social behaviour co-ordinator or to second a police officer to work in a central team.

But the Executive expects that the greater part of the funding will be used for community-based measures such as community warden schemes, dedicated anti-social behaviour teams, intensive supervision of anti-social households, the use of mediation to resolve disputes, supporting victims, witnesses and complainants and using techniques such as " acceptable behaviour contracts" to change the behaviour of perpetrators of anti-social behaviour.

11. Monitoring and evaluation

Local authorities, their community planning partners, scheme managers, local residents and Scottish Ministers all have an interest in obtaining information on the operation of schemes. This section sets out the Executive's requirements in terms of monitoring and evaluation.

11.1 Ongoing monitoring

We will require local authorities to provide information on a combination of statistical and survey based indicators to the Scottish Executive.

Responses to the consultation paper highlighted the difficulty in identifying relevant indicators given the range of activities covered, problems in data collection on a neighbourhood basis and in attributing survey results such as improved satisfaction to the impact of particular initiatives. We believe that by requesting different types of indicators, and examining those indicators in the context of a thorough evaluation programme, it will be possible to produce a valid assessment of the impact of schemes.

The Scottish Executive would also welcome any examples of good practice relating to schemes funded under this programme which could be made available on the Executive's website.

Local authorities are asked to select at least four indicators from those set out below. The selected indicators should include a mix of statistical and survey based data collated from the relevant neighbourhoods.

Statistical data

Impact on crime (based on levels of recorded crime and focusing on crimes such as vandalism, littering, house breaking and harassment)

Impact on the number of recorded incidents of anti-social behaviour

Impact on number of empty properties and rental income generated

Survey based indicators

• percentage of residents surveyed who feel "fairly safe" or "very safe" in their neighbourhood during the day
• percentage of residents surveyed who feel "fairly safe" or "very safe" walking alone in their neighbourhood after dark*
• percentage of residents surveyed who rate the neighbourhood they live in as very good, or fairly good as a place to live*
• percentage of residents who say that the following things are not very common or not at all common in their neighbourhood (noisy neighbours, vandalism & graffiti, groups of young people hanging around, people who have been drinking or using drugs, rubbish or litter lying around) *
• percentage of residents who consider that warden schemes have made their neighbourhood a better place to live
• views of tenants and residents groups, People's Panels, etc. on initiatives funded under this programme

(* = based on questions used in the Scottish Household Survey.) Where possible, survey information should be provided broken down by age and gender to assess the extent to which schemes are benefiting all parts of the community.

We recognise that indicators such as levels of recorded crime and incidents of anti-social behaviour may initially increase as residents feel more confident that "something is being done" and that it is therefore worthwhile coming forward.

Local authorities and their community planning partners may wish to record other indicators to monitor the development of schemes in addition to the selected indicators required by the Scottish Executive as set out above. A wide range of indicators were suggested through the consultation process, and some of these are shown in the following table (see below).

The Scottish Executive recognises that Community Warden schemes with a primarily environmental remit may make less of an impact on some of these measures than schemes with a more specific focus on crime prevention. The Scottish Executive is working with Communities Scotland to develop environmental audit tool-kits that could provide a useful way of measuring the impact of warden schemes with an environmental focus.

11.2 Timetable for provision of monitoring information

At the intervals set out below, the Executive will require the following monitoring information on the activities undertaken by schemes and on their outcomes in terms of the impact on local communities.

At six months from the commencement of schemes, the Executive will require:

• Information on the initial outputs from schemes (for example, number of wardens, number of mediation cases undertaken)

At twelve months from the commencement of schemes, the Executive will require:

• Information on scheme outputs
• Information on progress against baseline data for the selected mandatory indicators

At two years from the commencement of schemes, the Executive will require:

• Information on scheme outputs
• Information on progress against baseline data for the selected mandatory indicators

Scheme managers will wish to record operational data on schemes for their own use on a much more regular basis (for example, daily or weekly).

In addition, we will also require information to monitor spending on schemes. The requirements for this will be set out when formal offers of funding are made.

11.3 Evaluation of individual schemes

The Scottish Executive will require all local authorities in receipt of an overall annual allocation of more than 500,000 per annum to conduct an independent evaluation of the schemes in their area. The costs of this should be met within the funding allocation provided by the Executive as outlined in Annex 3.

11.4 Programme evaluation

The Scottish Executive will commission an overall evaluation of the Community Warden schemes and other initiatives to tackle anti-social behaviour funded under this programme. This will consist of a mixture of analysis of the ongoing information on outputs and outcomes provided by the local authorities in receipt of funding, together with more detailed case studies of the schemes developed in selected areas. This overall programme evaluation will focus on a range of different types of schemes and on authorities in both rural and urban locations. Consultants would be involved in the early stages of development of schemes in the case study areas. In the first instance, authorities are requested to indicate in their outline submissions if they wish to be selected as case studies.

As with all Scottish Executive programmes, this evaluation will include issues relating to the value for money of schemes.

« Previous | Contents | Next »