Second phase Strategic Plan 2014-2017 www.walthamforest.gov.uk
Page 2 Foreword 1. THE JOURNEY SO FAR We are coming to the end of the first 3-year phase of Enough is Enough, Waltham Forest s award-winning gang violence prevention programme. For many years the borough was plagued by gang violence and gang-related robberies and now, for the first time in a decade robbery statistics have fallen below the London average making you less likely to be a victim of robbery here. Moreover, since the start of the programme more and more of our residents have told us that they feel safer. These are outstanding achievements of which we are very proud. The programme has helped to turn around the lives of scores of families, and the reduction in gangrelated robberies alone is estimated to have saved the public purse 2.4million in the first two years of the programme. We believe, therefore, that the programme has more than demonstrated its worth. All this has been achieved through an excellent partnership involving residents and professionals. We have done this with the community, not to them, and I am delighted that our residents have valued what we do and supported the programme s continuation into this second phase. Cllr Chris Robbins Leader, Waltham Forest Council Chief Supt Mark Collins Borough Police Commander Chair, Community Safety Partnership In 2007, following a gang-related murder in the borough the Council commissioned gangs expert Professor John Pitts to undertake research into the nature and scale of urban street gangs in Waltham Forest. The resulting report, Reluctant Gangsters (John Pitts 2007), is a groundbreaking report, which helped shine a spotlight on the problem of gang violence both generally and in Waltham Forest. Work was already underway to tackle gang violence in Waltham Forest when a spate of gangrelated violence took place in the borough in the summer of 2010 indicating the need for us to do more. The Council launched its new programme, Enough is Enough, in January 2011. Through it we wanted to tackle gang culture and its causes head-on. Our aim was to reduce gang violence and gang-related crime in the borough, to improve young people s life chances, and to help the community to feel safer and making Waltham Forest a better place to live. All the partners who sit round the table in our Community Safety Partnership have been involved in its delivery. When we launched Enough is Enough it was different from other gang violence prevention programmes. Like others it combined enforcement with support but our programme focused on family based solutions and involved local communities centrally in decision making about the direction of the programme. We also built external evaluation into the programme. Cordis Bright, an independent research consultancy, is our evaluator. Over the course of the first two years of the programme we worked with 191 gang members, 71 young people at risk of gang involvement and 12 victims of gang violence, and where we could we worked with their families as well. In the programme s first year, 2011/12, we saw significant reductions of 80 per cent in crimes of violence and robbery amongst those we worked with. We also won a national award, from the Municipal Journal, for the way that the programme had helped to change the lives of recipients. In 2012/13 we saw the largest reduction in gang violence amongst 10-19 year olds anywhere in London. And whilst gang violence perpetrated by school children (aged 1016) actually rose slightly across London here in Waltham Forest it fell by more than half. Chris Robbins, Leader, Waltham Forest Council and Chief Superintendent Mark Collins, Borough Commander, Waltham Forest In 2013/14 we have continued to see significant falls in gang violence amongst young people in the borough. The proportion of our residents who report that they are worried about gangs in the borough has fallen from one in three to one in ten. Our independent evaluator has concluded that the programme is targeting the right people and achieving real and lasting benefits. Page 3 2. W HAT WE WANT TO ACHIEVE NOW Waltham Forest has historically been known as one of the boroughs in London most affected by gang violence. Prior to embarking on this programme in 2011 we featured prominently in London s top five risky places over a number of years. Preventing gang violence is a complex and difficult but necessary task. The long-term aims of our gang violence prevention programme are to: Prevent our young people becoming involved in gang violence; and Ensure that those communities most affected are more confident about the future of their young people. We will build on our achievements in the programme s first three years and by March 2017 we want to have: Reduced the number of our young people getting involved in gang violence by half; Reduced our residents fear of gang violence; and Reduced the rate of violent gang incidents and robberies to no more than the London average. In addition to a reduction in violence and other associated crimes, we believe that implementation of the programme will lead to the following successful outcomes amongst the cohort of gang members that we work with: An improvement in behaviour and attendance at school; A reduction in the numbers claiming out of work benefits; A reduction in gang violence-related hospital admissions; and A reduction in both the volume and seriousness of offending.
Page 4 Page 5 3. OUR APPROACH i. KEY PRINCIPLES The first phase of Waltham Forest s Gang Violence Prevention drew on the findings of work we commissioned: Reluctant Gangsters (John Pitts 2007). It also incorporated the recommended principles of leading national research: Dying to Belong (Centre of social Justice Feb 2009). These remain a relevant framework within which to further our local approach, which has been externally validated by the Home Office Ending Gang and Youth Violence Team after their Peer Review in 2012 and the external evaluator Cordis Bright. Our model of intervention adds findings from the independent evaluation of the first phase of our programme. Our original starting point has been confirmed: those involved in gang violence are not isolated individuals and changing the behaviour of individuals is best achieved through partnership, and sustainable change is made more possible by the active support of families and communities. The partnership behind the programme will therefore continue to base its work on the following principles to bring about behaviour change: ii. A NEW WAY OF UNDERSTANDING GANG VIOLENCE Combining challenge and support; Taking a family approach; Deepening our partnership between the Police and the community, involving the community at all levels to build resilience and capacity; and Using all possible enforcement levers where necessary. In addition to the above our approach will adhere to the following commitments: We will work towards every family having a single champion/point of contact; We will invest in what has been shown to work and deliver the required outcomes in the first phase of the programme; We will continue to innovate and seek to pilot new ways of working; and We will enter into strategic partnerships with key community and voluntary agencies to bring additional resources to the borough through match funding arrangements. We have had some successes in diverting and preventing those at risk (the problematic peer group shown in the chart above) from deepening their involvement, but we have to do more in this area. The first phase of the programme focused on challenging and supporting entrenched gang members (the urban street gang, above) to change their behaviour. We propose that the next phase of our programme should be grounded in a broader view of the challenge we face. We also need to consider how we best work with those on the periphery (the delinquent peer group, above) to divert and prevent them from becoming involved. In order to achieve this we have set out 3 distinct strands within our strategy to divert young people on the periphery, intervene early with young people at risk and engage intensively with active gang members. A. YOUNG PEOPLE ON THE PERIPHERY This strand of the work will focus on work with those young people who are involved in delinquent peer groups and who are perpetrating anti-social behaviour. It will also involve reaching out to anyone in the borough who may have a concern about gang violence and sign-posting them to resources to alleviate their fears. It is likely that this will be achieved through improved communication and provision of information. B. YOUNG PEOPLE AT RISK This strand of the work involves identifying those young people involved in problematic peer groups and intervening early to divert them onto a more constructive iii. THE WORK STREAMS path. Those vulnerable to involvement in gang violence are also likely to be vulnerable to a range of other negative outcomes as predicted by our Troubled Families. The focus of this work stream will enable effective identification of those young people and their families and to put them in touch with existing early intervention resources in the borough where possible, rather than create a parallel set of resources for these young people and their families. Key partners in this work stream who are able to identify those at risk will include neighbourhood police, schools, colleges, housing providers and community members. Key delivery partners are likely to include the Targeted Youth Support Service, Youth Offending Service, Early Intervention and Prevention Service and others involved in delivering our Troubled Families. C. GANG MEMBERS This strand of the work focuses on getting those involved in urban street gangs in the borough to change their behaviour. This is where we will continue and build upon our successful family-based systemic approach to challenge and support gang members to exit that life. This is also the area to which we will direct most of our gang-specific resources. A significant component of this area of work will take place in prison, in order to ensure that those we can still reach out to gang members we have successfully taken enforcement action against. The programme enables these young people to establish effective supportive relationships and resettle successfully back in the community in Waltham Forest or elsewhere and become contributing members of the community. 1. Bronze pathway Those on the periphery Those at risk Gang members Referral to early intervention services & ASB Assessment and referral to appropriate multi-agency case conference 2. Community delivery Diversion projects Mentoring projects 3. Youth advancement 4. Enforcement 5. Development Peer support and targeted education ASB and housing enforcement Intensive school support and peer mentoring Police plus ASB post conviction interventions and housing enforcement Assessment, care planning and full holistic family offer Employment and enterprise projects N/A All possible levers including Police, ASB, financial investigation We will work towards every family having a single champion/point of contact We will invest in what has been shown to work and deliver the required outcomes in the first phase of the programme We will continue to innovate and seek to pilot new ways of working We will enter into strategic partnerships with key community and voluntary agencies to bring additional resources to the borough through match funding arrangements
Page 6 4. INVOLVEMENT OF AND ACCOUNTABILITY TO OUR COMMUNITY The Home Office highlighted our residents involvement in the involvement first phase of the as an area of national best practice. They decided this because of the clear evidence that involving local communities in solving local problems is the best way of bringing about sustainable change. We understand the evidence base of what works and we intend that the community will be centrally involved in shaping the programme content in their local area. We will build on the progress made in establishing the infrastructure for community involvement so that the voice of the community continues to be present at all levels of the programme. Our commissioning programme in future years will focus on the outcomes we want to achieve and the difference we want to make. We will look to bring the most effective and efficient mix of organisations together to tackle the gang problem in priority neighbourhoods. We envisage that local grass roots community and voluntary sector organisations will form a part of that mix. We also intend to continue to help build the capacity of those local grass roots community and voluntary sector organisations that work within this programme so that they can bring in additional resources to their neighbourhoods. That way we can build sustainable solutions that don t rely on the Council for funding. 5. RISKS AND DEPENDENCIES 7. MEASURING IMPACT The Council has invested more than 3million in the first phase of the programme, which was over 90% of the total funding we had. During these austere times to meet our ambitions for the programme we must find external funding. If we do not, our strategy will be at risk. We will therefore look to external funding sources - both national and international - and develop strategic partnerships with voluntary sector organisations to bring money into the borough. We believe that current levels of gang violence are now more reflective of the real scale of the problem than in the early years of the programme as we believe there was under reporting of these issues. There is far less discrepancy between Police and Ambulance Service data. This tells us that the community are taking a stand and reporting incidents to the Police, and that the Police are taking weapons off the streets. Secondly, our key strategic statutory criminal justice partners (Police and Probation) are undergoing unprecedented periods of change. They are committed to maintaining their focus on tackling gangs and maintaining their focus on our local priorities. As they progress through their change programmes we will support them to enable the partnership to continue delivering to a high standard. Thirdly, we must ensure that we retain the confidence and the commitment of local residents to play an active role in the programme. We will do this by remaining consistent, transparent and honest in our dealings with them. 6. GOVERNANCE The Gang Prevention steering group (known as Silver ) will continue to manage the Enough is Enough. All the key accountable agencies are represented, as is the community. The Silver board will continue to report into the Reducing Re-offending as set out in the organisational structure chart below: In the second phase of Enough is Enough we would expect the level of recorded crime to continue to fall in Waltham Forest as the effects of the programme continue to be felt and gang involvement and related violence reduces. We would expect the detection rates to remain high. We know that as we remove gang members from the hierarchy, whether voluntarily or by force, that this will create a vacuum and may give rise to an upsurge in violence amongst those wishing to secure powerful positions for themselves. We will do our best to minimise the impact on the community. In order to ensure that this project continues to deliver value for money and the qualitative impact we want it to have for individuals, families and neighbourhoods, we will build upon the expert advice of our evaluation partner Cordis Bright in the first phase of the programme and ensure that robust arrangements continue for this second phase. We will re-state the detail of the arrangements, the partnership will continue to collate evidence of achievement over the second phase, but more importantly they will report back to the community and other stakeholders at regular intervals during the life of the programme to allow us to monitor progress and make changes if we need to. Page 7 We will use specific indicators to measure the impact of the programme on the cohort of gang members and their families, and on the priority neighbourhoods. We will do this by comparing elements of gang members and their families lives before and after involvement in the programme focusing on: Offending behaviour; Behaviour and attendance at school; and Benefit status We will measure the impact on the priority neighbourhoods by comparing factors before and after the commissioning programme focusing on: Crime rates (crimes of violence and personal robbery); and Confidence levels amongst residents and street level opinion Waltham Forest s Community Safety Partnership - SafetyNet SafetyNet Business Management Group Reducing Reducing ReVictimisation Offending Priority Locations Chris Robbins, Leader, Waltham Forest Council, Theresa May, Home Secretary and Cllr Liaquat Ali MBE, Lead Member for Community Safety and Cohesion Gang Violence Prevention (Silver) Jennette Arnold OBE, London Assembly Member, Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, Iain Duncan-Smith, MP for Chingford and Woodford Green and Chris Robbins, Leader, Waltham Forest Council attend an event at The Soul Project
Author: Alastair Macorkindale Group Manager (Strategy) Contact: 020 8496 6827 Visit the Children and Young People s Directory at www.walthamforest.gov.uk/cypd