General Documents

Neighbourhood Engagement Contract …………………………………………..…… East Dorset Neighbourhood Policing Team Neighbourhood Engagement Contract - Self Evaluation Report and Neighbourhood Engagement Plan Part 1 – Introduction and Self Evaluation Section or department Eastern NPT Date of completion 26072019 This is a self-evaluation completed by the NPT Sergeant and Inspector responsible for the specific section or department. The second part of this report becomes the Neighbourhood Engagement Plan when complete. This report will be completed annually and submitted to the SMT for final assessment by the OPCC. Results of the evaluation will be taken to Force boards. Provide the context of your business area in relation to Engagement with communities. The Eastern section consists of a large rural community with three key towns of Wimborne, Ferndown and Verwood and large villages such as Corfe Mullen and Alderholt. The popularity of the area, being close to the New Forest, Bournemouth and the Dorset coast, has seen a rapid expansion in housing from the 1980s with the Verwood, Ferndown, West Moors and Corfe Mullen populations more than quadrupling. There still remains a rural feel, however, especially in the north and west of the area. The towns hold the majority of the 59,039 households and 138,570 people (2016). The average age of the community, across the section, is 47. The proportion of individuals over the age of 65 is significantly higher than the national average. More than half of the population are made up of successful professionals, in suburban or semi-rural homes and active elderly people, living in pleasant retirement locations. Current housing growth can be seen to be concentrated on the Colehill, Wimborne and West Parley wards, with 2,500 new homes being built around Wimborne alone (2018 onwards). The Neighbourhood team in total comprises of 9 PCSOs and 4 PCs with 2 Sergeants leading them. Clearly, a significant policing challenge lies in the geography; a vast area, covered by a small number of officers. Eastern has borders with 2 other Forces and 5 other Dorset sections. Our cross-border working is formalised within Operation “Border guard”— rural crime in the North of the section, and Operation Target in the Wimborne area, tackling ASB. Eastern section is less culturally diverse than neighbouring Poole and Bournemouth with 95% of residents having been born in the UK. 99% of those residents speak English and more than two thirds identify as being Christian religion. 24% of residents identify no religion and 0.4% identify as Muslim. Ethnic minority groups account for less than 2% of the population, against 15% for England as a whole (Experian). Eastern NPT have a geographic responsibility to manage crime and disorder, build public confidence, manage offenders and repeat victims and focus on crime and ASB hotspots. Underpinning all of this is our relationship with the public. Whereas patrol officers tend to interact with only a small number of public at any one time, NPT try to influence far more than that in a proactive program of engagement. Engagement has been, in the recent Neighbourhood Engagement Contract East Dorset NPT Neighbourhood Engagement Contract - Self Evaluation Report and Neighbourhood Engagement Plan Part 1 – Introduction and Self Evaluation past, dominated by face-face encounters (Primary engagement); however, with NPT resources in Eastern being reduced by over 60%, the ratio of face-to-face against online or media based tactics has been adjusted as visibility in public has inevitably declined. It follows that those resources that remain deployable are now spending more time at a computer designing and distributing online engagement information. As a result of this, Eastern NPT are recruiting community volunteers to take some of this administrative burden away from frontline staff. The partnership with volunteers, drawn from the local community is a form of engagement in and of itself. The Section has also built, and retains, a good number of Special Constables in its establishment. This helps to ensure we are reflective of the community we serve. A clear focus and expectation of the team is around our “culture and standards” NPT officers comply with the policing “code of ethics” and weave and embed this key standard into our day to day policing by: Listening to our community, ensuring all our teams interactions are with dignity, fairness and respect. Recognising the Peelian principles that “The police are the public and the public are the police” and that the police require strong community links to achieve their core aims. This ethos and continued community engagement is key to legitimacy and support of the public we serve. Delivery a Culture of inclusion and recognise the community has different demographics, ages and cultures and that a “one size fits all” response will not be effective Pride in Policing- Policing has a positive effect on the harmony of the community. Officers should be proud and showcase the achievement of our partnership working and collective success and not allow austerity or concerns over resourcing to be communicated or displayed in a negative attitude. How does your department engage and listen to the community and your staff? Primary Engagement (thematic) This form of engagement is generic and driven by themes, for example crime prevention, cyber-crime, safeguarding etc. Face to face on street/ foot patrols Facebook- Each team maintains an interactive page on which they post, comment and reply to members of the public. Dorset Alert- This is also interactive in that officers can post messages and members can reply to the officer Twitter- available to all but only used in some areas Website enquiries facility Sheducation events (general public events) Written correspondence – emails and FB responses Community events, eg. Festivals/fayres. Radio interviews Station attendees and direct calls or emails to the team Secondary Engagement (targeted) Victims of crime/ASB- Victims First visits Neighbourhood Engagement Contract East Dorset NPT Neighbourhood Engagement Contract - Self Evaluation Report and Neighbourhood Engagement Plan Part 1 – Introduction and Self Evaluation ASB management action- matrix, patrols, letters, home visits. Harder to reach community links- local groups Business Coordination Groups- focus groups of business representatives to steer business engagement. School visits and surgeries Street corner meetings (evidence based) Quick Strike leaflet drop Facebook targeted posts. Press release Targeted Sheducation Surgeries Careers conventions NPT maintain and use a Key individual Network to distribute messages and gather intelligence. Licensing visits on a regular and seasonal basis. Tertiary Engagement (volunteers and partners) Watch group interaction and development- newsletters, meetings, joint working, recruitment events. Forum representation, e.g. EDISH&W Forum P&CG meetings Partner links- ED&CDC, Aster, Spectrum, NHS, Schools Engagement with Harder to reach communities using public/private agencies, e.g. Prama Integration of volunteers into local policing teams- examples in Eastern are: CCTV, Ferndown Community Office, Sheducation, Community messaging, ASB admin. Corfe Mullen and Wimborne crime prevention teams are deployed following relevant acquisitive crimes- teams are drawn from the ranks of the Homewatch in those areas. We use this tactic to raise awareness, build confidence, increase watch group membership and register more people to Dorset Alert. How have you quality assured what your staff are delivering? Supervision take an active role in both delivering engagement and checking the activities of their teams. Surgeries are regularly reviewed to ensure the event achieves best value in terms of officer time versus public benefit. In reality, this value tends to fluctuate and this trend is built into the review process. Supervisors monitor the team social media feeds and give feedback where necessary. All staff have undergone initial and refresher training covering social media management. New volunteers have been assimilated into an existing community messaging team to ensure corporate consistency with other sections. Supervisors also take a lead role in delivering before a lay-review each year, the results of which are then brought back and fed into the development of engagement strategies for the following year. Eastern supervisors attend and contribute towards the NPT supervisor’s forum, which provides a platform to discuss and review engagement across different sections, cross-pollenating good ideas. Supervisors hold regular supervisory meetings to ensure a consistent approach is adopted. This assists with the identification and development of best practice. Supervisors also hold regular 1 to 1 meetings with staff to tailor development and ensure good work is acknowledged. Part 2 – Neighbourhood Engagement Plan (Essential Components) Neighbourhood Engagement Contract East Dorset NPT Provide an update against the essential components on your activity or contribution if primarily delivered geographically. Build and deliver an Engagement Plan [Standard satisfied on completion of this document]. This plan aims to provide a framework for delivery that is effective and efficient, flexible enough to be applied across the varied demographic of the Eastern section and balanced with our available resources. Face-to-face engagements with members of the community. Clearly, a face-to-face engagement event is the most powerful in terms of

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