CDRP's - 2009 and beyond...
Effective Crime & Disorder Reduction Partnerships (CDRP’s) for 2009
In January 2006, after extensive stakeholder consultation, the Government published the findings of the review. Corresponding legislative changes were reflected in the Police and Justice Act 2006 and a new set of minimum standards came into force in England on August 1st 2007.
The new statutory requirements form part of the six Hallmarks of Effective Partnerships, core aspects of partnership working which underpin effective delivery. Each Hallmark consists of two elements: statutory requirements and suggested practice to improve partnership effectiveness.
“The CDRP’s are the sleeping giants…”
Jacqui Smith, Home Secretary 2008.
All CDRP’s are expected to meet the minimum standards to increase their effectiveness and improve their performance in delivering outcomes to their communities. The onus is on partnerships to understand the full breadth of crime and community safety issues in their area and improve their skills and processes to perform better in tackling them.
Effective partnership delivery is heavily dependent on good decision-making that in turn relies on quality information and analysis.
The above legislative changes run alongside the launch of a new national Crime Strategy and complementary new set of safer communities related Public Service Agreements for 2008-2011. High performing, effective CDRPs using intelligence-led business processes lie at the heart of the successful delivery of both.
Next Steps
The review was explicit regarding the adaptation of an intelligence led business process (ILBP) based on NIM principles. But when the implications of such a model are considered one can see that it supports all six of the new Hallmarks;
The success of this approach is clear, but is dependent on a range of key assets being in place to support the process. These fall into the categories of People, Knowledge, Sources and Systems.
In 2000 the police service adopted a National Intelligence Model (NIM), Which is based on the collective best practice nationally and internationally around intelligence based allocation of resources. All the evidence suggests that the adoption of a more intelligence led approach to dealing with crime and disorder issues reaps benefits in terms of performance.
The NIM is effectively a business model that helps organisations make decisions about priorities and to allocate the use of resources according to service delivery requirements dictated from a national and local perspective. It achieves this by organising the collective knowledge available from a diverse range of sources around the business environment, therefore informing resource allocation based on agreed priorities. Activity is then closely monitored through a tasking and co-ordination process and lessons are learnt and stored regarding what works.
The NIM is only one version of an intelligence led business process and components of the process can be adapted to fit the needs of a particular partnership or agency. Effective practice is evident already in the way many agencies deliver.
An Intelligence led business process effectively allows agencies or partnerships such as CDRPS to manage risk by;
Identifying the nature of harm being caused within communities.
Assessing the likelihood of harm occurring in a particular location, or to a particular person, or being caused by particular individuals or groups.
Thereby allowing risk to be quantified and prioritised for action.
Key Lessons Learnt
Leadership, ownership and understanding – this has been found to be the most significant success factor from both inspection and academic research and must be borne in mind when introducing change particularly at a senior level. The quote from Strong and Prosperous Communities 2006 is relevant and timely. “Leadership is the single most significant driver of change and improvement in services.”
An intelligence led business process is not for intelligence specialists it is a new way of delivering services
Access to information – Data sharing has traditionally been a major barrier to partnership working with partners relying on issues such as Data Protection to avoid sharing and therefore avoid risk. This must be addressed. The key is a more clear understanding of legislation and the drive centrally to facilitate appropriate data sharing between partners. The new legislation requires that identified members of lead agencies adopt an information sharing role.
Assisted implementation – The intelligence led business models can appear complex and is seen as potentially an additional thing to be done in an already busy environment. It is essential that support is available to assist partnerships to adopt the model and this is a service that RISC can provide.
Training, skills and awareness – Clearly an assessment process will highlight learning needs in relation to key people in the process. The training and development of staff can be provided in a format and at a location to suit the customer.
The range of services provided by RISC will support agencies and partnerships to deliver on community safety, by assisting them to implement an intelligence led business process through;
Effectively directing intelligence collection to inform Strategic and Tactical Assessments.
Producing a Strategic Assessment document that effectively drives business for that period.
Integrating the Strategic Assessment, into mainstream business planning processes.
Producing regular Tactical assessments which monitor progress against the strategic priorities, highlight emerging issues or risks and raise further intelligence requirements.
Accessing and storing information in a useable format and in accordance with current legislative requirements.
Analysing the information stored and producing standardised intelligence products that inform activity.
Using the intelligence products to inform resource allocation by the introduction of effective and robust tasking and co-ordination processes which focus on outcomes.
Measuring the effectiveness of activity in terms of desired outcomes.
Learning from positive and negative outcomes and storing that knowledge to inform future decisions.
