This guide accompanies the Commission's national report, Neighbourhood Crime and Anti-social Behaviour. Its purpose is to assist local agencies in:
- creating neighbourhood profiles under stage three of the five-stage framework for neighbourhood management of crime and anti-social behaviour
- reviewing current neighbourhood level activity and resource use to determine how to obtain better value for money (VFM)
Within a neighbourhood framework, Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships (CDRPs) need to link the analysis of places affected by crime and anti-social behaviour more closely with the people living and working in those places. In order to obtain better value for money, CDRPs need to review the commissioning and programme management of activity with a significant impact on achieving community safety. To respond to these issues effectively, CDRPs need to compile neighbourhood profiles.
Neighbourhood profiles and other Commission work
Measuring and managing performance by local agencies needs to keep pace with change in society. The public is keen to understand what value they receive from local agencies. Explanations of the value by local agencies need to relate ever more closely to the neighbourhoods in which people live. Performance reports at whole council level mask different public experiences at neighbourhood level. For information to be meaningful to the public, reporting should be at neighbourhood level too. To report information at a neighbourhood level, information has to be gathered and analysed at that level.
Neighbourhood profiles support the Commission's aim to improve the public reporting of local agency performance. In particular, the profiles complement the following strands of government policy and Audit Commission activity.
Source: Audit Commission
Councils and police authorities in particular, may wish to use the information and analysis that will be generated by compiling neighbourhood profiles to demonstrate how better value for money has been derived from effective use of resources.
How to use this guide
This guide comprises a series of sections. To suit each reader's needs, each section is readable on its own, or in conjunction with other sections. This guide provides methods and models for local agencies to use; the guide is not definitive or exhaustive. Local agencies will need to develop responses that fit local needs and this guide will assist that process.
The responsibilities affecting authorities and CDRPs are changing. To meet the new challenges, local agencies will need a timely and comprehensive assessment of neighbourhood issues and their responses. The section on using profiles to inform action planning contains two frameworks for organising and utilising neighbourhood information and profiles to best effect.
The guide is navigable by clicking on links to the left-hand side of the page. Download separate sections or the entire guide by clicking on links at the bottom of each page.
Acknowledgements
In preparing the example profiles that are contained in this guide, the Audit Commission acknowledges the considerable support and assistance provided by a range of local agencies in each CDRP area. Responsibility for the content of this guide rests with the Audit Commission alone.