Stairway Out of Crime

Last year, Broadland District Council invested in a comprehensive study into the effects of crime and juvenile re-offending called ‘Stairway Out of Crime’. The study gave rise to a number of projects, based on different areas of need. Councillor Simon Woodbridge talks to Bernadette Hoffmann about solutions found and insights gained.

The original Stairway project was about assessing the situation. How have you integrated the insights into a programme?

We were able to find a number of golden threads among the 15 case studies that served as a basis for the report. Bereavement, bullying and domestic violence were among the most notable ones which could be traced right back through offender lives. So our early projects were to do with early years’ intervention.

What were those projects?

On the ‘Prevent and Deter’ side, they involved:

• The Benjamin Foundation, which went into schools and worked with youngsters with behavioural problems to teach them better coping strategies, and to divert them away from offending behaviours and the intervention of statutory services. The counselling work in schools proved hugely successful, as teachers and parents noticed positive changes in behaviour. 
• A magic show called YBYz with cognitive content and a strong anti-bullying message. It was rotated between a number of schools.
• Work with the Leeway Women’s Aid Domestic Violence Programme to close up gaps in services during episodes of domestic violence.
• The Matthew Project to do reconstructive work around drugs and alcohol and to provide holistic support for young people and their families. 
• An Alcohol Awareness campaign in conjunction with the regeneration of local youth clubs to steer youngsters away from alcohol-fuelled binges into a more constructive use of their time, for example by helping them to acquire music production equipment.

The ‘Social Enterprise Focus’ comprised:

• Broadland Training Services for youngsters which needed more of a vocational grounding and a simpler structure than that provided by the regular schooling system.
• Our House, a foundation training project to teach young offenders and those at risk of offending construction skills to give them a step onto the employment ladder.

The ‘Community Justice Focus’ was to:

• develop a community justice pilot in partnership with the police in order to bring justice much closer to community level, and, where youth is concerned, use restorative rather than punitive justice, for example by supporting victims, and by showing offenders what the impact of their actions on the victim were.

Is there a deadline for the programme?

We are always looking for new projects. We are also evaluating what we can effectively do ourselves as a district council and what we should encourage other agencies to pick up by way of activity. This whole evaluative process together with new ideas and new projects feeds off the old project. I think it will keep this council busy for the next five years.

Ultimately the success of this project ought to be demonstrated by crime figures reducing across the broad range of crime indicators. That is what we are looking for.

What was the structure of the funding?

We had a range of funding streams. You had to turn around and look at what could be funded from where. We now have a full-time Stairway co-ordinator who is responsible for tracking through funding opportunities and matching them with the activities.

So far we have had funding streams from the Local Strategic Partnership because of public concern with crime reduction, the council itself and the Crime Reduction Partnership. There were little pots of money available in these administrative units and each of them agreed to fund one or two projects.

Another part of the funding was derived from the Broadland Local Authority Business Growth Initiative for two vocational training projects in order to enable young people to build up an economic identity of their own rather than being tempted to try and prove themselves by offending.

Were there other issues you were dealing with?

Multiple needs may need addressing in one individual, such as housing, mental health and substance misuse, and agencies need to join up holistically in their treatment of that individual. In some of the 15 case studies, certain types of intervention were not happening together, so you have got to have a one-stop shop to make sure that the different needs are being addressed and that services do join up.

Another issue was electronic communication between agencies. That has now much improved. The correlation of data collection systems that were important in interpreting the crime problem and the nature of interventions needed, has also become easier. The data protection act needed to be interpreted in terms of what information had to be exchanged to allow agencies to work more effectively together. So, as a result of the Stairway programme, we have already seen far better communication between crime reduction agencies.

What does the future hold?

Now we are looking at how Local Area Agreements can best be developed to reflect the research findings of the programme. We are trying to bring the findings from a district to a county platform so that you can be more effective at co-ordinating the efforts of different services with local government generally.

It is now a matter of elevating the types of intervention that we have developed onto a wider platform so that other district areas will be able to pick and mix in much the same way that we have for the types of intervention they need.

Also, it would be helpful if an assessment was made of what mental health services can do in terms of supporting offenders. So that could be a project for next year. The figures for mental health problems in the prison population are frighteningly high, so if we can start doing some preventative work using the expertise of mental health at a much earlier point, it is again steering away people from offending behaviour.

What was the most rewarding experience for you?

It has been a very worthwhile experience. The most moving moment was when one young child was asked what he had learnt, and he said ‘It’s ok to miss dad’.

The aim is to help people find a stable foundation to their lives. I am very pleased to have been involved.

Further information

Updates of the various projects as well as the initial study and the follow-up document ‘Broadland – one year on 2007-2008’ can be found on the council's website:

More about the 'Stairway out of Crime' project – on the Broadland District Council website.

or by contacting

Sarah Jones
Social Policy Officer
Broadland District Council
Tel: 01603 430635
sarah.jones@broadland.gov.uk

Article published November 2008