When IT Meets Politics

Relaunch of the Norwood Community Safety Partnership

Philip Virgo
Philip Virgo
Winsafe Ltd

 

The Norwood Community Safety Partnership was launched in 2018 as a pilot to try to make sense of the many fragmented and/or duplicated crime prevention, law enforcement and victim support initiatives from the perspective of those living in one of London’s most culturally, socially and economically diverse communities.  A particular focus has been to work with the London Chapters of professional bodies like ICS2 (spot the member of their ethics committee in the photo, ready to deal out punishment to my feeble Frank Warren look-alike) and ISACA  to provide volunteers who are also role models.

Last year, as implementation of the changes in A new Met for London began to gather pace alongside discussion of the need to given much higher priority to the links between on-line abuse and physical violence (from domestic, through teen on teen to elder), things began to come together.

There is much still to do but I very much wish to hear from those living or working in Lambeth who would like to help, particularly by joining Neighbourhood Watch and helping relaunch the Association that is missing in Lambeth.

Below is the newsletter that I am about to send out locally.

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NORWOOD COMMUNITY SAFETY PARTNERSHIP NEWSLETTER January 2025

To Norwood Community Safety Partnership Circulation Lists 

From Philip Virgo as Convenor, Norwood CSP

also Development Lead for Neighbourhood Watch in Lambeth  

 (Please note the CSP is now co-hosted by Norwood Neighbourhood Watch instead of Norwood Forum. The temporary arrangements until the launch of the Lambeth Neighbourhood Watch Association are covered in section 3)

 January CSP NEWSLETTER CONTENTS

  • Making Lambeth one of the Safest Boroughs in London
  • Neighbours by chance, working together by choice: the relaunch of Neighbourhood Watch in Lambeth
  • Community Safety Partnership Forward Plans
  • Community Policing News, Contacts and Dates
  • Information Sources

 1 Making Lambeth one of the safest boroughs in London

 In October 2024 the Council announced that making Lambeth “one of the safest boroughs in London” was one of its three ambitions for Lambeth 2030 Our Future, Our Lambeth. The other two ambitions are making neighbourhoods “fit for the future” and “making Lambeth a place we can all call home”. Lambeth Crime and Safety Statistics indicate the scale of the ambition. Lambeth is currently among London’s ten most dangerous boroughs. It is also the only borough with neither a functioning Safer Neighbourhood Board (SNB) nor a Neighbourhood Watch (NW) Association.

Quarterly meetings of the chairs of the Lambeth Safer Neighbourhood Panels with the Borough Community Policing Superintendent restarted in late 2023 and a link to the Ward Panel Handbook was circulated.  Discussions on relaunching Neighbourhood Watch in Lambeth began in April 2024. Meetings to relaunch the SNB for Lambeth began in July. Assuming the SNB operates in much the same way as those for most the other London Boroughs, it will have representatives from the Ward SNPs, grouped in clusters. Under the agreement between the Metropolitan Police and Neighbourhood Watch, neighbourhood police teams are expected to encourage NW Groups in their Wards and NW Groups are expected to nominate representatives to the Ward SNPs.

There appears little local awareness of how Neighbourhood Watch has evolved over the past decade, including to look after vulnerable and isolated neighbours across much of England during Covid lockdown and to address the concerns of students and teenagers, beginning with those wanting a safe night out.

Neighbourhood Watch is by far the largest community support group in England and Wales, with over a million households looking out for their neighbours. More than 10% have responded to their 2024 community safety survey. Early results indicate that anti-social behaviour and abuse (on-line, in the home and in the street) have long overtaken traditional concerns. Publications like The Lookout – Student Safety Guide to Freshers (sent to student members) and Our News December 2024 (sent to all) reflect how the responses of communities across the UK are evolving.

In October 2024 I agreed to serve as Development Lead for Neighbourhood Watch in Lambeth, with a view to drawing in resources from outside Lambeth to help local NW groups in recruit volunteers, improve reporting and intelligence, copy best practice from elsewhere and, where necessary, develop new approaches to involving local communities in testing whether these meet their needs.

In parallel the Norwood Community Safety Partnership (NCSP) steering group was relaunched over the summer and it was agreed in December that the NCSP would no longer be co-hosted by the Norwood Forum. It would have its own web pages and e-mail address from January 2025.

Subject to agreement on funding and division of labour, the expectation is that the NCSP will be co-hosted by the relaunched Lambeth NW Association, in partnership with the Lambeth SNB and others, as part of a shared “cluster” support network. See section 3 for the transition arrangements until the formation of the NW Association. This is the last newsletter to be sent from the Norwood Forum address. Replies should be sent to [email protected]

2 Neighbours by chance, working together by choice: the relaunch of Neighbourhood Watch in Lambeth

Approximately 6% of the 20 million households in England and Wales are signed up to Neighbourhood Watch and it is by far the UK’s largest community self-help network. 0.4% of households in Lambeth are signed up.

Almost all London Boroughs have a Neighbourhood Watch Association supporting hundreds of active groups, including Business, Speed, Cyle, Dog, Park, Pub, Park, Street (including school patrol), and Youth Watch groups. These are commonly grouped in area clusters. Lambeth has no specialist groups but there are members across its hundred or so groups (most attached to tenants and residents groups) interested in all. There are also members interested in helping with fund raising and organisation waiting to be contacted.

In December the process of relaunching Neighbourhood Watch in Lambeth began with formal messaging to the current group co-ordinators asking if they would support the creation of an “Association” to support them. And, if so, what they would like from it, including priorities. The next step is to contact all NW participants (including those not in active groups) to invite then to get involved with their local SNP, beginning with those serving the wards of Gipsy Hill, Knights Hill, St Martins and West Dulwich (see section 4 of this newsletter for meeting dates, times and venues) and provide feedback on their priorities for action.

The intention is to then use the NCSP to test processes to reduce duplication of effort, including in the organisation of local co-operation and volunteering, drawing in support for those who want to apply these across the rest of Lambeth.

The processes to be tested will include how best to engage businesses, schools, parent-teacher associations, GP practices, pharmacies, faith and youth groups – copying what works elsewhere while recognising the almost unique multi-cultural nature of Norwood.

YOUR ACTION: please visit Join us | Neighbourhood Watch Network if you have not already done so, sign up as an individual where you live, indicating your areas of interest, then look at the volunteering page and indicate how you would like to volunteer. You should be contacted by a member of the development team within a month, quicker if recruitment goes to plan.

3 Community Safety Partnership Forward Plans

Subject to agreement with the Chairs of the SNPs and NW co-ordinators, the new Lambeth Neighbourhood Watch Association will provide support to NW Groups via Multi-scheme Administrators (MSAs) for each ward, recruited in agreement with the SNP Chair and the local Police team and trained by NW nationally. While the MSA role is voluntary many also work for Police and Crime Commissioners, Police Forces, Local Authorities or others in community safety or victim support roles.

Subject to discussions currently under way, the re-launched Norwood Community Safety Partnership will become a pilot community cluster, co-hosted by the Lambeth Neighbourhood Watch Association, working with and through the local area NW MSA and SNPs.

In Norwood the four SNPs already work together and are looking to organise cross-boundary representation and co-operation with Norwood Forum, the Business Improvement District, GP practices, Schools, Social Landlords and Faith, Youth and Community groups, including on common guidance and programmes like school patrols and safe havens. The intention is that the NCSP will not meet separately from scheduled SNP meetings although working groups are likely to meet to review progress with specific programmes and projects.

Past NCSP newsletters have summarised news relevant to the communities of West Norwood from a variety of sources, including Police, NHS and Council, covering funding and volunteering opportunities, health and wellbeing, youth engagement etc.  Subject to discussions with current partners, including Norwood Forum and the local Primary Care Networks, the expectation is that future NCSP newsletters will carry only news relevant to community safety, with links to information sources, including local, borough and national newsletters for more detail.

Current and past newsletter recipients are encouraged to sign up to these and also to sign up to Neighbourhood Watch (through at least one relevant group) to receive local community safety “alerts” as soon as these are sent out (i.e. no need for a local group co-ordinator to forward them) as well as “alerts” covering nationally relevant information (e.g.  seasonal advice, on-line scams etc.

Norwood Forum will continue to host key information on community safety under its Useful Info tab on its website including Personal Safety and Help and Emergency Services, as well as latest news and events on matters of community safety via all of its information platforms – and in doing so will maintain a close working relationship with the CSP.

The following NCSP information pages are currently available for comment:

Norwood Community Safety Partnership (Draft Please Comment)

Emergency and Non-Emergency Reporting and Contacts (Draft Please Comment)

Community Safety, Safeguarding and Crime Prevention (Draft Please Comment)

Until a legal entity has been created to host the Lambeth NWA the pages, structured to enable rapid and flexible updating are being hosted (at no charge) by Winsafe Ltd. The company was formed to host the technology and policy assessment operations of the National Computing Centre when they were spun out in 1986. It has served as Data Controller for a variety of operations holding sensitive information, including the Lambeth police community contact database which was passed to it from the Lambeth SNB when the NCSP was created. Hopefully it can be passed back when the LSNB is relaunched. It not, the expectation is that the database will be passed to the Lambeth Neighbourhood Watch Association .

Meanwhile the intention is to revalidate and extend the NCSP database to include local community contacts for all emergency services, health and welfare contacts, including for use by NW co-ordinators contacted to help organise support for vulnerable neighbours.

YOUR ACTION:  if you are not already on the lists maintained by the emergency services, NHS, council or others, e.g. Norwood Forum, or are not sure, please make contact.         

4 Community Policing News, Contacts and Dates

Contact your local policing team | Metropolitan Police for non-urgent matters. The draft NCSP “generic” web page for Emergency and Non-Emergency Reporting and Contacts contains additional links to notify specific crimes, provide intelligence and/or request guidance. Suggestions to correct errors, to suggest better contacts or to request contact points for topics not covered, are most welcome. Please send these to [email protected].

Current contact details for the West Norwood Police teams and the schedule of local Meet the Police and SNP Meetings for Quarter 1 2025 is as follows:

Gipsy Hill Safer Neighbourhood Team : PS Troy Simpson, PC Jamie Ingold, PCSO Beata Markovska-Mathea, PCSO Kamil Wojtkiewicz : [email protected]

6th January (Monday) 11.30 – 12.30 Hungry Hippo Care, Norwood Park

25th January (Saturday) 2.30 – 3.30 Gipsy Hill Railway Station

7th February (Friday)  09.30 -10.30 Hungry Hippo Care, Norwood Park

22nd February (Saturday) 10.00 – 11.00 Gipsy Hill Railway Station

8th March (Saturday) 3.30 – 4.30 Gipsy Hill Railway Station

29th March (Saturday) 09.30 – 10.30 Hungry Hippo Care, Norwood Park

Safer Neighbourhood Panel: to be confirmed

Knights Hill Safer Neighbourhood Team  : PS Saul Bird, PC Jacob Eager, PC Samuel Singer-Ripley, PCSO Salim Marwari : ASMailbox-.Knight’[email protected] : Community Contact Sessions

3rd January  15.00 – 16.00 Sainsbury’s Local, 364 – 366 Norwood Road

21st January 13.00 -14.00 B&Q 304 – 322 Norwood Road

Safer Neighbourhood Panel: to be confirmed

St Martin’s Safer Neighbourhood Team :  PS Saul Bird, PC Will Luck, PCSO Jack Jones-Pace: ASMailbox-.StMartin’[email protected]: Community Contact Sessions:

10th January 10.00 -1100 Co-op 178 Norwood Road

27th January 10.00 -11.00 The Scouts Hut, High Trees

7th February 15.00 – 16.00 Tulse Hill Train Station

25th February 13.00 -1400 Co-op 178 Norwood Road

7th March 15.00 – 16.00 The Scouts Hut, High Trees

26th March 12.00 – 13.00 Tulse Hill Train Station

Safer Neighbourhood Panel Meeting:  9th January, 18.30 High Trees Hub/Scout Hut  

West Dulwich Safer Neighbourhood Team : PS Troy Simpson, PC Anna Wachowicz, PCSO Carl McLean, PCSO Lewis Middleton ; [email protected] , Tel 02086492337: Community Contact Sessions:

Safer Neighbourhood Panel Meeting: 14th January, 19.00, Goodwin Hall, Baptist Church, Chatsworth Way

  • Information Sources

Unless otherwise requested and agreed, future NCSP newsletters will not contain an information sources section. Instead they will contain links to the NCSP plus others agreed with the steering group, e.g. Norwood Forum, Station to Station and Local Village Network.

Local websites

The  Norwood Forum website contains a wealth of information. The home page has buttons to News, Events , Grant Funding and Thriving Norwood . The Useful Links drop down menu includes Personal Safety and Help , Emergency Services , Lambeth Council, Utilities , Network Norwood and Local Charities.

The Station to Station (Tulse Hill to West Norwood, see map) Business Improvement District and its information  services can accessed via  ChooSE27: a neighbourhood app for everything local.

This is the page for the  volunteer powered street market festival – West Norwood Feast

Facebook Pages include::   Norwood Forum, West Norwood Local , West Norwood SE27 ,  What’s On West Norwood ,  West Norwood Matters (Community Safety items only),  West Norwood News (produced by the Labour Party Action Team) Friends of Gipsy Hill.

Local Newsletters

For local news sign up to the Norwood Forum newsletter plus those for Station to Station, Norwood Action Group and Friends of Gipsy Hill.

To post or find out about local employment and volunteering opportunities visit Local Job Vacancies – Station to Station.

Health and Wellbeing

Get involved – Lambeth Together links to the activities organised via the integrated partnership of the Council and NHS, including:

Early Intervention

 Support for Carers

 Youth Engagement

For the Lambeth Youth and Play Newsletter e-mail [email protected]

For other activities organised by those with Police agreed quality control, including Rathbone and High Trees, visit Local Village Network · Explore Youth Opportunities.

 Access to Work and Skills

Use BeLambeth to post/discover employment and volunteering opportunities. See also Local Job Vacancies – Station to Station . Visit Lambeth Made for information on the education, skills and employment programmes organised by the Council and sign up via Contact Lambeth Made to request the newsletter. For Youth Promise and the Youth Hub employment support, email  [email protected] or complete the registration form. Fight for Change runs the Lambeth Young Advisors . 

 Lambeth Council Consultation and Participation Platforms

Consultations | Lambeth Council

Citizen engagement platform | London Borough of Lambeth