Stockport and Tameside PB success

The evaluation indicates that both Tameside and Stockport were successful in:

• having local people vote on projects that they felt would improve community safety
• enabling local people to influence local policing priorities
• bring different parts of their communities together (social cohesion)
• neighbourhood policing teams were actively engaged with their communities in the weeks preceding the decision making event as well as on the day
• improving relationships between partners locally
• participants said that the project had made them more aware of local groups and what was happening in their area
• Some groups said they would seek additional funding on the back of the success of the project
• 93% of participants felt that the process was clear and explained well to them
• both staff members and community groups felt it had given them new skills or improved existing ones

The evaluation also identifies 14 aspects of the projects that were good practice including making good use of local partnership knowledge and networks, involving the neighbourhood policing team in planning, utilising community networks to encourage people to get involved, and supporting smaller or less established community groups with governance arrangements and structures enabled the process to be as inclusive as possible. 

Finally the evaluation suggests 17 key learning points to be built upon for future PB processes including allowing more time for planning and engagement before a decision day, and to increase citizen understanding of budgetary processes, specifically the links between priorities and limited resources.

GMP will produce a final report after the projects that received funding have been implemented - in order to identify and measure the outcomes arising from the projects and not just the PB process itself.