📷 Neighbourhood Watch Network
8th Floor
Elizabeth House
39 York Road
London
SE1 7NQ
2/7/19
Dear Neighbourhood Watch Association Leads,
I hope that you all had great Neighbourhood Watch weeks and have also been able to enjoy some of the incredible hot and sunny weather we have been enjoying.
We got great coverage during Neighbourhood Watch week particularly on social media. We had widespread use of the hashtag: @MoreThanYouExpect with police forces, PCC’s and sponsor organizations sending supportive messages.
Nick Hurd, the policing minister also tweeted his support. Our average monthly impressions on Twitter is approx. 70k per month but in June, with all the activity surrounding NW week, we doubled our impressions to 147k.
During June, 112 new schemes with 35 new coordinators were registered compared to a slight drop last year.The Inspiration good practice database, the NWN focus point of the week, was accessed 6,195 times and there were more than 20,000 hits on the website, up 32% on previous NWW 2018.
As part of Neighbourhood Watch Week Portsmouth University in partnership with Hampshire Neighbourhood Watch launched their Virtual Burglary film work and prevention information. The event was well attended, and the films produced excellent. The work has been based on interviews and virtual film research with burglars and non-burglars. The work highlights the decisions made by burglars and how to deter them from targeting a property. The films are all short and easily accessible and the work is innovative as Dr Claire Nee, who is leading the research, is able to assess burglars actions and decisions in real time, using virtual reality. We will be highlighting how to access the films and use them in meetings, events etc once the University has resolved accessing them publicly.
As mentioned above the Neighbourhood Watch Good Practice Database entitled ‘Inspiration’ was launched during Neighbourhood Watch Week which we hope you have been able to look at. The request for the good practice database came from members, as lots of watches and associations wanted information on what other watches were doing and to be able to contact them to gain support and information on how to deliver similar projects and work. The database contains lots of examples of fantastic good practice that are taking place within Neighbourhood Watch. The work ranges from involving young people, litter picks, a community café, community events, preventing fraud and cyber-crime to supporting community readiness to flooding. It’s a great resource which we hope provides ideas and connections between watches and associations to learn from and support each other. We will be adding more examples over the coming months to ensure as many examples as possible are available to all watches and associations.
You will have received notification and invites to the NW Summer Seminars in Leeds, Cardiff and London on the 6th, 8thand 9th August respectively. They will be a great opportunity to meet up with other members and co-ordinators from Neighbourhood Watch and members of the Central Support Team. There will be updates from me on progress on the strategy over the past year and the opportunity to hear about our future plans and the opportunity to feed into these. There will be a set of workshops looking at measuring the impact or outcomes of Neighbourhood Watch locally, examples of good practice, and talks from partners including the Big Lunch, Coop and the Police depending on which seminar.
As I previously mentioned we are very keen that local watch coordinators are as well as leads so we can get their input and experience to. Please respond to the invites as soon as possible to ensure you and your coordinators get a chance to attend.
We have continued to work as part of Nick Hurd’s Policing Minister’s Burglary Taskforce with Police, Local Authority, Home Office, Insurers, Crimestoppers and Victim Support to address the increase in burglary. One area of work is to agree consistent advice and information on prevention and the Neighbourhood Watch Burglary Toolkit will form part of this. Our involvement in the taskforce is useful in showcasing the work being undertaken by Neighbourhood Watch including the visiting scheme in Cambridgeshire and the similar scheme which will be rolled out in Sussex as well as the faith being placed in Neighbourhood Watch to be able to influence and support this England and Wales initiative.
I again have been to visit associations including Portsmouth above and a popular event and AGM in Seaford in East Sussex and meetings with various Police Forces including the Metropolitan Police where we are rebuilding contacts and partnerships including with MOPAC.
I am planning to attend other Neighbourhood Watch events over the next few months and really look forward to seeing lots of members, co-ordinators and leads at the Summer Seminars in the first week of August.
As ever, please share this letter with your co-ordinators and members.
Yours Faithfully
📷
John Hayward-CrippsCEO Neighbourhood Watch Network