Crime and Community Safety: Yaxley Area Profile

Summary

The Huntingdonshire Community Safety Partnership needed to understand the underlying socio-economic factors contributing to poor levels of Community Safety in the Yaxley area compared to elsewhere. What was the existing service provision (public, private, voluntary) in the area and where were the gaps/barriers to accessing services.

Our analyst Jack produced a research report that had a profound impact. It was presented to the community partnership, immediately translated into an action plan and used as the basis for successfully bidding for a range of addition resources for the area. Locally it’s been highlighted as a high-quality example of place-based research, replicable across other areas where crime and community safety is identified as a problem.

Synopsis

This entry meets the entry criteria for this award as it is the most comprehensive local area provide for Yaxley produced and has helped a number of local agencies to gain a stronger understanding of local issues. The objective, to enable evidence led decision making, was fully met.

The other objective of the report was to support the community safety partnership in working to their strategic priority of identifying and responding to issues in vulnerable places. The nature of the research meant that very specific local factors could be identified such as the fact that the geographical location on the other side of the authority boundary from Peterborough (in Cambridgeshire) means that residents are often unable to access some nearby resources and the advantages that being within this boundary this would bring.

The report made clear recommendations for action to the community safety partnership for future activity. The local evidence base has also been used by the local community to evidence need and secured investment into local services.

Through the research project, Jack engaged with a range of local services/agencies and community groups including:

• Police
• District Council
• Parish Council
• Yaxley Partnership
• Yaxley working group
• Social Care
• Children’s Services
• And many more..

Jack also showed innovation by maximizing the use of our local data visualization website cambridgeshire insight. Throughout the report, a range of the interactive maps and reports from the site were embedding into the report. The site is designed to provide a range of users, including local community groups, the evidence base to understand their community together but this was the first time the data tools on the site had been utilised to efficiently provide the most relevant insight for a given area in one document.

What should LARIA members learn from this project?

LARIA members should learn that providing localized evidence base, there can be a direct impact on a local community, as evidence through decent funding bids through the Yaxley Partnership. By engaging with local stakeholders, the research was able to be incredibly useful in demonstrating the gaps in provision as well as a way of celebrating all of the good things that are happening in Yaxley.

Further Information

The full strategic assessment has been published here.