A s we all know, the days of local authorities being measured by their own individual performance will soon be over. We already have Local Area Agreements, and soon, Comprehensive Area Assessments will mean the quality of your ‘place' becomes the measure of how well your organisation is working. Partnerships will have to be strong and effective. Some areas are already ahead of the game, operating joint schemes which have established their own identities. In the best cases, local agencies are working together to achieve excellent results which are recognisable and meaningful to residents. I recently had a great reminder at Ealing of how partnership working can reap real benefits, if you give it the deserved amount of attention and resources. Ealing has been ranked the top borough in London for reducing crime this year. We were in a considerably-different position 12 months ago, and our success has been achieved through the efforts of a local crime-reduction partnership. Earlier this year, the council contributed a considerable amount of resources to a partner agency. Some £2m funded 50 new police community support officers (PCSOs) for our borough. The alternative was to spend money on a community safety scheme that we would have run ourselves, but we took the view that this would not have been as effective. The choice we made gave our residents value for money and effective joined-up public services. All the agencies working to reduce crime and anti-social behaviour have diverted staff and resources to a dedicated task force which is operating in hotspot areas. As a result of this, not only has crime been brought down, but residents have seen positive joint working going on in their areas. With the new assessment system around the corner, all councils need to show confidence in their partners so that just these sort of benefits can be realised across a wide range of initiatives.
