Wandsafe Burglary Aftercare Evaluation 2004-05

Download the performance charts - WandsafeAftercareEval04.pdf

Summary of performance charts 2004-05

The Wandsafe Service

The remit of the Wandsafe officer is to advise victims of a "first time domestic burglary", of ways to improve existing security measures at their home. Advice can be given either in person or by way of a telephone conversation. Victims in both cases will have previously been sent a full domestic security information pack.

When a victim requires a home visit, the Wandsafe Officer will attend them in their home. A full domestic security survey will be conducted in the presence of either the victim, their representative or landlord or agent. Following the visit, victims and their representatives will have been appraised of various ways that existing security could be improved. The purpose of Wandsafe is to reduce repeat victimisation.

Following any visit, a period of three months will lapse before an evaluation letter and questionnaire, consisting of 14 simple questions is sent to the victim for completion.

Upon return of the completed evaluation form an analysis is made and a performance chart [WandsafeAftercareEval04.pdf] is created. Subsequently a review of each year is taken in July (the March clients only being surveyed in the June).

The Wandsafe Burglary-Aftercare Service for the period of this evaluation was a single officer supported by a shared resource of administrative support. The Wandsafe service in now in it's eighth year and although several changes, such as the inception of the MPS Safer Neighbour Teams has taken place, the overall performance has remained, largely the same.

Burglary Victims in the Borough of Wandsworth in 2004-05

There were 2154 recorded residential burglary offences reported to the police in the borough of Wandsworth for the stated period.

Of these, 1,281 referrals were made to the Wandsafe service, by the police.

Of these referrals 1,281 (100%) received some form of support from the service:
     1,281 (100%)   Information pack
     1,124 (87.7%)  Telephone advice
     157 (12.3%)   Home visit

In addition to this, recognising that neighbours are equally vulnerable where there is a prolific offender operating in an area the Wandsafe service also provided advice to 1,824 neighbours.

Analysis of Wandsafe evaluation scheme

Victimisation
In 2004-2005, borough-wide 2% of victims suffered from a second offence. All were seen as unavoidable, due to either the vulnerability of the victim or insecure or poor or inadequate structure of the property.

Partnership working
71% of victims said that the police had informed them of the Wandsafe service and 76% agreed that they had received a letter from the council and or police informing them of the service.

73% said that they were not members of a Neighbourhood Watch. Of those 73%, 53% mentioned that they would like more information about how to become members of a watch.

Client satisfaction
83% of clients said that they were offered a prompt appointment. Clients who received a visit said that the officer was Polite-Professional-Informative.

Overall 63% clients said that the Wandsafe service was excellent, 24% said good, 5% average and 5% said that the service was poor. 3% did not give any answer and the grading scale was left blank.

Client response to the service
Only 10% said that they had not implemented any changes or which 25% said that it was due to cost and 25% said lack of time. 

A total of 83% said that the Wandsafe visit had increased their awareness of the importance of domestic security whilst  92% of persons visited mentioned that they would continue to make improvements as time and funds allow. 90% of victims were insured.

Comparison on previous years performance

The number of clients referred to the service changed from 1,150 to 1,281. However, the number of clients accepting a home visit fell from 190 to 157.

During this analysis period the service available to the public was reduced due to a long period of absence following a surgical intervention, although it is worthy of note that despite this 94% of clients were offered a prompt appointment.

It has been suggested that nationally 40% of burglary victims become repeat victims within 12 months. During the period 2004/5 this figure based on an assessment of Wandsafe clients during 2003/4 was 1.07%.

The most common cause for not implementing changes was that of cost. This has been a common trend over preceding years, and whilst the Boroughs Crime Prevention Panels have provided a level of support to clients in need, there is no on-stop service. We have therefore started to negotiate with Borough charities to establish a lock-fitting scheme that can be used by all residents.

Performance against standards

Due to sickness absence targets for the year were not met in each of the reported areas of performance. Clients in priority need were identified and provided with a visit from either a skilled and experienced member of the Community Safety team or a police Crime Prevention Officer. There is no reason to believe that this will continue to be an area of concern in 2005/6 and no remedial action is proposed at this time.