Wandsafe Burglary Aftercare Evaluation 2005-06 Download the performance charts - WandsafeAftercareEval05.pdf Summary of performance charts 2005-06 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 [WandsafeAftercareEval05.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 2005-2006 There were 2,136 recorded residential burglary offences reported to the police in the borough for the stated period. Of these, 1,006 referrals were made to the Wandsafe service by the police. Of these referrals 1,006 (100%) received some form of support from the service: 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 1625 neighbours.
Analysis of Wandsafe evaluation scheme Victimisation Partnership working 74% said that they were not members of a Neighbourhood Watch. Of those 74%, 55% mentioned that they would like more information about how to become members of a watch. Client satisfaction Overall 62% clients said that the Wandsafe service was excellent, 25% said good, 3% average and 1% said that the service was poor. 9% did not give any answer and the grading scale was left blank. Client response to the service A total of 81% said that the Wandsafe visit had increased their awareness of the importance of domestic security whilst 87% of persons visited mentioned that they would continue to make improvements as time and funds allow. 68% of victims were insured. Comparison on previous years performance The number of clients referred to the service changed from 1,281 to 1,006. However, the number of clients accepting a home visit increased from 157 to 252. It has been suggested that nationally 40% of burglary victims become repeat victims within 12 months. During the period 2005/6 this figure based on an assessment of Wandsafe clients during 2004/5 was 4.4%. 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. As a result of this the Wandsafe service has co-ordinated on behalf of the Community Safety Division a new service which includes partners from Victim Support, Help the Aged, London Fire Brigade, the Metropolitan Police, Wandsworth Council and the borough's crime prevention charities. The new service FLaSH (Fire Locks and Safer Homes) aims to provide a domestic security service (irrespective of means or address in the borough) free of charge to any resident in need – this includes a domestic fire safety home check and the fitting of smoke detectors where required. The partnership relationship is improving – this is evidenced by the increased number of victims who had been advised by the police of the Wandsafe service. The availability of the dedicated burglary aftercare officer this year has improved the user satisfaction in respect of promptness of service (from 63% to 92%) and satisfaction has slightly dipped with users who rated the service as excellent raising from 63% in 2004/5 to 62% in 2005/6, although of those rating service as good or better the service has remained the same (87%). We identify from feedback that the majority of reasons for rating the service as poor related to a breakdown in the referral process with the new FLaSH scheme, and negotiations to rectify this are in place.
Performance against standards Performance in 2005/6 is considerably up on the preceding years with an increase in client visits despite a relative fall in referrals. Overall, Wandsafe did not achieve the target number of client visits set (by 48 visits), but exceeded the number of neighbour visits by 624) therefore overall performance of the service exceeded the set performance indicator. Wandsafe is now identified as a central strategic service in the borough burglary reduction strategy with the police partnership and the service is developing new ways of working to ensure improved targeting or resources and support for victims/residents of the borough – this may result in the coming year with changes to priorities and/or the way the Wandsafe service is delivered. |
