Priority Setting and the use
of Strategic Assessments
Mark McCall – Community Safety
Operations Manager
Gary Smith – Community Analyst
Fife Community Safety Partnership
Partnership Strategic
Assessments
• Business tool utilised by CSP’s in varying formats
throughout the country
• Structure of CSP’s varies widely – impact on analytical
resources
• Quality and use of strategic assessments inconsistent
nationally
• SCSN guidance – priority within SCSN business plan for
2012 / 2013
Partnership Strategic
Assessments
• Fife – using an area based tactical tasking model since
2007 – phased roll out throughout 2008/2009
• Area workplans being developed in isolation – some
conflicting with existing community safety strategy
• Requirement for a product to identify Fife wide priorities
to support local workplans and enhance buy-in from
partner services and organisations
Strategic Assessment production:
Research and rationale
• Follow-on from tactical tasking process, making use of
community analyst resources
• Identification of priority issues requiring medium to longterm action
• Analysis conducted against previously identified and
emerging priority issues
• External factors considered – Demographic and social
indicators - Deprivation
• Cross cutting issues identified – Drug and alcohol abuse
fed into multiple sections
Strategic Assessment production: Writing
• Data collection – 3 year time period to establish trends – open
source; charges; subject experts; etc.
• 3 main sections – Current picture; Future and emerging trends;
Areas for development
• Conscious decision to list ‘areas for development’ instead of
‘recommendations’
• PESTELO process – Assess physical, environmental, social,
economic, legal, organisational and technological issues that will
impact over next 3 years
Strategic Assessment production: Risk
assessment
• 4 x 4 model chosen
PRIORITY GRADING
IMPACT
4
8
12
16
3
6
9
12
2
4
6
8
1
2
3
4
16
12
9
8
6
4
3
2
1
VERY HIGH
HIGH
MEDIUM
LOW
PROBABILITY
• Probability – Trends/ Intelligence information / Number of
perpetrators / Opportunity
• Impact – Threat of public disorder / Media / Resources / Social
impact / Risk to life
Strategic Assessment production: Risk
assessment
• Probability and impact of issues considered and scored by key
partners and subject experts
• Issues graded as very high/high/medium/low
• Workshop group held to discuss risk assessment findings and
grading.
• The priority grading arrived at often did not match the
expectations of workshop participants.
Strategic Assessment production:
Difficulties
• Cohesiveness – Document written by four people, all with
different writing styles
• Service data collection – The form of information provided varied
between services. E.g. fiscal year data or calendar year data
• Terminology - Multiple acronyms and service definitions. Needed
to be clarified for a partnership audience
• Backlog in receiving data – e.g. road fatalities
• Data gaps
Partnership Strategic
Assessments
• Does not detract from business as usual at area level – e.g.
Community Engagement model
• Increased co-ordination of area activities to support
delivery of community safety strategy
• Helped drive restructuring of strategic task groups
• Move towards monthly operational and quarterly strategic
tasking at an area level
Partnership Strategic
Assessments
• Where Next
– Annual Review – identify changes in priorities and
emerging issues
– Re-design of frontline services – logic model approach
• National Direction
– Impact of reform – local police / fire plans
– Community Planning Strategic Assessments