Executive Summary

This report summarises the findings of the evaluation in Irvine Fullarton as part of the Scottish Police Authority and Police Scotland’s Community Confidence Action Research Project.

Since beginning initial engagement in the area in December 2022, we have conducted a survey gathering views on confidence in policing in Irvine Fullarton in February - March 2023 and held several events to gather ideas on how confidence in policing could be enhanced in the local area.

In Summer 2023 local policing in North Ayrshire implemented a range of initiatives based on this community feedback. After an initial 3-month period the project team engaged the community again to evaluate the community’s feedback and thoughts.

To evaluate the initiatives a three-pronged approach has been taken:

• A survey conducted in November 2023 with those 16 and over mirroring one conducted in Feb-March 2023;
• Questions with under 16s in schools mirroring questions from Feb-March 2023; and
• Conversations with community representatives.

It should be noted that due to small sample sizes and the non-representative nature of the samples the findings of these surveys cannot be generalised to the entire Irvine Fullarton population and should be considered indicative only.

16 and Over Survey

• Just over half of respondents were unaware of initiatives undertaken by local policing.
• There was an upward shift in responses for confidence in policing ‘in general’ from a majority ‘medium’ to ‘high’ level between Feb-March 2023 and Oct-Nov 2023.
• Overall, rates of confidence and trust decreased across a range of indicators between Feb-March 2023 and Oct-Nov 2023. This is similar to the downward trend in confidence documented in SPA national polling between July 2022 and 2023.
• Awareness of initiatives seemed to have no impact on confidence or trust in policing.
• While a higher proportion still feel Irvine Fullarton has a sense of community, there was a decrease in those who ‘strongly agreed/agreed’ and an increase in those who ‘disagreed/strongly disagreed’ between Feb-March 2023 and Oct-Nov 2023.
• Comments on Irvine Fullarton largely centred around the area having a strong community, anti-social behaviour, mention of resources on physical police visibility, and wider public services response.

Under 16 Survey

• Overall, most of the pupils who responded appeared to view policing positively with little variation from Feb-March 2023.
• There was limited awareness of initiatives that had been implemented in Irvine Fullarton.
• The most notable change was in relation to having ‘a general worry or problem outside of school’, with a higher proportion of pupils reporting they would not speak to the police or being unsure of what to do.

Community Group Input

• Stakeholders commended communication approach used by project team in the area; but stakeholders noted that communication methods for public could perhaps have been further diverse to improve engagement.
• In terms of timeframes, feedback was noted that “ideas presented by community were put in place really quickly” but some people highlighted three months is perhaps not enough time for the test of change to be noticed.
• Many stakeholders noted that having events during the day may exclude those who work during this time.
• It was noted by multiple stakeholders that individuals in the community started off interested, however this interest tailed off.
• It was felt that the local police should make more of an effort to publicise the good things they are doing in the community. Overall people reported that it was good to see the police listening and
  responding to community needs.