Report Summary
This report summarises the key findings of the evaluation of new policing initiatives in Irvine as part of the final phase of the SPA and Police Scotland's Community Confidence Action Research Project in Irvine Fullarton.
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Conversations with Community Representatives
From October to December 2023, SPA staff had conversations with representatives from community groups in person or on MS Teams to gather feedback on the project. In total we spoke with 6 representatives from five
stakeholder organisation situated and actively working to support the work in the Irvine Fullarton area.
Overall, the project was received positively and summarised feedback includes:
- Stakeholders commended communication approach used by project team in the area (e.g. “kept in touch”, “resources have been handed in readily”, “plastering posters far and wide”, “physically out and about”);
- Some people we talked to found the events were useful for their own professional learning to understand community (e.g. “shows people have an appetite to be involved in community conversations);
- In terms of timeframes, feedback was noted that “everything suggested and 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;
- Stakeholders noted that communication methods related to the project could perhaps have been different to improve engagement (examples suggested include project team doing door-to-door awareness raising, and local policing having a stall at the Rivergate Centre to engage the community);
- Many stakeholders noted that having events during the day may exclude those who work during the day, with an evening session perhaps more convenient and should be considered for future work; and the project team could attend existing groups, rather than creating new groups;
- It was noted by multiple stakeholders that individuals in the community started off interested, however this interest tailed off (e.g. “Initial conversations were really good, lots of buy in at the beginning”);
- It was felt that the 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;
- The police quadbikes were positively discussed in three out of the five
conversations.
