Improving Streetscene Services

ValueAdding.com have just published a White Paper on Improving Streetscene Services based upon work undertaken by us and Oakleigh Consulting Limited for the the London Borough of Croydon.

The London Borough of Croydon, like many other councils, are well aware of their need to ensure streetscene services are delivered in a more joined up manner. As part of their push to improve efficiency and the perception of the streetscene services by customers they commissioned a review of streetscene services across the council and the Metropolitan Police.

The quality and management of streetscene services are often a major concern for people and therefore a pressing issue for local government. Crime and the fear of crime, waste collection, street cleanliness, fly tipping, graffiti and the state of roads all matter to local communities and failure to deliver against expectations leads to complaints to the council causing pressure on managers and staff. The expectations of delivering better services are now greater than ever and the need to do so at less cost is paramount.

Councils and their partners working to deliver these services more efficiently face a number of problems caused by the way they have traditionally been delivered. Officers from different parts of the council and from organisations such as the Police can often work in silos which can lead to a difficulty in cross-functional working, so that issues such as fly tipping and anti-social behaviour can be dealt differently by different officers in any given council. Similarly the use of multiple uniforms and varying powers on the streets can be confusing to the public. In addition, groups of staff may not be aware of the capabilities of many of their colleagues working in similar fields.

The overarching vision for the service was of a series of locally based community teams delivering environmental and other street-based services to the public. The basis for the approach is that the teams have full responsibility for the end-to-end processes required to deliver complete solutions in the local community. Consequently the local workforce will be much more flexible and empowered than at present and able to deal with the whole range of street based services.

A Community Based Structure Model was developed which is flexible in its application and fits with a number of developments in local government. Recent work by the New Local Government Network (NLGN) shows a close correlation between general satisfaction with an area by its local residents and with the level of satisfaction specifically on street cleanliness issues. In a recent report they have urged councils to look again at how they conducts their streetscene strategy and look at the merits of delivering services at as local level as possible. In particular they found that perceptions of streetscene are highly localised and can vary substantially by individual streets. Their report also recommended approaches which mirror our suggestion of backing up effective enforcement with innovative forms of engaging the public.