I’ve been asked a number of times how everything ties together locally with Neighbourhood Watch. So here is my very quick overview. I hope it’s helpful. If you’re involved with Neighbourhood Watch already, or want to be, then I’m happy to have a conversation with you. Karl.
Neighbourhood Watch is a national brand and initiative led by Ourwatch – otherwise referred to as the National Neighbourhood Watch organisation.
Ourwatch ultimately oversees all Neighbourhood Watch and it is Ourwatch that allows the brand and logo to be used by groups.
The UK is divided up into Police areas – we are in Humberside – and in many/most of those areas there is a Force Area Association (FAA) which oversees the running of Neighbourhood Watch within and across that Police Force Area.
So in the Humberside Police Force area, the FAA is Humberwatch.
Humberwatch is a voluntary, unfunded group that brings together the leads for Neighbourhood Watch for each of our County Areas to share planning, ideas, good practice etc and to oversee Neighbourhood Watch more centrally and to act as an escalation route for any local issues.
In Humberside, Humberwatch covers:
Hull – where the Safer Hull team within Hull City Council oversees Neighbourhood Watch
East Riding of Yorkshire – it’s the Safer team within East Riding of Yorkshire Council
North East Lincolnshire – VANEL looks after Neighbourhood Watch led by Karl Elliott
North Lincolnshire – it’s the Safer Team within North Lincolnshire Council.
So in North East Lincolnshire (NEL), VANEL lead on Neighbourhood Watch as part of Humberwatch.
Karl Elliott is the Membership Support Administrator (MSA) for NEL as accredited through Ourwatch. Karl supports local groups and manages the database of local groups.
A Neighbourhood Watch Group is led by a Coordinator (maybe with the support of a deputy and other volunteers). Each group has to be authorised through Karl to be allowed to call itself a Neighbourhood Watch and to use that name and branding and the logo.
In NEL the Community Safety Partnership (CSP) has strategic oversight of community safety and involves partners such as NELC, Humberside Police, HFRS and others.
VANEL is part of the CSP meeting programme and directly contributes to community safety measures locally through an agreement with the CSP. This does not directly fund Neighbourhood Watch, but Neighbourhood Watch is part of the method of reaching residents on community safety information sharing.
Also covering NEL is the Office of the Humberside Police and Crime Commissioner.
That’s a very quick overview of local Neighbourhood Watch structures. I’ll expand on this article in due course, but any questions please contact me.
Remember that we have a private discussion space for Neighbourhood Watch here: www.nelwatch.org.uk/neighbourstogether – just search for the Neighbourhood Watch space and register yourself to join in the conversation.