Appendix 2- KCWS Consultation document and questionnaire- proposed responses

1.           Questionnaire

The questionnaire can be completed online at kent.gov.uk/communitywardenreview

Alternatively, fill in this paper form and return to: Freepost COMMUNITY WARDENS. Please make sure that the address is written in capitals and that your response reaches us by the 3 October 2023.

Section 1 – About You  

Q1.  Are you responding as…?  

Please select the option from the list below that most closely represents how you will be responding to this consultation. Please select one option.

X

Yourself (as an individual)

On behalf of someone who uses the Community Warden service. 

Please answer all the questions using their details and not your own.

A partner agency (e.g. Kent Police, Kent Fire and Rescue Service, Health services/provider)

A representative of a local community group or residents’ association 

On behalf of a Parish / Town / Borough / District Council in an official capacity

A Parish / Town / Borough / District / County Councillor

On behalf of a charity or voluntary, community and social enterprises (VCSE)

A Kent Community Warden service member of staff 

A KCC employee 

An educational establishment, such as a school or college

On behalf of a business

 Other, please tell us:  

Q1a.  If you are responding on behalf of an organisation (partner agency, community group, council, VCSE, educational establishment or business), please tell us the name of the organisation here:

Maidstone Borough Council

 

ME15 6JQ

Q2.  Please tell us the first five characters of your postcode:

Please do not reveal your whole postcode. If you are responding on behalf of someone else, provide their postcode. If you are responding on behalf of an organisation, use your organisation’s postcode. We use this to help us to analyse our data. It will not be used to identify who you are.

 

Q3.  How did you find out about this consultation? Please select all that apply.

X

Facebook

Twitter

Next-door

From a friend or relative 

From a community warden

An email from KCC’s Community Warden service

An email from Let’s talk Kent or KCC’s Engagement and Consultation team

Kent.gov.uk website

KCC County Councillor

Town, Parish, District or Borough Council / Councillor

Newspaper

Poster / postcard

KCC’s staff intranet

Other, please tell us: 

 

 

Q4.  Have you, or the person / organisation you are responding on behalf of, received support or a service from the Community Wardens? 

Please select one option.

X

Yes

No

Don’t know 

 

If you have answered ‘No’ or ‘Don’t know’, please go to Section 2, Q8 on page 21. 

If you have answered ‘Yes’, please continue to Q5 on the next page.  

If you are responding on behalf of someone else, please remember to answer all of these questions using their details. 

 

           

Q5       What support / service did the Community Wardens provide to you or the person / organisation you are responding on behalf of? 

Please select all that apply.  

X

X

X

X

Help with community safety issues or providing advice, for example, support relating to anti-social behaviour, scams, rogue traders, flooding, the pandemic or low-level crime.

Personal, one to one support for wellbeing and quality of life, such as linking to financial support, housing, information and advice, carers support or social connections and activities.

Help with community engagement either by; setting up and / or supporting events, groups, clubs, projects, or volunteering activities in the community.

Facilitating my organisation in accessing other partners, such as liaising with councils and the police.

Partnering with my organisation (this could be to provide local knowledge, advice, support for community safety initiatives, support for emergencies or  support for the welfare of clients).

Other, please tell us:   

             

Q6       Please tell us how often you or the person / organisation you are responding on behalf of has been supported by the Community Warden service? 

Please select one option.

X

A single occurrence

More often

 

 

 

 

Q6a.  If you have answered ‘More often’ to Q6, please tell us how often:

Please select one option.

X

At least once a week 

Once a fortnight

Once a month

Twice a year

Less regularly

Have been supported in the past. Please tell us how long this was for.   

Other, please tell us:   

 

             

 

Q7       How do you or the person / organisation you are responding on behalf of benefit from engaging with / receiving support from the Community Warden service? 

Please select all that apply.

X

X

KCC Community Wardens provide a holistic approach to services, offering a one stop shop for residents. Their work supports the wider determinants of health to improve health and wellbeing with the long term aim of reducing inequalities. KCC Wardens alleviate pressure on statutory services by working in a way that those organisations are unable to. The service supports the communities we represent in feeling less lonely/socially isolated and improving wellbeing.

Gain useful information / community updates / advice or guidance 

Gain access to services / care / support that I was not aware of or had difficulty in accessing Feeling safer 

Feeling less lonely / socially isolated 

Feeling of improved wellbeing

No benefit (please go to Q8)

Don’t know

Other, please tell us:   

 

 

 

Q7a.  If you would like to tell us more about how you or the person / organisation you are responding on behalf of has benefitted from engaging with / receiving support from the Community Warden service, please use the box below. Please do not include any personal information that could identify you or anyone else within your response.

The Community Warden service work closely with the police and other agencies to help make Maidstone a safer place to live, work and visit. They provide a visible presence on the streets and in public spaces, helping to deter crime and anti-social behaviour. They also provide support and advice to residents on a range of issues, including home security, personal safety and community cohesion. In addition to this, the Community Warden service supports some of the most vulnerable people in our communities. They feed into our Community Safety Vulnerability Group on a weekly basis and provide vital information to statutory services on mental health, self-neglect and general welfare of customers who are often disengaged from services or hard to reach. They also help to free up hospital beds by helping vulnerable people home. This is a constant work stream and important to relieve the pressure on the NHS. The Community Wardens also build trusting relationships with the vulnerable, community leads such as Parish Councils and the community in general. For Maidstone this includes attending our Ward Cluster meetings where we regularly bring together Elected Members and Parish Council representatives of up to 4 district wards, to discuss community safety concerns and shared action plans to reduce ASB, crime and community tensions. They have also participated in the delivery of the Community Safety Partnership and specifically the Maidstone Task Force, whose success has been at the heart of Kent Police’s Neighbourhood Policing Review. Within this role, the KCC wardens worked to support the creation of legacy support services that reduce social isolation and improve social prescribing. It is unclear from the proposal how the wardens will prioritise competing workloads to meet current objectives and deliver the same standard of work.

           

Section 2 – Our Proposals   

This document provides details of the proposed changes to where and how the Community Warden service operates (see pages 6 to 9).

We have proposed not to change the service’s current remit and objectives. This means the range and variety of ways wardens can support an individual or community would be the same.

Q8.  To what extent do you agree or disagree with the service maintaining its current remit and objectives?

Please select one option.

X

Strongly agree 

Tend to agree

Neither agree nor disagree

Tend to disagree

Strongly disagree

Don’t know

 

 

Q8a.  Please tell us the reason for your answer to Q8 in the box below.

Please do not include any personal information that could identify you or anyone else within your response.

Through the delivery of their current objectives, the KCWS has become an integral to the support provided to communities in Maidstone.  Each of the current objectives are closely aligned to our own Strategic objectives as a local authority.  This is particularly in regard to our objectives of providing a Safe, Clean and Green borough and our Homes and Communities objective.  Our answer of “Tend to Agree” as opposed to “Strongly Agree” is due to our concerns that the proposed reduction in the number of wardens, and the uncertainty as to how many wardens Maidstone would received,  will impact on the capacity of those wardens to effectively deliver all the objectives effectively.

             

 

We have proposed for wardens to continue to be community-based, so they can continue to be proactive in the support they provide to communities.  

Q9.  To what extent do you agree or disagree with wardens being community based?

Please select one option.

X

Strongly agree 

Tend to agree

Neither agree nor disagree

Tend to disagree

Strongly disagree

Don’t know

 

Q9a.  Please tell us the reason for your answer to Q9 in the box below.

Please do not include any personal information that could identify you or anyone else within your response.

The KCWS has become a reliable support to many of our communities and there are concerns that the capacity of the limited number of wardens proposed will lead to those that have become reliant on the KCWS, losing that support altogether.  In other areas the allocated resource for Maidstone could also struggle to meet the demand of the service.  The uniformed presence the KCWS in communities provides reassurance and makes them approachable and allows residents to trust them with information that they may be less willing to share ordinarily. The reduction in KCC wardens, in combination with recent changes to Police Community Support Officers is likely to significantly and disproportionately impact on the most vulnerable and most deprived people in our communities. This is being compounded further by funding issues for the charity sector, despite increases in demand for services.  As an example, the KCWS in Maidstone have played an integral role in supporting those individuals who choose to self-neglect or have mental health conditions. Some of these individuals choose to disengage from services such as mental health and social services, which can impact on their own health and sometimes their community. The trust that wardens are able to foster with these individuals requires time and determination that our statutory services, such as GPs or mental health practitioners are unable to provide due to service pressures.

 

We have proposed to retain six teams covering two districts each, with a minimum of one team leader and three wardens per team, and to distribute the further 14 wardens across the teams according to need.  

Q10.  To what extent do you agree or disagree with this approach?

Please select one option.

X

Strongly agree 

Tend to agree

Neither agree nor disagree

Tend to disagree

Strongly disagree

Don’t know

 

Q10a.  Please tell us the reason for your answer to Q10 in the box below.

Please do not include any personal information that could identify you or anyone else within your response.

Whilst we feel that it is important to retain a service, there is a concern that the proposed levels will simply not be able to meet the demands and expectations of the service itself, which may ultimately compromise the service itself due to increase risk of sickness and issues retaining wardens in the service. The reduced capacity will consequently impact on some of the services and systems in place for Maidstone.  Reduced community engagement or support of vulnerable people could lead to increases in community tension and could mean that vital information about vulnerable people or important relationships with them could be loss, impacting on other services, such as mental health and social services.

 

             

 

We have proposed to reduce the Community Warden service by 32 warden posts and two management posts to achieve the savings required.

Q11.  To what extent do you agree or disagree with this approach to achieve the £1 million saving? Please select one option.

X

Strongly agree 

Tend to agree

Neither agree nor disagree

Tend to disagree

Strongly disagree

Don’t know

 

Q11a.  Please tell us the reason for your answer to Q11 in the box below.

Please do not include any personal information that could identify you or anyone else within your response.

See Q10a

 

             

 

To retain a community-based approach, we have proposed to allocate wardens to electoral wards. Wards may be grouped to reach a population ratio of approximately 6,000 to 12,000 residents per warden.  

Q12.  To what extent do you agree or disagree with our proposals to …?

Select one option per proposal/row.

Proposals	Strongly agree	Tend to agree	Neither agree nor disagree	Tend to disagree	Strongly disagree	Don’t know
Allocate wardens to electoral wards		X
Group wards to reach a population ratio of approximately 6,000 to 12,000 residents per warden.		X

 

Q12a.  Please tell us the reasons for your answers to Q12 in the box below.

If your comment relates to a specific proposal in Q12, please make that clear in your answer.

In 2020/21 Maidstone Borough Council introduced Ward Cluster meetings where we regularly bring together Elected Members and Parish Council representatives of up to 4 district wards based on a number of factors including the nature of the concerns impacting on each ward.  The effectiveness of this approach has seen Maidstone Police adopt the use of Clusters for assigning areas to their new Beat Officers.  This is unique to Maidstone and ensures good coverage across all communities.  However, the current resourcing levels for Kent Police is seeing the limited numbers of officers stretched thinly and making them less effective than was perhaps hoped from their new model.  Therefore, whilst we would the support the grouping of wards, it is with the caveat that they: ·         Mirror the clusters created in Maidstone. ·         Are resourced appropriately.

             

 

We have proposed to identify the wards in which to base all wardens using data and information as described in the Geographical Allocation Policy on pages 7 to 9.

Q13.  To what extent do you agree or disagree with this approach?

Please select one option.

X

Strongly agree 

Tend to agree

Neither agree nor disagree

Tend to disagree

Strongly disagree

Don’t know

 

Q13a.  Please tell us the reason for your answer to Q13 in the box below. 

If you think we have missed out any data, information, or considerations from the proposed Geographical Allocation Policy, please include these in your answer. 

Maidstone Borough Council, through its community safety work, advocates the use of data and evidence to create evidence led approach.  This may however see wardens removed from communities in which the KCWS have been integral for many years as the data may not support their retention.  Consideration will need to be given into how those communities and the vulnerable people within them are supported.  Particularly those who vulnerable people who have already built relationships with the service and could be isolated or even exploited without the services’ support.  There is no evidence that health inequalities have not been considered as a proposed indictor.

             

 

Q14.  Please tell us how the proposed service changes could affect you or the person / organisation you are responding on behalf of. 

Please do not include any personal information that could identify you or anyone else within your response.

Please see the responses to Q8 to Q13

 

Due to the size of the changes being proposed to the Community Warden service (reduction in numbers and changes to allocations) it is quite possible for there to be changes to the level of service you currently receive.  

Q15.  What would you like us to ensure is considered or put in place if wardens need to be withdrawn from an area?

Please do not include any personal information that could identify you or anyone else within your response.

For Maidstone we would ask that consideration is given to how the proposed changes will impact on the following: ·         Supporting the most vulnerable people in our communities, regardless of which Ward they are in, and feeding into our Community Safety Vulnerability Group on a weekly basis. ·         Providing vital information to statutory services on metal health, self-neglect and general welfare of customers who are often disengaged from services or hard to reach. ·         Helping to free up hospital beds by helping vulnerable people home. This is a constant work stream and important to relieve the pressure on the NHS. ·         Building trusting relationships with the vulnerable, community leads, such as Parish Councils and the community in general, including attending our Ward Cluster meetings ·         Participation in the delivery of the Community Safety Partnership and specifically the Neighbourhood Task Force

 

Q16.  If the Community Warden service is withdrawn from your area, what alternative sources do you think you would turn to? 

Please select all that apply.  

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

Adult Social Care services

Charities or voluntary sector organisations 

Community groups

District / Borough council

Doctor / GP 

Kent Police

Parish / Town council 

Don’t know 

Mental Health Services are missing from the this list.   As a local authority we anticipate increase demand on all the services listed above, regardless of whether they have the resources or capacity necessary to meet the demand.

 Other, please tell us:   

 

We have completed a consultation stage Equality Impact Assessment (EqIA) on the proposed changes to the Community Warden service. 

An EqIA is a tool to assess the impact any service change, policy or strategy would have on age, sex, gender identity, disability, race, religion / belief or none, sexual orientation, pregnancy or maternity, marriage and civil partnership and carer’s responsibilities. 

The equality impacts are summarised on page 12. The full EqIA is available online at kent.gov.uk/communitywardenreview or in hard copy on request.

Q17.  We welcome your views on our equality analysis and if you think there is anything else we should consider relating to equality and diversity. Please add any comments below:

Please do not include any personal information that could identify you or anyone else within your response.

The very nature of the wardens’ roles aligns them to people with protected characteristics and helping them to access services. They often provide the support /links where families or society are not. The proposed reductions will impact on the level support the KCWS are able to provide.

 

Q18.  Do you have any additional feedback on our proposals and/or suggestions on how else we could make savings to our Community Warden service budget?  

One of our biggest operational concerns is the impact this might have on the helping people home scheme. The wardens play a key role in facilitating the move of vulnerable people away from hospital beds and back into their homes. As mentioned before, the wardens regularly raise concerns to our Vulnerabilities forum. They bring to the conversation vital information that is only possible through the relationships they form.   There is no evidence that those people the wardens are supporting have been consulted with. Residents are often socially isolated and digitally excluded, so would not have the capacity to respond via the normal channels. By removing the support and signposting they receive from the Warden, has KCC considered the effect this approach will have on their wellbeing?