Subject: LNWA NEWSLETTER #71
Welcome to the 71st edition of the LNWA Newsletter.
SAFER NEIGHBOURHOOD BOARDS As you all probably know, under the Local Policing Model, to be introduced into the remaining Boroughs during September, each Borough is to establish a Safer Neighbourhood Board. The Mayor’s Office for Policing & Crime (MOPAC) has made it clear to all Boroughs that Neighbourhood Watch should be included on the Board. If you already have an established Neighbourhood Watch Association in your Borough, the chairperson or their representative should be invited to serve on the Board. If there is no Association, it is more important than ever one should be established to give Neighbourhood Watch a voice at the top table.
NEIGHBOURHOOD & HOME WATCH NETWORK (NHWN) The latest Neighbourhood & Home Watch Network newsletter is now available at: http://www.ourwatch.org.uk/uploads/pub_res/ourwatch_August2013 Meanwhile, the OurWatch website has undergone some updates, the main one being advice under the heading 'Key' (and portrayed by an upside down triangle) when you do a postcode search. The Key will show whether registered schemes are Neighbourhood Watch approved, Police-approved or both. Hover a mouse over items in the list for an explanation. There is no London-wide authorisation process since Neighbourhood Watch is managed at Borough level but volunteers can ‘approve’ schemes by becoming administrators on the Neighbourhood Alert system. If you know someone interested in becoming an administrator for your Borough, please put them in touch with me. On the Home Page, you will see a box headed ‘Are you a scheme coordinator?’ where you can search for schemes by name or postcode. You can also enter your email address to find out whether you are already registered and, if so, whether you are associated with a scheme. Other updates include improvements to the ‘Your local area’ section as well other tweak to make the site more user friendly, such as the addition of a ‘Press centre’ under ‘News & events’ and a ‘Send us your news’ link in the same section.
Neighbourhood Alert has recently launched some new tools to help coordinators manage their schemes on-line. Once you have logged in, under 'Scheme admin' you can: • Add a profile of yourself as coordinator (under 'Edit scheme'). • Choose what you want to make visible to members of the public using the scheme postcode search (under 'Edit scheme'). • Send messages to those of your members who have joined your scheme on-line (under 'Message your members'). You can do various other things like editing your personal details (e.g. add demographic information, hobbies and interests), changing your message settings (e.g. the types of message you receive) and editing your scheme details (description, next meeting date etc.). More information is available in a booklet, 'Tools for coordinators - guidance', at: www.ourwatch.org.uk/resource_centre/document_library/tools_for_coordinators_guidance You can download a leaflet about the new tools at: www.ourwatch.org.uk/resource_centre/document_library/tools_for_coordinators_leaflet
HOME OFFICE SEEKING VOLUNTEERS The Home Office operates a national telephone system used during a major incident or disaster. They will be conducting tests of this system on 10 September and are looking for volunteers to assist. This involves making repeated telephone calls to a free 0800 number between 10 and 11am on 10 September to test the robustness of the system in dealing with a high volume of calls. If you think you could help with this, please e-mail the Home Office at - NMAT2@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk - with your name and e-mail address. You will be issued a briefing pack with more information. Your contact details will be used only for this exercise, not revealed to anyone and deleted immediately after the exercise. You will not be asked to reveal any personal details over the phone, and the calls will be free of charge.
LOCAL GIVING – MATCH FUNDING The Cabinet Office is providing £500,000 of match funding for a campaign in October by 'Localgiving.com' a website designed to support local charities and community groups. From 15 October, eligible charities will have one-off donations of up to £10 doubled. Monthly donations up to £10 a month will also be doubled for six months and the campaign will run until the £500,000 has been allocated. The Cabinet Office will also provide match funding of £250,000 to support the 2013 Big Give Christmas Challenge. The challenge involves matching public donations pound for pound on certain days in the run-up to Christmas. If you feel it would be of interest to you, you can check whether your group is eligible at: https://localgiving.com/charitysignup/eligibility REQUEST FROM MERTON NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH ASSOCIATION Merton Neighbourhood Watch Association produces a newsletter, popular among its membership, and would like to compare its output with that of other Boroughs. It will be appreciated if you could answer the following questions (where relevant) directly to Lee Roberts at Lee.Roberts@met.police.uk: a) Do you produce a newsletter? b) What do they look like (e.g. A4 folded, 4 page booklet)? c) How is it funded? d) What is the main content? e) To whom is it delivered? f) How is it distributed (e.g. e-mail or hand delivered)? PROJECT KILLDEER The MPS is currently running Project Killdeer that aims to raise awareness concerning illegal street collectors and attempts to ensure charitable contributions reach the intended causes. It is estimated £147 million is lost to charities through fraud each year. Some points to note for when you next contribute to a charity “street” collection are:. * Collection buckets/tins must display the name of the charity and be securely sealed. * The collector must be in possession of written authority from the charity and a permit issued by the MPS. If they do not have a permit they commit an offence. * Collections may take place only on certain days of the month and each charity is allowed to collect once per year in any given local authority area. If you see the same person collecting for the same charity more than once a month, they probably don’t have a permit. If you think charity “street” collectors are committing an offence, contact your local Policing Team but bear in mind Railway Stations are subject to different legislation and hence the above does not apply. Details of current permits issued by the MPS Charities Office are published on the MPS website (www.met.police.uk/charities). That’s all for this month. As usual, on behalf of LNWA, thank you for your work and support.
Welcome to the 71st edition of the LNWA Newsletter.
SAFER NEIGHBOURHOOD BOARDS As you all probably know, under the Local Policing Model, to be introduced into the remaining Boroughs during September, each Borough is to establish a Safer Neighbourhood Board. The Mayor’s Office for Policing & Crime (MOPAC) has made it clear to all Boroughs that Neighbourhood Watch should be included on the Board. If you already have an established Neighbourhood Watch Association in your Borough, the chairperson or their representative should be invited to serve on the Board. If there is no Association, it is more important than ever one should be established to give Neighbourhood Watch a voice at the top table.
NEIGHBOURHOOD & HOME WATCH NETWORK (NHWN) The latest Neighbourhood & Home Watch Network newsletter is now available at: http://www.ourwatch.org.uk/uploads/pub_res/ourwatch_August2013 Meanwhile, the OurWatch website has undergone some updates, the main one being advice under the heading 'Key' (and portrayed by an upside down triangle) when you do a postcode search. The Key will show whether registered schemes are Neighbourhood Watch approved, Police-approved or both. Hover a mouse over items in the list for an explanation. There is no London-wide authorisation process since Neighbourhood Watch is managed at Borough level but volunteers can ‘approve’ schemes by becoming administrators on the Neighbourhood Alert system. If you know someone interested in becoming an administrator for your Borough, please put them in touch with me. On the Home Page, you will see a box headed ‘Are you a scheme coordinator?’ where you can search for schemes by name or postcode. You can also enter your email address to find out whether you are already registered and, if so, whether you are associated with a scheme. Other updates include improvements to the ‘Your local area’ section as well other tweak to make the site more user friendly, such as the addition of a ‘Press centre’ under ‘News & events’ and a ‘Send us your news’ link in the same section.
Neighbourhood Alert has recently launched some new tools to help coordinators manage their schemes on-line. Once you have logged in, under 'Scheme admin' you can: • Add a profile of yourself as coordinator (under 'Edit scheme'). • Choose what you want to make visible to members of the public using the scheme postcode search (under 'Edit scheme'). • Send messages to those of your members who have joined your scheme on-line (under 'Message your members'). You can do various other things like editing your personal details (e.g. add demographic information, hobbies and interests), changing your message settings (e.g. the types of message you receive) and editing your scheme details (description, next meeting date etc.). More information is available in a booklet, 'Tools for coordinators - guidance', at: www.ourwatch.org.uk/resource_centre/document_library/tools_for_coordinators_guidance You can download a leaflet about the new tools at: www.ourwatch.org.uk/resource_centre/document_library/tools_for_coordinators_leaflet
HOME OFFICE SEEKING VOLUNTEERS The Home Office operates a national telephone system used during a major incident or disaster. They will be conducting tests of this system on 10 September and are looking for volunteers to assist. This involves making repeated telephone calls to a free 0800 number between 10 and 11am on 10 September to test the robustness of the system in dealing with a high volume of calls. If you think you could help with this, please e-mail the Home Office at - NMAT2@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk - with your name and e-mail address. You will be issued a briefing pack with more information. Your contact details will be used only for this exercise, not revealed to anyone and deleted immediately after the exercise. You will not be asked to reveal any personal details over the phone, and the calls will be free of charge.
LOCAL GIVING – MATCH FUNDING The Cabinet Office is providing £500,000 of match funding for a campaign in October by 'Localgiving.com' a website designed to support local charities and community groups. From 15 October, eligible charities will have one-off donations of up to £10 doubled. Monthly donations up to £10 a month will also be doubled for six months and the campaign will run until the £500,000 has been allocated. The Cabinet Office will also provide match funding of £250,000 to support the 2013 Big Give Christmas Challenge. The challenge involves matching public donations pound for pound on certain days in the run-up to Christmas. If you feel it would be of interest to you, you can check whether your group is eligible at: https://localgiving.com/charitysignup/eligibility REQUEST FROM MERTON NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH ASSOCIATION Merton Neighbourhood Watch Association produces a newsletter, popular among its membership, and would like to compare its output with that of other Boroughs. It will be appreciated if you could answer the following questions (where relevant) directly to Lee Roberts at Lee.Roberts@met.police.uk: a) Do you produce a newsletter? b) What do they look like (e.g. A4 folded, 4 page booklet)? c) How is it funded? d) What is the main content? e) To whom is it delivered? f) How is it distributed (e.g. e-mail or hand delivered)? PROJECT KILLDEER The MPS is currently running Project Killdeer that aims to raise awareness concerning illegal street collectors and attempts to ensure charitable contributions reach the intended causes. It is estimated £147 million is lost to charities through fraud each year. Some points to note for when you next contribute to a charity “street” collection are:. * Collection buckets/tins must display the name of the charity and be securely sealed. * The collector must be in possession of written authority from the charity and a permit issued by the MPS. If they do not have a permit they commit an offence. * Collections may take place only on certain days of the month and each charity is allowed to collect once per year in any given local authority area. If you see the same person collecting for the same charity more than once a month, they probably don’t have a permit. If you think charity “street” collectors are committing an offence, contact your local Policing Team but bear in mind Railway Stations are subject to different legislation and hence the above does not apply. Details of current permits issued by the MPS Charities Office are published on the MPS website (www.met.police.uk/charities). That’s all for this month. As usual, on behalf of LNWA, thank you for your work and support.
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