Our approach to community engagement

This page provides information about Sutton's community enagement strategy and the results of the 2007 borough wide survey of residents.

We believe that by ensuring that there are meaningful opportunities for residents individually and collectively to use their knowledge and capacity to shape their lives and their communities, we can work together to achieve our vision for the borough.

Underpinning this is the belief that:

• All communities should be involved in the decisions that affect them
• All communities deserve high quality public services, shaped around their needs
• Sutton council policies and strategies should reflect local priorities, requirements and aspirations, and

Engagement will help to deliver service improvements.

Our community engagement strategy is framed around four components covering the ways in which we:

• Communicate
• Consult
• Decide together
• Act together

The strategy includes an action plan for delivery, a consultation toolkit and a translation and interpretation policy.  The strategy was produced following a 12 week period of consultation.  As part of the consultation, the Sutton Centre for the Voluntary Sector held a stakeholder engagement event, the results of which were captured in a report.

We produced a summary of the consultation responses received and this informed the final version of the strategy.

We understand that there can be significant barriers that prevent people from being able to effectively engage. The strategy and the action plan seeks to identify and remove these barriers.

In time we hope that our partner agencies will also adopt the principles in the strategy so that we can all deliver the same high standards of work with our residents and community organisations.

Deciding Together

The Council provides a number of ways for residents, service users, businesses and other stakeholders to get involved in decision-making. The following mechanisms are just some of the ways that people can get involved. Models of engagement that work for one community may not be appropriate for another. It is therefore important to recognise that the Council is committed to developing opportunities for an on-going dialogue with residents and stakeholders.

Some of the ways that residents are able to get involved and influence services in their local area are:

Councillors

Sutton has 54 councillors who represent the 18 wards in the borough.  As the elected representatives for these wards, the councillors play a key role as community advocates, working closely with residents, community groups and local organisations.  Councillors hold regular surgeries where residents can raise issues of concern. 

Local Committees

The council has six local committees serving the following areas:

• Beddington and Wallington Local Committee:  Beddington North, Beddington South, Wallington North and Wallington South
• Sutton Local Committee:  Sutton Central, Sutton North and Sutton West
• Sutton South, Cheam and Belmont Local Committee:  Belmont, Cheam and Sutton South
• Carshalton and Clockhouse Local Committee:  Carshalton Central and Carshalton South and Clockhouse
• St Helier, The Wrythe and Wandle Valley Local Committee:  St Helier, The Wrythe and Wandle Valley
• Cheam North and Worcester Park Local Committee:  North Cheam, Stonecot and Worcester Park.

The ward councillors for these areas sit on the local committees, together with other people appointed as special advisors.  Residents and community or interest groups are encouraged to attend and take part in the discussions about local services.

The local committees give local people the opportunity to take part in discussions about the issues affecting their area, giving them opportunities to raise concerns and influence decisions.  Each of the local committees has an allocated capital budget which it can use to make environmental improvements to the locality. Further information about the local committees is available on the 'Have Your Say' pages.

Safer Sutton Partnership Service – Safer Neighbourhood Teams

The Safer Sutton Partnership Service is a unique partnership between the London Borough of Sutton and the Metropolitan Police Service, which brings together police and local authority staff within a single structure. There are 18 Safer Neighbourhoods Teams and a Town Centre Neighbourhood Team in Sutton borough. Each team is normally made up of six police and Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs). Their aim is to listen and talk to you, and find out what affects your daily life and feelings of security. These might be issues such as anti-social behaviour, graffiti, noisy neighbourhoods or vandalism. Then, they work in partnership with you and other agencies to find a lasting solution.

The Planning Service - Development Control

The Council makes information about planning proposals publicly available and seeks to ensure local residents and other interested parties, who may be affected by a proposed development, are adequately informed of any proposals and have sufficient time to make representations that can be taken into account prior to determination of a planning application. The Council’s Statement of Community Involvement outlines how residents can get involved in all aspects of land use planning.

Scrutiny committees

The council has four scrutiny committees:

• Scrutiny Overview
• Sustainable Living
• Children & Young People
• Health & Well-Being

These committees are made up of councillors who are not members of the Executive.  They can scrutinise decisions taken by the Executive and undertake pre-decision scrutiny to contribute to service improvements by carrying out investigations along the lines of those conducted by parliamentary select committees. Opportunities are in place for members of the public both to identify issues for the scrutiny committees and to participate in the investigations.

Forums

The council has a number of well-established forums that provide an important way in for different communities within the borough to speak to the Council and contribute to policy development.

Friends Groups

Friends groups in the borough are actively engaged with, and are key to fostering partnerships between business and voluntary organisations.  They aim to find out what residents think of their local facilities and help deliver improvements to the local area. 

Youth Parliament

Sutton Youth Parliament exists to give young people an opportunity to have their voice heard within the borough.  It is comprised of young people from local schools who meet once a month to discuss issues that effect young people in the area, and to help outline ways to address them.  The group meets with local MPs, School Heads and Social Services to voice their opinions.

Adult Social Care – Strategy for service user and carer involvement

In July 2006 the Council published a strategy for service user and carer involvement. The strategy sets out the standards and methods to underpin their involvement in this specific service area, detailing involvement in both service provision and service planning.  It fits within the Council’s corporate approach to engagement, for example, consultations carried out by the service will comply with the Council’s four principles. Service specific quality monitoring tools have been developed as part of the strategy and these include checking that Fair Access to Care Services (FACS) criteria have been applied correctly.

Customer Services Customer Focus Group

A cross section of residents meets with Council managers, on a quarterly basis, to provide their views on the accessibility of the Council’s services. The group represents older people, carers, visual and hearing impaired and faith groups. Although it has a strong focus on accessibility, the group also helps the Council test new ideas across a range of services.

Borough wide survey of residents

For 22 years we have used Ipsos MORI every two years to track resident perception, the longest continuous record of any council in the country.  From this rich source of data we assess changing trends and adjust our priorities accordingly.

Our latest survey, conducted in autumn 2007, demonstrates that transport (46%), environment (46%), community safety (30%), parks, arts and leisure (28%), local economy (22%), social services (20%), housing (19%) and health and well-being (13%) are the priority areas upon which residents want the council to focus.

The headline results are very positive.

• Net satisfaction has increased to 58% and is now 7% higher than in 2003
• Residents are less worried about anti-social behaviour than they have been previously
• Many more residents think we offer good value for money
• Community cohesion has improved
• Sutton's customer care ratings are the best in London

A copy of the full survey report and a slide presentation made by Ben Page of Ipsos MORI setting Sutton's results in a wider context are available on request from john.sharples@sutton.gov.uk. 

In addition to the survey of residents, we also commissioned Ipsos MORI to carry out some stakeholder focus groups.  Their key findings from these sessions were collected in a presentation.