Work in Progress in Torry Area
Total Community has been piloted in Torry over the past 9 months and as it has developed so has a structure which allows representatives from a range of agencies delivering services to the community to meet fortnightly in order to identify and address emerging problems quickly. The group includes operational staff from Aberdeen City Council, the local schools group, Grampian Police, Grampian Fire and Rescue Services, NHS as well as Scottish Businesses in the Community, Aberdeen Safer Communities Trust. Total Community is bringing a diverse range of services and agencies in Torry to work together to meet the needs of the community by improving partnership working, developing staff and maximising cost efficiencies. The group which involves Grampian Police, Grampian Fire and Rescue Service, Aberdeen City Council Departments, including housing, cleansing, environmental services, noise complaints, local schools, NHS and Aberdeen Safer Community Trust meets every two weeks and using a tasking and co-ordinating process to look at incidents and issues and aims to deliver a quick response to deal with a problem which is affecting the quality of life of residents, including neighbour disputes, anti-social behaviour, rubbish collection and vandalism. The process has been running for some months now and the group are always keen to see new partners join them as they see improved working relations between partners with efficient resource allocation and early intervention as the key areas they are seeing develop. Inspector Shona Stewart says, "in Torry we have always had a good relationship with our partners but this process of tasking and co-ordination gives ownership and accountability for a piece of work, and where there may be a number of agencies dealing with the same problem it makes sense to work at it together. The most recent example of this was the involvement of local schools with SACRO, City Council Park Rangers, Fire Officers, Police Officers and Community Wardens to deal with the problem of fireraisings and by using this partnership approach in one two week period in August Grampian Fire and Rescue Service saw the cost of dealing with the problem fall from £36,000 in 2005 to £189. Tullos Primary School also saw their work recognized by the Scottish Executive who awarded the school £1000 for tackling anti-social behaviour". Although there is nothing new in partnership working Total Community is pulling together people from all sectors including voluntary organizations as well as involving the community themselves. Inspector Shona Stewart
So, What Happening in Torry?
Residents of Torry took part in an Aberdeen City Council 'Planning for Real' consultation event, Issues for Torry.
In order to progress joint working regarding these issues of concern to the community every two weeks representatives from a range of services including: housing, cleansing, police, fire, streetworkers, SACRO to look at what has been happening in the area, co-ordinate their efforts and task out work to tackle the problems.
This has encouraged joint working such as joint calls by housing and police to deal with anti-social behaviour and early intervention.
Many of the issues are raised by the representatives on behalf of residents, particularly by the community wardens and we would encourage residents to report their concerns for action.
Most of the tasks are turned around quickly, others may have to be progressed on a longer term basis or may be delayed for a number of reasons and this is recorded on the task log.
Torry Pilot