Annual Report 2016/17 May 17 1 DERBY STREET PASTORS ANNUAL REPORT 2016/17 Summary This document provides a report of the activities of the Derby Street Pastor project during the 2016/17 operating period. Derby Street Pastors is managed by Derby City Mission and is staffed by a team of volunteers from a number of churches in Derby and the surrounding area. Street Pastors operate in conjunction with a number of partner agencies, including Derbyshire Police and Derby City Council, who provide the majority of the funding that enables the project to operate and fulfil its obligations. The objective of this report is to provide an overview of the Derby Street Pastor activities for the period from April 2016 to March 2017. This includes a presentation of the statistics that are gathered over each shift and a commentary on any data trends within the Derby Night Time Economy seen during the eight year history of the project. Written by: Richard Wormsley Trustee Director – Derby Street Pastors Date: May 2017
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Annual Report 2016/17 May 17 1
DERBY STREET PASTORS
ANNUAL REPORT 2016/17
Summary
This document provides a report of the activities of the Derby Street Pastor project
during the 2016/17 operating period. Derby Street Pastors is managed by Derby City
Mission and is staffed by a team of volunteers from a number of churches in Derby
and the surrounding area.
Street Pastors operate in conjunction with a number of partner agencies, including
Derbyshire Police and Derby City Council, who provide the majority of the funding that
enables the project to operate and fulfil its obligations.
The objective of this report is to provide an overview of the Derby Street Pastor
activities for the period from April 2016 to March 2017. This includes a presentation
of the statistics that are gathered over each shift and a commentary on any data
trends within the Derby Night Time Economy seen during the eight year history of the
Derby Street Pastors have been operating since 2009 and have become a trusted partner in the management of the night time economy in Derby City Centre. All Street Pastor initiatives operate as a franchise of the national Street Pastor charity which is managed by the Ascension Trust. There are currently over 300 Street Pastor initiatives operating within the UK which are supported by over 14,000 volunteers.
The Ascension Trust sets the overall guidelines under which a local initiative operates. In Derby, Street Pastors is managed under the governance of Derby City Mission (DCM). Derby City Mission Ltd is a charitable company limited by guarantee and registered in England, number 7363967. Derby City Mission is also a registered charity, number 1140235.
The funding for Derby Street Pastors comes from four sources. Firstly, each registered Street Pastor makes a personal annual donation of £50. Secondly a Street Pastor’s home church provides a donation of £100 for each active Street Pastor in their church, up to a maximum of £500. Thirdly donations are received in response to appeals, collections and talks provided to community groups. Finally, the bulk of our funding in 2016/17 came via a grant from Derby City Council.
The objective of this report is to provide a summary of the activities undertaken by Derby Street Pastors in 2016/17 along with a review of the data gathered whilst on a shift to identify any significant trends that could help support decisions to be made by partner agencies in the management of the night time economy.
In producing this document DCM wish to acknowledge the help and support we receive from our partners: Derby City Council, Derbyshire Constabulary, Derby Pubwatch, licensees and door staff, taxi marshals and CCTV control. In addition Derby Street Pastors could not operate without the support of our dedicated group of volunteers who have a desire to express their Christian faith by serving the people of Derby on a Friday and Saturday night.
2. Operational Review
2.1 Management Structure
Over the last 12 months a number of changes have taken place in the management of Derby Street Pastors. Firstly, Julio Abraham has joined DCM as Chief Executive Officer. Within this role Julio provides overall vision, direction and management for all the ministries that are operated by the mission. In addition, he undertakes deputations to local businesses, churches and other organisations to promote the work of DCM, including Street Pastors.
In September Richard Wormsley took over from Patrick Halls as the Street Pastor Coordinator. This role involves the day to day direction and management of the
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project, including liaison with partner agencies and the Ascension Trust. As part of this role Richard has also been appointed as a Trustee Director of DCM.
In order to free up Viv Merkelt from day to day Street Pastor administration tasks, in December Shirley Wormsley was contracted to provide administration support for 8 hours per week. Viv continues to provide back office support in the areas of finance and safeguarding.
The overall management structure of Derby Street Pastors is illustrated in Figure 1.
Figure 1 – Street Pastor Management Structure
2.2 Weekend Shifts
Street Pastors have been on shifts every Friday and Saturday night over the last 12 months. There was one occasion when we had to abandon a shift due to a fire at AB Foods on Becket Well Lane when no access was available on 22nd October to the Street Pastor base at the Central United Reformed Church.
Street Pastors are out on the streets between 10pm and 4am, working in conjunction with the other partners within the night time economy to support the physical and emotional welfare of the people of our city.
Each month there are on average 34 volunteers supporting the shifts. This equates to approximately 2500 volunteer hours a year out on the streets. The booking of volunteers on to shifts has been enhanced by the introduction of a new on-line rota. Thank you to Robin Miller of Excellent Consultancy for setting that up for us.
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2.3 Additional Shifts
In addition to the normal weekend shifts a number of additional shifts were undertaken to cover events that had the potential to be high risk. Firstly a team went out on 18th August for A Level results night. Thankfully all the young people who went out to celebrate were well behaved and there were no incidents to deal with.
In response to a direct request from the University of Derby Students Union (UDSU) we provided Street Pastors to support their following sponsored Freshers Fortnight events in addition to our normal weekend shifts. Our involvement was different to our normal modus operandi in that we just provided Street Pastors inside and around the specific venues.
Sunday 11th September at Moo Moo and Walkabout Monday 12th September at Moo Moo Wedneday 14th September at Walkabout Friday 16th September at Kedleston Rd campus
Monday 19th September at Moo Moo Wedneday 21st September at Walkabout Friday 23rd September at Kedleston Rd campus Again there were very few incidents to deal with, however this is seen as part of developing an ongoing relationship with USDU in particular and the University in general.
3. Volunteer Status
At the start of the year there were 46 active Street Pastors. By the end of this reporting period 10 of these had retired either due to changes in personal circumstances or ill health. This has meant that during the last few months it has been a constant challenge to have full teams of four available on each night, with some people regularly doing more than the required one shift per month.
In February we had a successful recruitment campaign and during May 2017 we will be training 10 new recruits which will relieve some of the pressures we have been experiencing.
We are grateful to the following churches that provide and support Street Pastors from their congregations.
• All Saints, Brailsford
• All Saints, Breadsall
• All Saints, Ripley
• Arena Church, Ilkeston
• Belper Congregational Church
• Central United Reform Church, Derby
• Community Church Derby
• City Church Derby
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• Derby Cathedral
• Haven Christian Centre, Heatherton
• Littleover Methodist Church
• Milford Baptist Church
• New Life Church, Derby
• Osmaston Road Baptist Church
• St Alkmund’s, Derby
• St Barnabas, Derby
• St Francis, Mackworth
• St Michael’s & All Angels, South Normanton
• St Paul’s, Chester Green
• St Peter’s, Littleover
• Woodlands Evangelical Church, Allestree
4. Community Engagement
As well as undertaking the Friday and Saturday night shifts the Derby Street Pastor team are also involved in engaging with the wider community to raise the awareness of the work of Street Pastors.
4.1 Media Coverage
This last year has seen an increased engagement with both the local and regional press to promote the work of Street Pastors.
i. Television – BBC East Midlands filmed part of a shift at the end of January 2017. This was subsequently used as part of a feature for the Inside Out programme on the work of one of our local MP’s Amanda Solloway, and was broadcast on 31st March.
ii. Radio – BBC Radio Derby interviewed Richard Wormsley live on their Sunday morning show on 12th February to publicise the recruitment campaign.
iii. Newspaper – A reporter from the Derby Telegraph went out as an observer on the 11th March. This resulted in two significant articles being printed over the Easter weekend which were complementary to both Street Pastors and our partners.
4.2 Observers
During the course of the year a number of people came out as Observers to see how we operate. These included Amanda Solloway MP, who provided the following quote on her Facebook page:
“Out with the Street Pastors observing the incredible work they do. It's a great example of communities and groups working together. As we walked around Derby City you could sense the respect that they have as people hugged them, chatted to them, used their help and recognised their contribution towards a safe enjoyable night out for all. Early this morning I chatted to some of the police officers on duty who highly commended the work they do.
Personally I was just blown away by the positive way they helped everyone and the willingness that they did it with. Amazing”.
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4.3 Partner Support
During the course of the year Richard Wormsley has represented Derby Street Pastors at the following meetings with our partner organisations.
• Derby City Centre Partnership
• Derby Pubwatch
• Derby City Council Purple Flag Assessment
• Vibrant Derby Forum 4.4 Deputations
To promote the work of Street Pastors and to raise awareness of the issues that are present in the night time economy talks have been given to a number of organisations, including:
• Ilkeston YMCA – Alcohol Impact Training
• Melbourne United Reformed Church
• Belper Congregational Church
• Heanor Methodist Church
5. Shift Data Review
5.1 Overview of Data
During the course of an evening the team collects data relating to the activities they undertake in the course of an evening. This relates to both the type of incidents dealt with and the consumable items given out in support of the work.
A summary of the data collected for the period 2016/17 is presented in Figure 3 and is followed by a commentary on the information. Figure 4 summarises the data to look at two key indicators on drunkenness and aggression to identify any trends throughout the year.
In Figure 5 a summary of the data collected since 2009 is presented in order to identify any trends that can be seen in the eight years that Street Pastors have been operating. Three aspects of that data are illustrated in Figures 6, 7 and 8. However within those graphs the data for the first year, 2009/10, has been omitted as it appears to be anomalous, possibly due to over recording in the initial stages of the Street Pastors.
5.2 Commentary on 2016/17 Data Trends
The data in Figure 3 is subjective as it seeks to use some of the data collected to identify any patterns associated with two issues that can be present in the night time economy, aggression and drunkenness. It is recognised that at times these two types of incident may be linked when the outcome of a specific incident is recorded. The aggression indicator represents the total number of incidents that the Street Pastor teams attended where we either attempted to calm a situation or had to administer first aid. The drunkenness indicator relates to the incidents where we attended to people who we recorded as either drunk or distressed.
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Av to date
Situations
Calmed Not Arrested 5
Fri 3
Sat 3
Attempt Calm/Arrest 1
Fri 1
Sat 0
Injured - Amb/Taxi 9
Fri 4
Sat 5
Injured/First Aid Only 3
Fri 2
Sat 2
Assist Drunk 25
Fri 13
Sat 12
Assist Distressed 9
Fri 5
Sat 4
When looking at this data some caution should be taken as there are factors that should be considered on the nature of our data recording that would not stand up to scientific statistical scrutiny. Firstly, the data is recorded by up to eight different individuals each of whom may have a different interpretation of how an incident is classified. Secondly the two indicators illustrated in Figure 4 are not mutually exclusive. For example, an incident of aggression that results in first aid being given could be recorded in both metrics.
It is noticeable from the data that there are obvious spikes in the number of aggression incidents in May, September and December. This is not surprising as it correlates to periods of higher footfall due to bank holidays, new students arriving and Christmas. However, the magnitude of the peaks would indicate that aggression is more likely to manifest itself in those periods than drunkenness. What is surprising is that the peaks tend to be higher on a Friday, when footfall is usually less, than on a Saturday night.
However, looking at the monthly averages in Figure 2 for each of the different categories, it shows that on average there is very little difference in the number of incidents that the Street Pastor teams dealt with on a Friday or Saturday night.
This is counter intuitive, as anecdotally Friday nights are quieter than Saturdays, both in terms of incidents and the number of people out enjoying the night time entertainment.
It would be interesting to see if police incident statistics and EMAS attendance in the city centre back up our findings.
The data in Figure 6 indicates that up until this year there had been a steady decline in the number of conversations that the Street Pastors had with the public, door staff and the police. This year there has been an upturn in conversations. This trend could be due to the high turnover of experienced Street Pastors and Team Leaders that we had four years ago. As the recruits of the last 3 years gain confidence and experience we are seeing a reversal of that trend.
In the area of practical help given by the team Figure 7 shows that the most marked and continuing decline is in the number of spikeys given out. This is due to a number of factors, but will also correlate to the decline in conversations with the public. All other areas of practical help: water, flip flops and space blankets, have remained fairly steady for the last 5 years, however there has been a modest increase in the provision of flip flops and water in the last year. This also correlates to the increase in the number of incidents we attended to that is illustrated in Figure 8.
In relation to the types of incidents Street Pastors have dealt with this is illustrated in Figure 8. Over the last five years there has been approximately a 50% fall in the number of incidents where Street Pastors have had to intervene to calm down a situation. From a Street Pastor perspective, this could be due to either a decline in the overall potentially aggressive situations encountered, or Team Leaders being less willingness to actively engage in the incidents. Personal experience and anecdotal evidence would suggest that the former is the more dominant factor. In addition the presence of Street Pastors to deal with welfare issues enables the police to target their resources to prevent potential issues from escalating.
All other metrics have remained relatively flat over the last five years with the exception of the number of incidents of drunkenness that have been dealt with. From a low in 2013/14 there has been a 20% increase in the number of incidents dealt with, getting back to the levels previously seen in 2011/12. This could be due to socio-economic factors where we are seeing the effects of a country coming out of recession and people having more disposal income.
6. Prayer and Spiritual Engagement
6.1 Spiritual Engagement
Derby City Mission, and by association the Street Pastor project, are an organisation that is firmly based on the Christian faith. The outworking of our faith within Street Pastors is to practically show the love of Jesus Christ in the way that we love, care and support anyone we meet, regardless of their physical condition, disability, age, faith, race, gender or sexual orientation.
We are careful not to preach and do not judge the people we meet, however a consequence of what we do practically, and being visible on the streets, leads people to ask questions of why we do what we do. Over the course of the year we have had
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many personal conversations with people who are interested in the Christian faith and on some occasions they will ask us to pray for them.
6.2 Prayer Support
The practical functioning of Derby Street Pastors is supported by a network of prayer which this year has been coordinated by Shirley Wormsley. There are four main areas where prayer has taken place this year.
• Collective Prayer – In the last year bi-monthly prayer meetings have been held. These have been either at a Street Pastor’s house, the DCM offices or as a city centre prayer walk.
• Team Prayer – Throughout a shift each team is encouraged to pray amongst themselves for the city, the vulnerable people we meet, police and door staff.
• Personal Prayer – Each Street Pastor is encouraged to pray personally before a shift. To support this a weekly tasking email is sent out that provides highlights of the previous weeks shift, and identifies any issues for prayer for the upcoming weekend. The tasking email also highlights Street Pastors who may be suffering with illness or injury.
• Intercessors Prayer – The Prayer Coordinator also supplies weekly prayer points to a group of independent intercessors who pray for the work of Derby Street Pastors.
7. Testimonials
The following are testimonials that have been received from members of the general public during the past year.
“I just want to say how amazing you all are, your group stayed with my daughter and her friend and kept them warm and safe till I got there, thank you so much for the kindness and help you gave. It was Friday the 30th of September outside a club called Pop World, they were honestly the best group of people I have ever met, thank you for all your group did.”
Louise Brooks, (30th September)
“Donation to The Street Pastors. Thank you to the Street Pastors who looked after our son one evening after his drinks had been spiked. You are God's guardian angels on earth. God Bless you all.”
Anonymous on the DCM Just Giving Page (January)
As we walk the streets we constantly get messages of thanks from members of the public. This could either be because they have previously been helped by one of the teams or just to express their appreciation for us being out helping others. One mother even drove from Norwich as she wanted to personally thank us after we had helped her daughter who had been injured in a disturbance the previous week.
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8. Distribution
Derby City Council
Cllr Asaf Afzal - Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods & Protection
Mr Andy Thomas - HOS Community Safety & Partnerships
Mr Craig Keen - Community Safety Manager
Derbyshire Constabulary
Cllr Hardyal Dhindsa - Police and Crime Commissioner
Chf Supt Jim Allen - Divisional Commander, South Division
Insp Lauren Woods - Derby North LPU
Sgt Becky Webster - Derby City Safer Neighbourhood Team
PC Gemma Rice - South Division Licensing
PC Mark Dunn - South Division Licensing
Partner Organisations
Mr Jason Dickens - Chair, Derby Pubwatch
Mrs Melanie Ferguson-Allen - Director, Partnerships for Better Business Ltd
Derby City Mission
Mrs Hilary Disney
- Trustee Director, co-Chair
Rev Graham Watkins
- Trustee Director, co-Chair
Dr Martin Grosvenor - Trustee Director
Dr Patrick Halls - Trustee Director
Mrs Rachael Ita - Trustee Director
Mr J Millard - Trustee Director
Mr G Pickup - Trustee Director
Mr N Town - Trustee Director
Rev Julio Abraham - Chief Executive Officer
Mrs Viv Merkelt - Operations Manager
Mr Andrew Moorley - Street Pastor Operations Team
Mrs Helen Rollinson - Street Pastor Operations Team
Mr Andy Sutherland - Street Pastor Operations Team
Mrs Shirley Wormsley - Street Pastor Operations Team
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University of Derby Student Union
Mr Chris Meynell Venues and Entertainments Manager
Supporting Organisations
Revd Paul Taylor - All Saints, Brailsford
Ms Jacqui Eastwood - All Saints, Breadsall
Revd John Wigram - All Saints, Ripley
Mr Kristian Thorpe - Arena Church, Ilkeston
Mrs June Smith - Belper Congregational Church
Mr Jim Gould - Central United Reform Church, Derby
Mr Simon Shaw - Community Church Derby
Revd Dr Susan Jones - Derby Cathedral
Mr David Ayling - Derby City Church
Mr Martin Knight - Haven Christian Centre, Heatherton
Revd Gareth Higgs - Littleover Methodist Church
Ms Lynn Edge - Milford Baptist Church
Mr Henry Ita - New Life Church, Derby
Revd Jean Burgess - St Alkmund’s, Derby
Revd Derek Honour - St Barnabas, Derby
Fr Alasdair Kay - St Francis, Mackworth
Revd Stephen Potter - St Michael’s & All Angels, South Normanton
Canon Michael Mitton - St Paul’s, Chester Green
Revd Alicia Dring - St Peter’s, Littleover
Mr Tim Gunn - Woodlands Evangelical Church, Allestree
