Solutions

Acquisitive Crime

Through Empowering-Communities cloud-based technology, practitioners are gaining a far greater level of knowledge of the victims, offenders, vulnerable individuals and premises that they are working with. Functionality such as E-CINS mapping is raising awareness and building a clearer picture of intelligence around local areas so officers are better equipped in situations involving shoplifting, burglary, theft and robbery.

Anti-Social Behaviour

Our solutions play a valuable role in the management of anti-social behaviour and are used extensively across the UK by the police, local authorities and their partners to identify, refer, case manage and securely share information and images of victims and offenders.

Our ASB Warning Notices Management Desk also saves time and money through auto-referrals.

Child Sexual Exploitation

5% of 11–17 year olds have experienced Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE). This equates to around 50 children in every secondary school in England and Wales.

Empowering-Communities work with the public sector and its partners to promote a multi-agency approach to tackling this complex issue and reduce the risk of children falling through the gaps between services.

Domestic Abuse

Domestic Abuse is a national problem that blights the lives of women, children and their families at an estimated cost of almost £23billion a year.

Empowering-Communities work with practitioners across the UK through a secure, multi-level approach involving a range of professionals who are specialised in providing effective and timely support so that those at risk of harm are protected.

Early Intervention

Research from the Early Intervention Foundation suggests that dealing with social problems affecting children and young people costs £17bn a year in England and Wales.

Our solutions are helping practitioners to take action before problems become more difficult to reverse by linking together information from initial referrals, through to risk assessments and full case management.

Environmental Health

Local Authorities and Police have been saving time and money by using our solutions to carry out automatic risk assessments and to case manage medium and high risk licensed premises, sharing information with their partners such as Trading Standards.

Through our client management solutions Environmental Health teams can also make significant savings by enabling premises to carry out their own regulated self-assessments and returns.

Family Intervention Programmes

Partners across the UK are using our solutions to work together in a multi-agency environment to wrap support around children and families.

We create an environment where professionals can contribute to assessments and the planning process and communicate securely with each other whilst managing their workload.  Practitioners are able to track progress of families against specific and detailed measures, draw off data and evaluate their work, improving outcomes for all.

Fuel Poverty

The Warmth for Wellbeing Project is tackling fuel poverty, excess winter deaths and improving the health and wellbeing of 1,000s of Brighton & Hove’s most vulnerable residents, using a single point of referral to a raft of joined-up, high quality services.

Through improved assessments and referrals, our solutions are helping to ensure clients haven’t fallen through the gaps and receive support from a wider network of organisations that are working towards the same or similar goals.

Gangs

Gang-related crime is a complex national problem that can only be solved by involving various departments, partners and organisations to deliver an intelligent approach.

Our products and methodology create significant time savings by automating the referral process and encourage all practitioners to collaborate for the greater good, providing a firm joined up response that involves every relevant partner.

Hate Crime

Hate Incidents can be confusing and frightening to those who suffer them and often escalate to crimes or tension in a community. It’s important that the right processes are in place to report these incidents so that the police can prosecute when the law is broken and work with partners to try and prevent any escalation in seriousness.

Our solutions are being used to improve partnership working with multi-agency approaches, reducing paperwork and emails, assisting with victim management and visualising data trends revealing the extent of the problem in Force areas.

Houses in Multiple Occupancy (HMOs)

Increased demand for hostel and bedsit accommodation due to housing benefit changes has led to a rise in Houses in Multiple Occupation in recent years. This brings with it a range of requirements involve licensing, environmental health and fire safety to name but a few.

Empowering-Communities work with police, local authorities and their partners on a range of solutions that address the issues around HMOs, from anti-social behaviour to modern day slavery, helping to identify people at risk of exploitation and ensuring standards and obligations are met.

Integrated Offender Management

Since 2012 Empowering-Communities has helped police forces and their partners tackle the most prolific and priority offenders of serious acquisitive crimes, youth violence and gang crime in the UK.

Our solutions help to provide an informed understanding of how an offender might respond to imprisonment, engage in rehabilitative interventions and what risk they pose whilst in prison and in society.  By joining up with prisons too, police and their partners can enable a smooth transition from community to custody, assessing offender pathway needs and putting appropriate measures and support in place on their release.

Keep Safe

The Keep Safe Scheme aims to support people with learning disabilities and other vulnerabilities to keep safe and get help in an emergency when out and about. It also complies with the Herbert Protocol which encourages carers to compile useful information which could be used in the event of a vulnerable person, such as those with dementia or Alzheimers, going missing.

Our secure, encrypted public-facing online form records all vital details, such as medication required, mobile numbers, places previously located, a photograph and social and communication needs which means in the event of an emergency their details can be easily accessed, reducing the time taken in identifying and giving appropriate support.

MASH and MARACs

Missing Persons

An estimated 306,000 reports of missing people are made to British police every year – the majority of which are children and young people under the age of 18.

A child goes missing in the UK every three minutes, with one in five of these children being at risk of being sexually exploited or being involved in crimes such as county lines gang activities.  Some children will go missing more than once, and this is a sign that serious harm is being done to the child.

Our Missing Persons Referral Desk enables secure reporting of sightings and the recording of information that can lead to a missing person being located, joining up the response from individuals, communities, authorities and agencies.

Modern Day Slavery

In the UK today, tens of thousands of people are trapped within various forms of modern day slavery. This can range from a young person suffering sexual exploitation through to gangs forcing subservient individuals to commit illegal activity. Victims are often unaware that they’re being exploited and may even accept their situation and consent to elements of their entrapment.

We take a joined up national approach to the issues surrounding modern day slavery. Our solutions allow practitioners to get access to encrypted referral forms, a referral management desk and a multi-agency end-to-end case management system. Everything needed to start making a difference.

Multi-Agency Operations

We are the UK’s leading provider of secure, multi-agency, cloud-based systems. Our multi-agency case management system, E-CINS, is used extensively all over the UK, making it easier for organisations and their partners to share information securely between them and even across borders.

Across the country, practitioners are using our systems to tackle serious societal issues, including: Anti-Social Behaviour, Domestic Abuse, Gangs/Serious Youth Violence, Hate Crime, Integrated Offender Management, Keep Safe, Modern Day Slavery and Safeguarding.

Through our proven methodologies we are providing a national solution for solving complex problems that require an intelligent partnership approach.

Offenders/Low-Level Offending

In many cases of minor offending the loss or harm is minor, and the seriousness and consequence of the offending is low-level. When assessing the public interest in such cases, prosecutors have to consider whether it is likely that the court would impose only a nominal penalty on conviction.

Consideration can sometimes be given to dispose of the offence in an alternative way, taking the views of the victim into account and looking at any previous relevant offending by the suspect.

Empowering-Communities’ solutions help Police tackle low-level offending by providing a platform for alternative approaches that involve a range of specialist partners who can offer support that tackles the causes of offending.

PACT (Prison Advisory Service)

Pact is a national charity that provides support to prisoners, people with convictions, and their families through a range of services, including:

• Prison-based family engagement workers.
• Prison visitors’ centres.
• In- prison visitor support, supervised play, catering and enhanced family activities.
• Prison and community based relationship and parenting education programmes.
• Court and community family support.
• ‘Through the Gate’ and community based mentoring and befriending programmes.
• National helpline and digital information service

Empowering-Communities have worked with PACT for many years to help them achieve their goals of building stronger families and communities and reduce the risk of harm to prisoners, their children and families.

Prevent

Prevent is part of the Government’s counter-terrorism strategy, CONTEST. Its aim is to stop people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism. … But preventing terrorism means challenging extremist (and non-violent) ideas that are also part of a terrorist ideology.

Empowering-Communities’ solutions are being used by practitioners as a secure means of gathering and exchanging information freely with Prevent Channel Panel members such as Police, Mental Health, Education, Probation, Housing, Local Authorities and Safeguarding leads.  It saves time and money by enabling live online meetings to be held amongst members, reducing print and paper distribution costs and saving time on resources through automatic tasking and notifications to members.

Prostitution/Sex Workers

The impact of prostitution can be far reaching for many communities and many people, sometimes with tragic consequences.  Often sex workers need help and support to address underlying issues and addictions to drugs or alcohol before they can escape a life of prostitution.

Local agencies know how to best respond to the needs of their particular community and the most effective responses are developed at a local level. We help these agencies to work together to develop and improve their response to help communities affected by prostitution and to improve the lives of people involved through proactive approaches to the complex issues involved.

Restorative Justice

Restorative justice brings together people who have been harmed by crime or conflict with those responsible for the harm with the aim of facilitating effective and positive communication. It provides an opportunity for everyone affected by a specific crime or incident to play a part in repairing the harm and finding a positive way forward.

Empowering-Communities are working with practitioners to co-ordinate a joined up approach to Restorative Justice, enabling schools, children’s services, workplaces, hospitals, communities and the criminal justice system to work together to manage the process sensitively and effectively.

Rough Sleepers

Rough sleeping is rising across the UK.  It is dangerous and isolating and long periods of sleeping rough can lead to physical and mental health problems.

Trying to prevent people from ending up on the streets and helping those already on the streets involves a range of public services from health to the criminal justice system. Empowering-Communities work with a number of public sector organisations and their partners to help this cohort, capturing information including action plans, housing and rehabilitation options offered, any offences committed and enforcement options used. We enable Outreach Workers to join up support with third sector organisations to identify rough sleepers and try to get them the help and support they need.

Safeguarding

Social Prescribing

Many of us are unaware of the range of voluntary services on our doorsteps and unlikely to reach out to them as the first point of contact. To address this, a few years ago GPs began issuing “social prescriptions”, which signpost an individual to one or more local services. Sometimes this involves a direct referral, or it may also involve a middle organisation, such as Age UK.

Our suite of products enable practitioners, including GPs, to deliver social prescriptions, from the initial referral stage to signposting to local services that help them improve the quality of their lives — from art classes which promote mental wellbeing, through to animal-assisted activities for the elderly.

Street Drinkers

Street drinking is a widespread and persistent problem, having a negative impact on those who witness, effecting local businesses and causing a drain on the public purse.

Through our solutions practitioners are gathering the evidence they need to tackle persistent offenders and helping to address drinker’s issues, sharing information with support agencies, Councils, Probation and Immigration officials.  Our mapping functionality also assists in pinpointing problem areas, providing crucial evidence in the decision-making process around License Applications ensuring premises will not add to current problems.

Street Pastors

Street Pastors are trained volunteers from local churches who play an active part in strengthening community life and working to make the streets safer for everyone.

More than 300 towns and cities around the UK have a Street Pastors team involving over 20,000 volunteers. They work in parks, schools and colleges to offer reassurance, safety and support through listening, caring and helping.

Our solutions help city projects, which are run by Ascension Trust, the governing body behind Street Pastors, to work together in partnership with the police, local council and other statutory agencies to make communities safer.

Taxi and Private Hire Licensing

The purpose of taxi and private hire vehicle licensing is to keep people safe but increasingly loopholes are being exploited that put the public at risk.

Our solutions enable proper checks and standards to be put in place that can assist in cross-border enforcement, ensuring that Councils can only issue licences to people who they are satisfied are fit and proper and suitable to hold a license.

Through our National Database, Local Authorities can check if an applicant holds a license elsewhere, have breached their conditions, had a licence revoked and why.

Trading Standards

Environmental Health Officers, Trading Standards Officers and Licensing Officers often have a need to share information or attend special joint operations to protect consumers and support legitimate business.

Our technology is revolutionising the way teams can not only receive referrals from the public but it also enables the secure logging, monitoring and sharing of information with police to help investigate complaints and provide evidence that can lead to the prosecution of traders who break the law.

Troubled Families’

Concerns which initially appear to be of a low level when seen in isolation, are sometimes recognised as part of a long standing pattern of abuse and neglect which needs a response when information is pooled together.

This was at the heart of the Troubled Families Programme which we have been involved with since its launch in 2011.  By joining up targeted interventions to address multiple problems, including crime, anti-social behaviour, truancy, unemployment, mental health problems and domestic abuse practitioners have been able to support customers through their journeys in turning their lives around.

Unauthorised Encampments

The establishment of an unauthorised encampment can raise many concerns and problems, from high levels of anti-social behaviour to disproportionate disruption to the community into which they move.

Whilst there is a clear leadership role for local authorities in tackling illegal and unauthorised encampments, they should work collaboratively with other agencies by establishing a partnership approach with landowners, Police as well as co-operation from the Travelling community.

Our solutions help all organisations involved in tackling unauthorised encampments to build a complete picture of a situation and a good understanding of individuals’ particular needs, including welfare issues are addressed in the process.

Victims Services

Victims and vulnerable people can have complex needs. By giving all local professionals access to a collaborative network, everyone is better placed to address the needs of the vulnerable people they’re connected with. When partners work together, they can build a more comprehensive picture of an individual’s situation and ultimately improve outcomes.

Victim data and intelligence can be spread over many various organisations and sources, which can make managing the process very challenging.

Our solutions help practitioners keep their data in one place, consolidating referrals so they can handle each case efficiently, saving time and making more informed decisions.

Vulnerable Persons

A vulnerable person can mean many things. It can be a child or an individual aged 18 years and over who may be unable to take care of themselves, or is unable to protect themselves against harm or exploitation by reason of age, illness, trauma or disability, or any other reason.

There is no single way of defining if a person is vulnerable across public services. Vulnerability is defined on the circumstances that make an individual vulnerable and the support activities required.

Our suite of products enable organisations to identify, assess, refer and join up their interventions with partners when someone may be vulnerable in circumstances such as while in hospital, if disabled, with a long-term health problem, in a domestic abuse situation, or becoming homeless.

Welfare Reform and Employability

The Government’s Welfare Reform Bill, including the introduction of Universal Credit, has led to a requirement for the modernisation and streamlining of the country’s benefit system. It has also impacted on the need for people to increase their employability skills and employment opportunities to counteract the effect of reforms such as the Under-Occupancy Charge and the Benefit Cap.

Often people seeking employment can have underlying, additional issues that create barriers to them finding suitable employment. Our solutions assist at every step, from initial referral, triage services, identification and assessment of need, through to individual personalised action plans and multi-agency support if required.  Through these approaches Local Authorities and Employment Support providers are helping people to access the support they need to become financially independent.

Youth Crime and Youth Violence

Young people who commit crime from an early age are especially likely to become habitual offenders with long criminal careers.

Within local communities there are various prevention programmes that work to keep young people away from crime. These programmes can involve parents and families and wider networks that young people are in contact with such as education, sports facilities and youth charities.

Through Empowering-Communities’ collaborative technology, practitioners can identify young people at risk of getting involved in crime and gather live intelligence. Teachers and other professionals can make electronic referrals too. By giving all local professionals access to a collaborative network, everyone is better placed to address the needs of the young people they’re connected with and provide wraparound support to address the real underlying issues.