The Process
1. Checklist
in this section : responsibility | research | consultation | evaluation
Step 1 - Responsibility
Understand the legislation
The Licensing Act 2003 (section 5(1)) requires Licensing Authorities to prepare a statement of licensing policy setting out their aims and objectives over a maximum of three years. This policy must be drawn up in consultation with the people/organisations defined in the Act (see below). The policy may be reviewed during its three-year life, but this must be done in consultation with the original parties.
Allocate responsibility
Initial data collection and consultation processes may be carried out as a one-off task for a consultant or delegated member of staff. However, maintaining and developing data sources will take ongoing work. The LA may decide to establish a data-monitoring group which brings together key stakeholders – for example, a Stakeholder Steering Group and/or Local Licensing Forum. This group should focus on improving the data sources available and issuing regular bulletins publishing and analysing the data.
Step 2 – Research
Identify stakeholders
According to the legislation, the Licensing Authority must consult the following key stakeholders:
- Local police
- Local fire authority
- Holders of premises licences in the area
- Holders of club premises certificates in the area
- Holders of personal licences in the area
- Businesses and residents in the area
- (for first statement) Representatives of holders of justices’ licences in the area.
It may also be beneficial to consult a number of other interested parties, for example: Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships, the British Transport Police, local Accident and Emergency departments, consumer bodies, Police Community Consultation Groups (PCCGs), promoters of tourism and local performers.
Identify existing sources of information
Before consulting stakeholders to uncover fresh information, it will be necessary to review existing research to clarify knowledge gaps. This will help to cut down on unnecessary and expensive consultation processes.
Integrate policy/liaise with stakeholders
Licensing policies could help in and be helped by cultural strategies, community safety plans, local development plans, planning, transport, regeneration programmes and race equality schemes. It is also recommended they integrate into other plans produced for the management of town centres and the night-time economy. The use of these as sources of information and evidence to formulate licensing policies and to judge their effectiveness should not be under estimated.
Collect baseline data
Baseline data may be drawn from the information uncovered by this initial research. However, as the purpose of these data will be to enable future comparisons at different points in the life span of the strategy, it will be necessary to ensure that the methods by which these data are collected remain consistent. Ideally baseline data should be collected prior to the implementation of the policy.
Step 3 – Consultation
Identify data required
It will be necessary to identify the data needed. This information should complement, but not duplicate, data gathered from other sources. Before beginning this process, write a list of specific information needs from the proposed involvement process. It may be helpful to ask the following questions:
- What information do I want: ideas, responses to proposals, preferences or proposals?
- From/about whom do I want my information; are there target groups of stakeholders to be consulted?
- In what form do I want the information?
Identify most effective means of consultation
Once the type of data needed has been decided, the logical next step is to choose the most effective method by which to collect this data. Some such methods are:
- Public meeting
- Citizens’ jury
- Survey/questionnaire
- Focus group.
When deciding the most effective method of data collection it will be important to consider:
- how best to encourage participation.
- how to gather information from ‘hard to reach’ groups.
- issues of anonymity and confidentiality.
- whether any other consultation processes are planned in your area – you may be able to ‘piggyback’ on these in some way.
- whether you have sufficient resources for certain types of consultation processes, and the extent to which consultee responses will be fed into policy.
Decide points of consultation
It should be decided at which points in the decision-making process to undertake consultation. Different stages in the process require different types of consultation. Some examples are outlined in the following table:
Consult stakeholders
Once the methodology has been decided, the consultation can be conducted. By this stage, it should have been decided how the data gathered in this process will be recorded. An effective consultation process will also:
- Make sure there are clear mechanisms for feeding the results of consultations into decision making
- Ensure that decision-makers are committed to the consultation process
- Clarify what can/cannot be changed
- Consider data protection, which may affect how information is collected/used, and
- Ensure that information is collected and recorded in a format that will provide hard evidence, where this is needed.
Feedback to consultees
To encourage future participation and to contribute to an effective ongoing consultation process, it is important to feed the results of the consultation process back to consultees. This may be done in a variety of ways.
Step 4 – Evaluation
Identify sources of outcome information
Outcomes can occur at many levels, including:
- Individual
(e.g. drinking behaviour, sense of safety in the area/ fear of crime, satisfaction with the local environment)
- Family
(e.g. reduction/no increase in domestic violence, protection of children from harm)
- Community
(e.g. levels of crimes that are associated with alcohol, reported incidents of nuisance and anti- social behaviour, fear of crime among local residents, fear of crime among local businesses, noise levels, litter – actual levels gathered or satisfaction with level)
- Environment
(e.g. less litter gathered, less noise pollution)
- Agencies
(e.g. reduction/no increase in referrals to alcohol misuse, domestic violence and other related agencies)
- Services
(e.g. reduced pressure on policing in the area, reduced number of LA noise and other nuisance complaints handled, reduced pressure on accident and emergency services, fewer challenges to local authority licensing policies, particularly appeals to the courts)
A number of sources should be used to try and isolate the causal factor. Intermediate outcomes should be measured as these will give a better idea of the agencies involved in the changes and may give a better picture of the situation in the shorter term.
Collect the data
As with consultation, appropriate information procedures and recording methods should be decided prior to the onset of data collection. Likewise, the methods of collection used should vary according to the nature of the information required. These methods may include, but are not limited to: sampling, snapshots, questionnaires and outcome monitoring.
The data collected should relate (at the very least) to the four licensing objectives:
- Prevention of crime
- Prevention of public nuisance
- Public safety
- Prevention of harm to children.
Analyse/use the information
The limitations of the data in identifying causal links between various incidents and alcohol misuse make the need for careful analysis, attribution and interpretation all the more important. This process should help to isolate factors, anticipate risks and identify hotspots. To do this effectively, it will be necessary to have information from a variety of sources that can be cross-referenced. Once analysed (or even as a part of its analysis), the information can be fed back into the consultation, decision-making and policy-making processes.
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