Client: portman group / Local Alcohol Partnerships Group

Project: uk safe space study

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What were MAKE asked to do?

The Local Alcohol Partnerships Group and Portman Group asked MAKE to research and map the nascent development of safe spaces (e.g. night hubs, safe buses, street pastor refuges etc) across the UK, to identify best practice and to make recommendations about how the schemes could be supported, lessons that could be learned and to identify any evidence in terms of how they might reduce ambulance call outs, police time and ED (i.e. A&E) admissions.

How did MAKE do it?

  • We undertook desk research of 450 UK towns to identify whether or not they had a safe space scheme of some type. 

  • We identified 45 schemes, mapped these and identified clusters (east of England, south west England) and areas which would benefit but were poorly served: the north west and north east. 

  • From these we chose four case studies in different parts of the UK and demonstrated how these had arrived at solutions that were right for them, at a range of budgets and with varying degrees of sophistication. 

  • Where possible, we used academic evaluations of existing safe spaces or publicly available cost data from ambulance, A&E and police sources to give an initial assessment of whether or not they worked 

  • Overall, we found a lack of rigorous evidence of their impact. It was not that they didn’t work, at a basic level it was clear they were making a huge impact on reducing vulnerability in the NTE, but rather that more research was required to evidence their effectiveness and their value for money.  

  • The report recommended a dozen actions to support the future professionalisation of the sector including a Toolkit and National Safe Space Network. 

What happened next?

The report was launched at the House of Commons by the Home Office minster in charge of alcohol policy. MAKE was asked to produce the recommended toolkit to help those starting new safe spaces to avoid the mistakes other had made and guide them to create sustainable models (e.g. funding, volunteers, governance). The Toolkit has since been used to by Westminster City Council to start the Soho Angels and Soho NightHub scheme.  

What unique value did MAKE bring to this project?

We used our own NightMix database to identify every town with an NTE in the UK. This meant that our search for UK safe spaces was exhaustive and, indeed, some of the smallest towns were found to some have some of the most innovative safe space schemes e.g. Hereford, Weston, Bury St Edmunds.