National Evaluation of the Street Warden Programme

Street Wardens provide highly visible uniformed patrols in town and village centres, public areas and neighbourhoods. They build on the Neighbourhood Wardens Programme, but have more of an emphasis on caring for the physical appearance of the area. Wardens tackle environmental problems such as litter, graffiti and dog fouling. They also help to deter anti-social behaviour; reduce the fear of crime; and foster social inclusion.

A consortium led by Matrix was commissioned in May 2002 to provide a comprehensive evaluation of the Street Wardens programme, aimed at identifying what works, when and why, and at what cost. Providing positive and practical feedback to schemes to improve the effectiveness of Street Wardens is an important part of the evaluation.

The evaluation included both quantitative analysis around the impact of Street Warden schemes, and a qualitative study to examine the ways of working adopted by Street Wardens. Cost effectiveness analysis will determine how efficiently resources have been used. These methods were linked through explicit theories of change model, which formed the framework for our research design. You can download the published reports on the publications page.