The document How do I start a Neighbourhood Watch Scheme?  contains information that may find useful to understand what’s involved in setting up your scheme. 

The success of Neighbourhood Watch is largely down to volunteers who give up their time to engage with their neighbourhoods and communities and local services, such as the police, to boost community activity, reduce isolation and combat crime.

The Coordinator plays a key role, however, when the whole neighbourhood or community gets involved, the Watch is stronger and more effective for its members. The relationship between the NW Coordinator and the police is also helpful to the sustainable success of any NW scheme.

Coordinators help their neighbourhoods by:

• Knowing who their members are;
• Welcoming new residents to the NW Scheme area and inviting other neighbours to join;
• Communicating regularly with members in order to maintain their interest and pass on information and advice relevant to their area;
• Organising meetings to bring members together (when possible);
• Communicating regularly with local groups and agencies such as the police and other relevant agencies;, keeping a note of incidents or reports made to them and then passing them on to the police or their local policing team;
• Keeping an eye on any elderly or vulnerable neighbours, or arranging for others to do so;
• Arranging for NW signs to be put up and maintained.

 The initial setting up of the scheme will mean calling on all your neighbours, or posting an invitation leaflet through their letterboxes, to invite them to join the scheme. You may also need to send a few emails to the CNWA for assistance and speak to your local PCSO. After this there are no fixed hours that are expected of you. It is more of a call to action as, and when, the need arises. Schemes vary greatly depending upon the needs of local residents and the time you devote to your scheme is entirely up to you.

We will provide you with the materials required to set up a new Neighbourhood Watch Scheme free of charge. 

You will need to register via (www.members.ourwatchmember.org.uk)  which is the central database used to store all coordinator and scheme information. This system is also the messaging tool that is used to share information between organisations and you. You can use it to store your scheme member details and send them messages. In addition to messages from Neighbourhood Watch you can sign up to receive information from the likes of Cheshire Police, Cheshire Fire and ActionFraud. Once registered your details will only be used by the organisations you select.

All Co-ordinators MUST be registered with the CNWA through Neighbourhood Alert and agree to receive messages from Neighbourhood Watch and Cheshire Police.

You may already be registered on Cheshire Police Alert but we recommend that you create a separate email account and amend your registration on Cheshire Police Alert before you set up your scheme. This email account will be to use purely as a Coordinator, and will protect your personal email should any of your messages be forwarded on inappropriately. You can log into your account and amend details at any time.

Please note that you will not be shown as a coordinator at this stage, you will become a coordinator when you set up your new scheme. 

You need to decide on a name for your scheme, we would suggest using Town name – Street Name Neighbourhood Watch Scheme for example Northwich – John Street Neighbourhood Watch scheme.

Once you have this, create your scheme by logging into the account you have created on www.members.ourwatchmember.org.uk). 

You can see how your mapped scheme looks to anyone making an enquiry through the national website by visiting www.ourwatch.org.uk and using the postcode search. Mapped schemes enable new residents to make a postcode search via this website. They can then join your scheme. You have the option to refuse membership if they do not live within the boundaries of your scheme. Try selecting your scheme and request to join so you can see how it works. Schemes will only be visible once they have been approved by the CNWA on the Alert system.

You can request invitation leaflets which you can post through your neighbour’s letterboxes to introduce yourself – if you go ahead, just let us know how many you need and we can order them for you,or you can print them off yourselves. Your local beat team will bring these to you once they have been printed. You can assure your members that their details are for your use only and will not be shared with anyone else, with the exception of the CNWA, Cheshire Constabulary and the Neighbourhood Watch Network.

We would recommend you store your member’s details in the Alert system which will help you comply with GDPR and ensure any member details are not shared when you forward, or send, any messages from the system to your members. If you choose not to use the system and send any emails directly from your own email account you must use the bcc function to ensure that you are not sharing members’ details with anyone else. 

You would need to agree with your member’s how they would like to receive any information. This may be by posting a paper copy through their door. If you have a few members without email accounts you may have an agreement that they will circulate one copy between themselves. 

 We will ask your local beat team to visit you so that you can be verified by the police.