Evaluation of Clear, Hold, Build
This report presents the findings of an evaluation of Clear, Hold, Build as part of a national roll out across England and Wales.
Applies to England and Wales
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Clear, Hold, Build (CHB) is a place-based, 3-phase operational framework designed by the Home Office to reduce serious and organised crime (SOC) threats and crime levels in high-harm local areas and tackle the drivers of crime to prevent this harm returning. It relies on effective neighbourhood policing and partnership working, providing a model to coordinate and connect existing capabilities from across police, statutory and non-statutory agencies as part of a whole-system approach.
The framework was first piloted in West Yorkshire in 2020 before being expanded to 6 other police forces in 2021 and 2022. In early 2023, a national rollout of CHB was announced, with CHB operational in 41 of the 43 territorial police forces in England and Wales by October 2024.
The evaluation included an impact and process evaluation. The impact evaluation measured the effect of CHB on police recorded crime and community perceptions via a survey, whilst the process evaluation explored how CHB was implemented and the factors affecting the set-up and delivery of CHB through interviews and surveys.
Overall, the evaluation found statistically significant evidence that CHB had a positive impact on crime when implemented as intended and in the right contexts. Though there was no evidence that it improved community perceptions, low sample sizes and limited progress through the Build phase reduce confidence in these findings. Findings from the process evaluation showed that police and partners valued CHB for the framework it provides in embedding a multi-agency approach to tackling SOC, though resourcing issues and, in some cases, lack of buy-in were key challenges to implementation.
The findings from the evaluation provide recommendations for designing and delivering CHB in the future.