Notting Hill Carnival Strategic Review - Intelligent Space

times, interrupted or delayed. A number of stewarding qualifications do exist on the market
ranging from the Football Stewarding Qualification to individual training packages designed
by independent companies. There is however no nationally recognised qualification. It was
acknowledged that the requirements of the Notting Hill Carnival were not specifically
stewarding but involved vehicle, band and crowd management. There was clear evidence of
the need to develop a more robust carnival-specific training module as a four to six hour
session. Further, there was no evidence of supplemental training for each management layer
of the stewarding operation.
2.19 At Carnival 2001, the stewards were issued with ID passes. These passes were manually
produced and served no other function than the purposes of recognition. The manual
production of the passes was fraught with difficulty and relied heavily on the individual
stewards remembering to provide passport photographs. This was confirmed by a continual
process of ID production on the morning of Carnival Sunday. Uniforms, which were also
issued on the Sunday contributed to further delays in the commencement of the stewarding
operation. Although practical, the uniforms did not clearly differentiate the stewards as
people with authority to manage the carnival crowd or environment. The rank of supervisor or
team/section leader was not clearly discernible and in the event of a major incident, this
requirement was critical.
2.20 The Carnival Review Group were acutely aware of the fact that although GLA funding had
succeeded in increasing the numbers of stewards deployed at the Carnival for the last three
years, the long-term objective was to develop a sustainable body of accredited stewards that
could eventually compete for the stewarding of large-scale events in London.
Recommendation
Policing Carnival
10. Whilst in comparison to other large-scale festivals, the Notting Hill Carnival remains a relatively
safe event, we are concerned that the overall number of reported crimes rose in 2002 and 2003.
After a fall in the number of people receiving first aid or hospital treatment for two years running,
the figures rose sharply in 2003 by 140 per cent and 154 per cent respectively. The work of the
MPS and St. John Ambulance (SJA) is to be commended – the former have, since 2001,
implemented a successful pre-Carnival intelligence gathering operation and deployed officers to
specifically target known crime hotspots within the Carnival area. The latter continue to deliver a
first class medical service at the Carnival despite never having received any form of funding or
sponsorship for this work. We believe that the work of both organisations can be strengthened
and supported through:
(a) the development of a multi-agency Carnival Community Safety Strategy that is delivered in
partnership with the Carnival Arenas. All the evidence shows that the majority of crime
committed at the Carnival occurs as night falls. Achievement of the 9pm close-down time
must therefore be a central feature of the strategy; and
(b) the establishment of a funding agreement between SJA and the National Health Service
(NHS). We are firmly of the view that the high quality on site medical service provided by
SJA over the Carnival weekend significantly reduces the potential impact of Carnival-related
injuries on the services of neighbouring hospitals in and around the Carnival area. This is
because the majority of the casualties (84 per cent) are treated on site. We believe that the
84