A ward panel is a group of community members and partner agencies that meets with your local community policing team at least every 3 months to set local policing ward priorities and hold your local policing team to account for issues affecting the community.

They feed information and emerging issues directly to your local officers (as well as council representatives who often attend), helping to shape and deliver local priorities. Ward panel decisions must be evidence-based and inform, influence and involve both the community and your local policing team as part of a continuous cycle of feedback, review and action.

Ward panels provide a key local accountability mechanism for your local policing team and allow scrutiny of policing at a local level. They are an important mechanism for the police to obtain the views of the community about crime and disorder in a neighbourhood and for your local policing team to provide information on policing to communities.