Community Safety Place Standard Tool Project

What is this project about?

This project is about making communities safer by helping people talk about what makes a place feel safe or unsafe. It uses a tool called the Place Standard Tool (PST), which helps people think about different aspects of where they live—like transport, housing, parks, and how safe they feel.

What did the project do?

Public Health Scotland and SC Scotland worked together to create a new “community safety” lens of the PST.  They worked with local community safety groups to develop and test new questions and guidance.

How did it work?

The team created special questions focused on safety for each of the 14 themes in the PST (like moving around, public transport, housing, and feeling safe).

They trained the pilot sites to run sessions using these questions.

The project ran pilot sessions in different places (like Greenock, Edinburgh, Moray, Aberdeenshire and even expanded it to our neighbours in Northern England, Northern Ireland and The Republic of Ireland!) to see how well the new tool worked.  In each place, participants walked around the area, discussed what they saw, and then talked about safety issues in a group.  Feedback was collected after each session to see what worked and what could be improved.

What did they learn?

The tool helped people have honest conversations about safety in their area. It worked best when local people led the sessions, not just officials and there was a mix of community members and professionals included.

What happens next?

The team is currently making the tool simpler and easier to use, based on feedback.

The final version of the tool will be published in Spring 2026 and shared widely, so any community can use it to talk about safety and make improvements.