About Us
We are passionate about creating fun, safe nights out, and we specialise in working with towns and cities to design creative solutions to enduring problems of safety and vulnerability in the night time economy.
We have worked alongside cities such as Nottingham, Manchester, Leicester and Chester, and national bodies like the Home Office, Drinkaware, Institute of Licensing, NALEO, National Pubwatch, National Best Bar None and the IPM on subjects such as creating night time economy strategies, vulnerability management and strong partnership working.
We combine years of experience of working in partnership with police forces, police and crime commissioners, Business Improvement Districts (BIDs), local authorities, hospitals, universities, licensed premises and voluntary organisations to help them design innovative solutions that can reduce crime and vulnerability and improve safety and vibrancy.
The Team
Jo Cox-Brown
Jo has worked in night time economy management for over 10 years.
For eight years Jo was the Chief Executive of a charity set up to enhance and improve the reputation of Nottingham’s night life working as part of a team to pioneer their first night time economy strategy. During her time there she set up and ran a multi award winning city centre bar, music, arts and events venue. She also re-launched Nottingham Street Pastors and Safe Space, recruiting over 100 volunteers who served the city every Friday and Saturday night.
Jo is passionate about vulnerability management and helping towns and cities to develop projects and ideas to help people get home safely after a night out, reducing both hospital admissions and demands on police time. Jo has pioneered a number of ENTE safety projects such as Vulnerability Training, Drinkaware Club Crew and Safe Spaces.
Jo is also a Trained Mediator and has worked with statutory agencies and the trade to reach mutually effective solutions avoiding court cases and venue closures.
Sylvia Oates
Sylvia has worked in the leisure industry for 15 years.
For six years Sylvia was Chief Executive of the Business Improvement District (BID) in Nottingham. For four of these years, the BID focussed solely on the licensed economy in the city, and was the only leisure BID in the country.
During her time at the helm, Sylvia oversaw the set up and delivery of numerous projects to increase night time economy safety and diversify the city’s offer to visitors, including safety projects such as Taxi Marshals, events such as the Food and Drink Festival and partnership projects such as the successful application for Purple Flag status.
In 2010, she arranged and hosted a visit by the Head of Drugs and Alcohol at the Home Office, to demonstrate how much work had been done by the partners in the city to increase the safety and vibrancy of the city at night. Following this visit and subsequent close work with the Home Office, Nottingham has been held up as an example of best practice in night time economy management ever since.
Barry Brown
Barry has been a police officer for 30 years, achieving the rank of Inspector, responsible for Neighbourhood Policing within Chester Local Policing Unit. Within this role, Barry designed the night time economy policing plan for Chester, championing and supporting many initiatives to make the city safer at night.
The policing of Chester LPU held significant local challenges, including the large geographic area covered and the diverse range of communities served, coupled with national challenges such as austerity. These demanded a creative and innovative approach to night time economy policing.
Barry’s priorities are to work closely with partners and stakeholders to target and reduce vulnerability; to proactively tackle crime and anti-social behaviour; to bring those to justice who cause the most harm and to further improve community cohesion through effective engagement. This collective approach has been imperative to ensure all communities receive the best service they can.
Barry has been an accredited public order commander for the last 6 years of his service, involved in policing large scale industrial protests, royal visits and music festivals.
David Oates
David is our data and performance specialist. He has 12 years’ experience of working with police and local authority data, working with authorities and forces across the country.
His range of technical expertise includes advanced Excel, SQL, SQL Server Reporting Studio (SSRS) and Power BI.
He is that rarest of breeds who can take on multiple complex datasets and translate them into easy-to-understand insights, along with practical recommendations for positive change. These may include improving the impact of reduced resources, or reducing ASB, for example.
Dave can also provide specialist advice on objective setting and on which data to collect and analyse, enabling effective measurement of local activity and the identification of future trends.