Guidance

Community Safety Partnerships

Published 3 October 2023

Background

Community Safety Partnerships

Community Safety Partnerships were introduced by Section 6 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 and bring together local partners to formulate and deliver strategies to tackle crime and disorder in their communities. Responsible authorities that make up a Community Safety Partnership are the Police, Fire and Rescue Authority, Local Authorities, Health Partners, and Probation Services.

There are over 300 Community Safety Partnerships in England and Wales, operating as either district, county, unitary, or borough partnerships. Community Safety Partnerships provide hyper-localised strategies tailored to the needs of their communities. They work on the principle that no single agency can address all drivers of crime and antisocial behaviour, and that effective partnership working is vital to ensuring safer communities.

The Community Safety Partnership review

Part two of the Police and Crime Commissioner Review, recommended that the Home Office undertake a full review of Community Safety Partnerships across England and Wales.

Public polling commissioned by the Home Office in July 2022 to better understand the views of the public regarding community safety highlighted crime and anti-social behaviour as issues of concern.

The Community Safety Partnership review seeks to clarify the role of Community Safety Partnerships, and improve their transparency, accountability, and effectiveness, making it easier for them to serve the needs of their communities in tackling crime, disorder, and antisocial behaviour.

Phase 1 of the Community Safety Partnership review was launched in March 2023 alongside the Antisocial Behaviour Action Plan. Phase 1 comprised of a targeted consultation, exploring the relationship between Community Safety Partnerships and Police and Crime Commissioners, with the aim of improving the way they work together, and strengthening the accountability of Community Safety Partnerships. The consultation closed in May 2023 and has now been analysed, with a government response to be published in due course, following which phase 2 of the Community Safety Partnership review will be launched.

Initial engagement to explore tools that could be delivered rapidly to support Community Safety Partnerships identified a dedicated webpage with relevant guidance as a key resource. Further guidance and resources will be added to this webpage as the Community Safety Partnership review progresses.

Guidance

This section contains Home Office guidance documents that were developed to support Community Safety Partnerships. Phase 2 of the Community Safety Partnership review will seek to update these guidance documents and resources to reflect the current partnership landscape.

Delivering community safety: a guide to effective partnership working (2007)

This guidance supports partnerships in delivering the national standards and sets out the hallmarks of effective partnerships.

The below guidance provides best practice examples for partnerships meeting the national standards in 2007.

• English language version of the “Delivering community safety: a guide to effective partnership working”
• Welsh language version of the “Delivering community safety: a guide to effective partnership working”

The national support framework (2009)

The national support framework builds on ‘Delivering safer communities: a guide to effective partnership working’.

New products introduced under the national support framework include:

• National support framework: delivering safer and confident communities
• Strengthening strategic assessments: an example led guide
• Hallmarks of effective partnerships: ten of the best
• Guidance for the scrutiny of crime and disorder matters (England): implementing Sections 19 and 20 of the Police and Justice Act 2006.
• Passport to evaluation v.2.
• Guidance for Community Safety Partnerships on reducing reoffending, cutting crime, and changing lives
• Executive guidance for Community Safety Partnerships on reducing reoffending, cutting crime, and changing lives

Resources

This section provides further resources and guidance that Community Safety Partnerships can use to support the reduction of crime, disorder, and antisocial behaviour in England and Wales.

The links provided are to national tools and datasets that can be used in conjunction with local datasets to inform local strategies.

Police recorded crime – Office for National Statistics

Offences recorded by the police are published at Community Safety Partnership level by the Office for National Statistics as part of their Crime in England and Wales Statistical bulletins and by the Home Office in their open data tables.

Crime severity score (CSS) – Office for National Statistics

Crime severity score (CSS) data for police force areas and Community Safety Partnerships, which equates in most instances to local authorities. Includes a data tool to enable production of summary charts on trends and comparisons between areas.

Public digital crime and performance pack (DCPP)

His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) has worked with the National Police Chiefs’ Council, Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, College of Policing, National Crime Agency, and Home Office to collectively develop the digital crime and performance pack.

The digital crime and performance pack brings together published data about police performance to improve transparency and accountability. The pack shows the performance of all 43 police forces in England and Wales against the priority measures outlined in the government’s beating crime plan, in easy-to-use tables and graphical formats.

The initial launch (June 2023) covers homicide, serious violence, and neighbourhood crime. It will be updated with the latest published data every quarter. The interactive tool allows people to look at crime data in their area at any time. Further information and the digital crime and performance pack itself can be found on HMICSFRS’s website.

iQuanta

iQuanta is a web-based data tool service provided to operational staff in police forces, Community Safety Partnerships and His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services. It contains information on police recorded crime by community partnership area.

Further information can be found by contacting: iquanta@homeoffice.gov.uk

Crime reduction toolkit – College of Policing

The crime reduction toolkit summarises the best available research evidence on what works to reduce crime. Use the crime reduction toolkit to see the impact of different interventions on crime, how and where interventions work, how to implement the interventions and their cost.

Problem-oriented policing – College of Policing

Problem-oriented policing, also known as problem-solving policing, is an approach to tackling crime and disorder that involves:

• identification of a specific problem
• thorough analysis to understand the problem
• development of a tailored response
• assessment of the effects of the response

Read guidance on problem-solving policing and the SARA (scanning, analysis, response, assessment) model and the best available research evidence on problem-oriented policing in the crime reduction toolkit.

Practice bank – College of Policing

The practice bank is made up of shared interventions that have been implemented by crime reduction and community safety organisations, including policing. These have been used to address specific crime problems or organisational change.

Browse the practice bank to identify potential interventions for your own problem solving.

Anti-social behaviour (ASB) toolkit – College of Policing

The anti-social behaviour toolkit contains resources to help police address anti-social behaviour. It contains links to relevant legislation and powers, evidence-based approaches for tackling antisocial behaviour and its drivers, and case studies and research projects from forces in England and Wales.

Anti-social behaviour (ASB) guidance for practitioners

The anti-social behaviour: guidance for professionals webpage brings together information for professionals working with anti-social behaviour including:

• statutory guidance on the anti-social behaviour tools and powers
• details on the anti-social behaviour action plan
• anti-social behaviour principles
• anti-social behaviour case review process
• related guidance and best practice
• consultation
• research reports

Welsh resources

This section provides resources and guidance that Community Safety Partnerships in Wales can use to support the reduction of crime, disorder, and antisocial behaviour.

Youth justice blueprint

The Welsh Government’s policy and strategy for supporting young people who offend.

Women’s justice blueprint

The Welsh Government’s policy and strategy for supporting female offenders, including how they plan to support female offenders in or at risk of entering the criminal justice system.

Single unified safeguarding review

The Welsh Government’s guidance for the single unified safeguarding review.

Trauma informed Wales framework

The trauma-informed Wales framework provides a trauma-informed approach to understanding, preventing, and supporting the impacts of trauma and adversity.

StatsWales

StatsWales is the Welsh Government’s free-to-use online service for detailed statistical data for Wales. It allows you to view, manipulate, create, and download tables from Welsh data.