Context in which we operate

Policy context

The Government’s priorities in England for community safety over the next three years are built around five themes:

  1. Making communities stronger and more effective.  As far as the work of Safe Partnership is concerned, this is about enabling local people to achieve a response from key service providers to a community safety issue that they believe has not been adequately addressed.  Amongst other measures, Neighbourhood Watch will be further developed, giving the charity more opportunities to help vulnerable victims of crime.
  2. Further reducing crime and anti-social behaviour.  This is about reducing crime by 15% by 2007-08, with further development and implementation of the National Delivery Plan for domestic violence (currently accounting for 25% of all crime) being of particular concern to the charity.
  3. Creating safer environments.  Some of this is to do with improving the quality of people’s homes, which is relevant to the charity’s Handyperson schemes.
  4. Protecting the public and building confidence.  This is more about the wider issues of public safety such as terrorism, animal rights and other extremism and serious organised crime.
  5. Improving people’s lives so they are less likely to commit offences or re-offend.  Whilst this is mostly about drugs and Prolific and Other Priority Offenders, the charity plays a part in helping improve the security of temporary accommodation.

Partnership context

It is the Government’s policy that community safety is a matter for collaboration between central and local government and other key agencies and partners at local level.

This underlying policy also applies to Wales where it relates to non-devolved policing issues; otherwise we deal directly with the appropriate agency in the Welsh Assembly.  In Scotland we shall deal with the appropriate department in the Scottish Executive since both policing and community safety have been devolved.  The responsibility for implementing Northern Ireland’s Community Safety Strategy lies with the Criminal Justice Directorate of the Northern Ireland Office, although we tend to deal directly with community safety partnerships at local authority level.