Community Safety

The Government Office for the South East is responsible for the delivery of the National Drug Strategy, the Crime Strategy, the National Alcohol Strategy and Crime & Disorder Reduction Partnership reform in the region. We work closely with the 66 Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships (CDRPs) and the 19 Drug & Alcohol Action Teams (DAATs) in the region and provide a link between them and central government.

We work with our partners and the public on a national and local level to:

• help people feel secure in their homes and communities
• cut crime, especially violent crime, and crime related to drugs and alcohol
• support the efficient and effective delivery of justice

CDRPs and DAATs are responsible for reducing crime, the fear of crime and anti social behaviour, and tackling the misuse of drugs and alcohol in local areas. We support them in the delivery of this by ensuring that they have access to:

• possible additional financial support
• a wide range of information in the form of newsletters, websites and briefing documents
• training opportunities, conferences and seminars
• one-to-one support to assist them to be more effective and inclusive and to improve their performance

Delivery Drivers

The focus of GOSE’s work to reduce crime and disorder and tackle the misuse of drugs is driven by key national strategies and action plans. GOSE develop a regional perspective on national policy to ensure effective implementation of this policy in the south east.

National Drug Strategy

The Drug Strategy aims to reduce the harm that drugs cause to society: to communities, individuals and their families.

The Drug Strategy is a cross-Government programme of policies and interventions that concentrate on the most dangerous drugs, the most damaged communities and problematic drug users. The strategy comprises four strands of work

• preventing young people from becoming drug misusers
• reducing the supply of illegal drugs
• increasing the number of individuals accessing effective drug treatment
• and reducing drug-related crime

The new Drug Strategy was published on 27th March 2008.

Cutting Crime A New Partnership 2008-11

In July 2007, the government published Cutting Crime: A New Partnership 2008-11 which described a fresh approach to tackling crime and increasing community safety. This set the overarching strategic framework for crime and community safety from 2008/09 to 2010/11. This was followed in October by a new set of public service agreements (PSAs), which set out the government's high-level objectives.

The crime strategy identifies a number of key areas for focus over the period 2008-11. These include a focus on reducing more serious violence, continuing to reduce serious acquisitive crime and tackling ASB to bring all areas of the country up to the standard of the best in tackling this type of disorder. Further efforts to reduce re-offending, design out crime and a renewed focus on young people are also included.

National Community Safety Plan 2008-11

A revised National Community Safety Plan 2008-11 has now been published. The plan has been refreshed to reflect the new vision and objectives outlined in the new Crime Strategy. This does not mean a radical shift in direction – there is a strong continuity between the six themes of the previous National Community Safety Plan 2006-2009 and the community safety priorities set out in the new set of Public Service Agreements (PSAs).

However, there is some shift in emphasis, for example:

• a stronger focus on more serious violence
• greater flexibility for local partners to deliver local priorities
• a specific outcome to increase community confidence
• the need to reflect the increased threat to communities posed by violent extremists.

Public Service Agreements

Public Service Agreements (PSAs) set out the Government's key priorities for the next three years (2008-11).  There are four PSAs which link directly to community safety issues.

PSA Delivery Agreement 23: Make Communities Safer

This aims to build on the significant reductions in crime that have been achieved over the last ten years; with a new focus on reducing harm and making local agencies accountable for identifying and addressing local priorities for crime and disorder.  There are four priority actions within this PSA:

• Priority Action 1: Reduce the most serious violence, including tackling serious sexual offences and domestic violence
• Priority Action 2: Continue to make progress on serious acquisitive crime through a focus on the issues of greatest priority in each locality and the most harmful offenders - particularly drug-misusing offenders
• Priority Action 3: Tackle the crime, disorder and anti-social behaviour issues of greatest importance to each locality, increasing public confidence in the local agencies involved in dealing with these issues
• Priority Action 4: Reduce re-offending through improved management of offenders

PSA Delivery Agreement 24: Deliver a more effective, transparent and responsive Criminal Justice System for victims and the public

Again, this aims to build on recent successes to support the Crime Strategy.  It aims to ensure that the criminal justice system is one which is victim focused and in which the public engage and are confident.  There are five priority actions within this PSA:

• Priority Action 1: Increase the efficiency and effectiveness of hte criminal justice system in bringing offences to justice
• Priority Action 2: To increase the levels of public confidence in the fairness and effectiveness of the Criminal Justice System (CJS)
• Priority Action 3: To increase the proportion of victims and witnesses that are satisfied with the way that they are treated by the CJS
• Priority Action 4: Better identify and explain race disproportionality at key points within the CJS and have strategies in place to address racial disparities which cannot be explained or objectively justified
• Priority Action 5: Reduce the harm caused by crime by increasing the quantity of criminal assets recovered

PSA Delivery Agreement 25: Reduce the harm caused by alcohol and drugs

The PSA intends to produce a long-term and sustainable reduction in the harms associated with alcohol and drugs.  The key actions include:

• Public health campaigns and education to raise awareness of harms associated with alcohol and drug use
• A focus on addressing substance misuse amongst young people
• A new focus on supporting families most at risk, where there are multiple problems, often including parental substance misuse
• Helping people who use illegal drugs or drink harmfully to live healthier lives
• Tackling crime and the key drivers of offending, reducing crime and disorder related to alcohol and drugs and tackling the supply of drugs and irresponsible sale or promotion of alcohol.

There are other PSAs that have links to the effective delivery of community safety.  These are:

PSA 14

PSA 16

Delivering Safer Communities: A guide to effective partnership working

This guidance will support partnerships in delivering the National Standards. There are examples of good practice throughout the document which show how partnerships are already meeting the National Standards. This document provides guidance on how to ensure that partnership working is meeting the six hallmarks of effective practice. For more information please see our Partnership standards page.

Government Office for the South East's Community Safety E-forum

Further information on Community Safety issues can be found on our e-forum which is updated weekly to alert our stakeholders to: the latest news; forthcoming events; developments or changes in policy or procedure, and any other related community safety issues.