Archived decisions

Contact : Jill Lovelock, Corporate Policy Manager, Ext 7591

1. Summary

1.1. This report recommends that in support of its statutory duty under the Crime & Disorder Act 1998 the County Council contributes £5000 to each local community safety audit undertaken in 2004 provided that other statutory partners also contribute.

2. Background

2.1. The Crime and Disorder Act 1998 imposed a statutory duty on the County Council to work in partnership with Districts and the police to set up community safety partnerships (sometimes called crime and disorder reduction partnerships) at District level. Subsequently Fire & Rescue and PCTs have been designated statutory partners.

2.2. The partnerships were charged with conducting a local crime audit, consulting on it, preparing a community safety strategy, implementing and monitoring it. The strategies have a 3 year life, and the second set of strategies, 2002 - 2005, are coming into their final year. The partnerships are now starting to prepare for the next round of audits and strategies to run from 2005 - 2008.

2.3. The County Council has engaged as a statutory partner with all 11 local partnerships since the Act came into force in 1998. Members have been nominated to each partnership and there is a senior manager acting as a corporate `link' officer for each partnership, whose responsibility it is to make sure County issues are fed into the local community safety work and that County services are involved as appropriate in implementing local strategies.

2.4. The County Council has taken the view that in implementing local strategies County mainstream services have an important part to play. Priorities in local strategies have included facilities for young people, drug and alcohol abuse, school attendance, dealing with young offenders, all of which have clear links to and implications for County services.

3. Audit 2004

3.1. The cycle of audits, consultation and strategies runs over 3 years and the second cycle (2002-2005) since the partnerships were set up is coming into its final year. While the County Council does not make revenue contributions to implementing the local strategies because its contribution is through mainstream services, on both previous occasions when audits were undertaken, in 1998 and 2001, the County Council made a financial contribution to the audit process.

3.2. Partnerships are now asking if the County Council as a statutory partner will contribute financially to 2004 audits. On the basis of previous audits and in view of the County Council's role as statutory partner it is recommended that the County Council contributes to all 11 local crime audits. However, this should be on the understanding that all statutory partners contribute. There are now 5 statutory partners (County Council, District Council, police, Fire & Rescue, PCT)

3.3. The costs are likely to be of the order of £25,000 per partnership for the audits, which would mean a contribution of £5000 per statutory partner. The County Council provided a contribution to the previous round of community safety audits at a similar level, funded from the Policy and Resources budget. The funding was transferred in the following year to the budget for grants to voluntary organisations and it is therefore proposed that the budget for this programme be established by means of a one year transfer from the grants to voluntary organizations budget. The budget proposals for 2004/05 identify additional funding for grants to voluntary organisations to compensate for this budget transfer.

RECOMMENDATION:

That the Executive Member for Policy & Resources allocates £5000 per local community safety partnership in 2004 as a contribution to the crime audits provided other statutory partners also make a contribution.

Section 100 D - Local Government Act 1972 - background papers

The following documents disclose facts or matters on which this report, or an important part of it, is based and has been relied upon to a material extent in the preparation of this report.

NB the list excludes:

1. Published works

2. Documents which disclose exempt or confidential information as defined in the Act.

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