Erewash Community Safety Partnership Plan 2020-2023
Refreshed April 2021
A lot has changed since our last plan was developed in 2017, both at a local and national level. The challenges around understanding and preventing the crime and anti-social behaviour faced by society and our partner organisations have evolved significantly, and continue to do so including a number of emerging work streams. Alongside this, the pressures on strategic partners means that we must focus limited resources to best effect, and the need for us to work together to deliver the best response has never been more important.
The COVID-19 pandemic has shaken everyone to the core, and challenged us in ways that we could not have imagined. In community safety, adaptation has been key, with some areas of work and crime types reducing significantly, yet others seeing large increases or changes, as communities have responded to the restrictions. Despite the darkness, there has been an inspiring light in Erewash which has seen communities and organisations supporting each other and coming together to celebrate achievement.
Our strategic priorities remain the same for this coming year, alongside any necessary changes to delivery, as we wait to understand how the next 12 months will progress. Our partners are committed, and with your support we can make a difference together.
Councillor Carol Hart
Chair, Erewash Community Safety Partnership
The Partnership
The Crime & Disorder Act (1998) first introduced partnerships designed to tackle local crime and disorder concerns. This provided a statutory responsibility for a Community Safety Partnership (CSP) to be formed at each district or borough council, linked into a County-wide structure. The Act designated certain organisations as ‘responsible authorities’ and required them to come together as the local CSP. The amendments also gave the CSP a responsibility to produce a local Annual Strategic Intelligence Assessment used to inform a three-year Partnership Plan.
Since then, responsibilities and areas of business have been amended in legislation, including a key change in 2012 with the election of Police and Crime Commissioners (PCC). Whilst the PCC and their office are not a responsible authority, they are a key stakeholder in the community safety arena.
Despite all of the changes since 1998, the principles of working together to achieve greater things remains at the heart of the approach of community safety.
Core Business
The partnership has a number of work streams that form the core business of the partnership, with some underpinned by statutory responsibilities. These are:
Anti-social behaviour
The CSP has a duty to consider anti-social behaviour (ASB) in the locality under the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 and Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003.
In 2014, the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act combined the existing tools and powers and created simpler, more effective powers to tackle ASB. Updated Home Office Statutory Guidance released in January 2021, has brought further clarity around the use of the tools and powers introduced.
The Act also introduced protections for victims and communities including the ability to invoke Community Triggers to give residents a greater voice in how agencies respond to complaints. The table below shows how many community trigger applications were received in 2020-21:
| Outcome | Numbers met |
|---|---|
|
Number of Community Trigger Applications received | 2 |
|
Number of applications that did not meet the threshold | 2 |
|
Number of ASB Case Reviews conducted | 0 |
|
Number of ASB Case Reviews where recommendation were made | 0 |
|
Number of Community Trigger appeals received | 0 |
Counter Terrorism and extremism
The Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015 (and subsequent amendments in 2019) places a Prevent Duty on specified authorities to have due regard to the need to prevent people being drawn into extremism and terrorism. Those specified authorities under the Act include the responsible authorities of the CSP.
The updated Channel Guidance has been released in February 2021 and agencies are working through the changes to further strengthen the processes used to safeguard individuals at risk of becoming involved in extremism and terrorism.
Crime
The CSP supports the partnership work and provides crime prevention advice to residents to help them protect their property. A significant proportion of this advice focusses on acquisitive and personal property crime.
Work to reduce crime also includes serious violence, in particular knife crime. Following the publication of the Serious Violence Strategy, the Serious Violence Bill was announced in December 2019. The Bill proposes to amend the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 to make serious violence an explicit priority for CSPs. The new ‘public health duty’ will require the CSP, education and other relevant services to work together to share data and intelligence to address the root causes of serious violence. It places an emphasis on early intervention with young people.
Cyber and cyber-enabled crime
The use and reliance of the internet, in particular communication has changed significantly, particularly over the past 12 months, and now the majority of crime and ASB includes an element of cyber-enabled behaviour. This is changing how organisations respond to other areas of work and crime, and adding an additional level of complexity. There is a need to continue preventative work and provide up-to-date information on how individuals can keep themselves safe.
Children at risk of exploitation
The work around the exploitation of children has seen a shift over recent years, and now includes criminal as well as sexual exploitation. Derbyshire has introduced a new structure to consider those at risk of this behaviour, and locally this sees partners come together regularly to manage and disrupt cases. This has impacted upon the work of other risk and threat areas.
Domestic Abuse
In January 2019, the Government published its draft Domestic Abuse Bill and although not yet enacted, the proposed changes aim to improve the response to domestic abuse. There is also a requirement for CSPs to conduct Domestic Homicide Reviews under the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004. This duty has been delegated to the Derbyshire Safer Communities Board, with the County Council leading on their co-ordination. A local protocol and joint funding arrangement is in place, recently updated, to support the delivery.
Modern slavery and exploitation
The Modern Slavery Act 2015; Section 52 (A duty to notify) requires specified public authorities who have reasonable grounds to believe that a person may be a victim of slavery or human trafficking to notify the Home Office. Locally, the sharing of information and intelligence allows organisations to respond appropriately to concerns.
Organised crime
Organised crime is already considered across a number of areas of business including acquisitive crime and cyber-crime. More recently, the focus has shifted to county lines, where vulnerable individuals are exploited. This requires a co-ordinated, partnership approach to utilise all tools and powers available and support those involved.
Protecting vulnerable people
Between 2014 and 2019 a range of legislation was introduced to provide authorities with additional tools, powers and duties to tackle safeguarding of individuals. This included the Care Act 2014, Psychoactive Substances Act 2016, and Serious Crime Act 2015. These required new reporting, referral and decision-making mechanisms, staff awareness requirements and impacts on the everyday work of relevant organisations.
More recently, the Children and Social Work Act 2017 and subsequent statutory guidance ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children 2018’ detailed changes to inter-agency working to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. This legislation intrinsically links the work of CSP’s with that of other Derbyshire strategic partnerships. Work has been undertaken to clarify governance arrangements between the boards and to facilitate effective joint working at a local level.
Reducing Reoffending
Policing and Crime Act 2009 (as amended in 2012) formalised probation services as a responsible authority on CSPs and provided a new duty for CSPs to publish a strategy designed to tackle reoffending in adults and young people. In Derbyshire, this is done at a county-wide level, with operational partnership structures in place at a local level. The Government have announced a restructure of probation services, which will come into effect in 2021.
Substance misuse
The CSP has a statutory duty to consider substance misuse and recognises that this impacts upon communities in a range of ways. This is both directly through those using drugs or alcohol and their behaviour, or those involved in crime to fund substance misuse. Locally, this area of work impacts on a range of business areas including licensing, ASB and crime and is managed strategically across the county, but also through local partnership meetings.
Delivery structures and priorities
Partners in Erewash and across Derbyshire are committed to working together to address community safety matters. Over recent years, partnership working has evolved, particularly in response to challenges faced around budgets and officer numbers. This, combined with the fast-paced evolution of crime, ASB and public expectation, has changed the arena in which CSPs operate.
Since the last Erewash CSP Plan in 2017, the areas of business continue to expand and change as intelligence and understanding around the risk and threat of each area grows. At a county level, the Safer Communities Board has conducted a significant review of partnership structures including strategic and county-wide delivery groups. This has also clarified governance arrangements between the other strategic boards within Derbyshire including the Local Criminal and Justice Board, the Safeguarding Children’s Partnership and the Safeguarding Adults Board that sit across Derby City and Derbyshire.
This has been mirrored at a local level, with delivery structures changing to ensure that operational arrangements partners are working in the most effective and efficient way. The aim remains the same; to achieve the greatest impact on each priority and area of business, with partnership working at the heart of the approach.
During the planning and preparation of this plan, a new assessment tool has been utilised in partnership both at a county level and also locally; Management of Risk in Law Enforcement (MORiLE). This has supported the risk and threat identification alongside the data within the Derbyshire Strategic Intelligence Assessment for 2020.
This plan has taken into consideration the Police & Crime Commissioner’s Police and Crime Plan 2016-2021 and the Derbyshire Community Safety Agreement 2020-2023.
There will be three priorities that Erewash CSP will focus on for 2020-2023, incorporating the different work streams. These will be:
- Anti-social behaviour
Including work on anti-social behaviour, children at risk of exploitation and diversionary activities.
- Organised crime
Including work on acquisitive crime, exploitation, county lines and modern slavery.
- Protecting vulnerable individuals (children and adults)
Including work on crime prevention, counter terrorism & extremism, domestic and sexual abuse and serious violence.
It has been identified that in the consideration of these priorities, the CSP will need to look at whether there is a cyber-enabled or mental health aspect.
From this work, there is a clear vision in Erewash that the delivery against the priorities needs to focus on:
- Prevention and early intervention
- Education and diversion
- Enforcement
- Data and information sharing
Work to make Erewash communities safer has been ongoing for over 20 years and it is recognised that the partnership starts from a strong position, with a desire to improve together.
If you want to know any more about the work of Erewash Community Safety
Partnership, please contact the team on:
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Phone: 0115 907 2244
Facebook: @SaferErewash