Partnerships (Mini-site)

Mini-sites

Partnerships Mini-site

Welcome to the CDRP mini-site dedicated to the work of Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships (CDRPs), also known as Community Safety Partnerships (CSPs) in Wales. It aims to provides information and resources to help practitioners involved in, or working with, partnerships to make them the most effective possible vehicle for tackling crime, anti-social behaviour, behaviour that adversely affects the local environment and substance misuse (including drugs & alcohol) at a local level.

What are CDRPs?

CDRP Reform – Latest News

Information Sharing Code now available

The Information Commissioner has released the Information Sharing Code which gives practical advice and guidance on the sharing of information.  Please click on the link for the Code PDF 230Kb

 

Welsh Language Version of “Delivering Community Safety: A guide to effective partnership working” now available online

Please click on the link for the Welsh language version of the guidance document for partnerships.  PDF 3.1Mb LARGE FILE! Please note that this large file may take several minutes to download.

 

Strategic Assessment Toolkit for CDRPs/CSPs now available on line

‘Developing a Strategic Assessment: An effective practice toolkit for Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships and Community Safety Partnerships’ can be accessed now. This guidance will provide additional information for practitioners on how to develop a strategic assessment.

Strategic Assessments: suggested outline of content for a partnership strategic assessment

Following the publication of ‘Delivering Safer Communities: A guide to effective partnership working’, the Home Office has received requests for further information on strategic assessments for partnerships. The guidance gives a lot of information about strategic assessements in the section entitled ‘assess’ pp 51-70. In the guidance, it is explicitly stated that each partnership will develop a strategic assessment according to their local requirements and that this may differ from place to place. However, many practitioners have requested an outline of what such a document may look like in order to frame their thinking. We have therefore drafted a suggested outline for a partnership strategic assessment which you can find below. The outline can be used as a discussion in your partnership about the content of the strategic assessment or could for the basis for the content of the strategic assessment – it is for each partnership to decide how it could be most useful to them.

Practitioners are reminded that the Hallmarks are made up of two parts, statutory requirements and suggested good practice. Regardless of the format of a strategic assessment, all are required to contain the following;

a) analysis of the levels and patterns of crime and disorder and substance misuse in the area
b) an analysis of the changes in those levels and patterns since the previous report
c) an analysis of why the patterns have changed
d) the matters that the responsible authorities should prioritise in their work
e) the matters which people living or working in the area consider should be prioritised to combat crime and disorder and substance misuse
f)  an assessment of the extent to which the previous partnership plan had been implemented
g) the matters which should be brought to the attention of a county strategic group where one exists.

Please click for the suggested outline PDF 28Kb

We would welcome feedback or any comments that you may have on the outline. Please send comments to [email protected]

In addition to the outline, a strategic assessment toolkit will be published shortly giving further details to assist partnerships in the production of a strategic assessment that meets all statutory requirements, and takes into account known best practice.

 

National Standards Guidance for CDRPs/CSPs now available online

“Delivering Community Safety: A guide to effective partnership working” can be accessed now. 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. We have also drafted some updated Frequently Asked Questions which can be viewed below.

If you have any comments or queries on the Guidance and National Standards as well as the wider CDRP Reform Programme please email them to [email protected]

In Wales, the draft legislation will soon be issued for a short consultation and will be available on the Welsh Assembly Government’s website at http://new.wales.gov.uk/topics/housingandcommunity/safety/?lang=en. Following consultation, it is intended that the legislation will be introduced in the Autumn.

In addition, you can find out more about delivering PSA1, including work with the 44 priority CDRPs and Partnership Support Programmes at http://www.crimereduction.homeoffice.gov.uk/psa1/weeksofaction000.htm

 

Legislative Changes

The new national minimum standards regulations and information sharing regulations commenced on 1 August 2007. You can view these regulations and the explanatory memorandum, setting out their intended purpose at:

You can also download the National Incident Category List which is referred to in the regulations PDF 539Kb

 

Other recent changes:

From 31 July 2007:

  • The previously seperate Dartford and Gravesham CDRP areas will be merged to form a single Dartford & Gravesham CDRP. This is the fourth such merger. Click here for a table of CDRP mergers Word 26Kb
  • Registered Social Landlords will be co-operating bodies with the repsonsible authorities of CDRPs
  • The Environment Agency will become an invitee to participate with the responsible authorities in their functions on the CDRP

CDRP Reform Programme – Background

The CDRP Reform Programme builds on the previous work undertaken through the Review of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 and often referred to as the CDA Review. However, we now describe it as the CDRP Reform Programme to underline that the aim is to reform the approach taken by the Home Office to support improved effectiveness and local delivery by CDRPs/CSPs.

The Police and Justice Act 2006 took forward the proposals arising from the CDA Review and introduced some important changes to what we ask of CDRPs, most of which will be introduced in the summer of 2007.

On commencement on the 1st August 2
007, Schedule 9(3) of the Police and Justice Act 2006 repealed two main duties on CDRPs:

  • The duty to produce three yearly audits and strategies – 2005/08 will be the last audit and strategy in the current format;
  • The duty to report annually to the Secretary of State in England or Wales on a partnership’s work and progress.

The Police and Justice Act includes some new duties on CDRPs. These were commenced on the 1st August 2007.

  • Schedule 9(4) of the Police and Justice Act 2006 increases the scope of Section 17 of the 1998 Act (the ‘mainstreaming’ crime reduction requirement) to include anti-social behaviour, substance misuse and behaviour that adversely affects the environment.
  • Section 115 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 gave partners (the responsible authorities and probation committees) the power to share information for the purposes of reducing crime and disorder. Schedule 9(5) of the Police and Justice Act strengthens this by introducing a new duty on the same agencies. This duty (Section 17A) will require these agencies to share depersonalised data, already held in a depersonalised format, for the purposes of reducing crime and disorder. We believe that this will enable partnerships to address some of the problems that they had experienced previously in sharing information. Regulations will specify the minimum data sets that CDRPs will be legally obliged to share and may give details of when they are to be shared and in what form. These regulations are currently being worked on in close consultation with stakeholders and will be commenced by summer 2007.
  • Schedule 9(3) also enables the Home Secretary to introduce regulations regarding the working of CDRPs. These are in the form of a framework of National Standards which came into force on the 1st August 2007.

National Standards for CDRPs/CSPs

As part of the work of the CDRP Reform Programme we introduced a set of regulations that established a framework of minimum standards for partnership working based on the six ‘hallmarks’ of an effective partnership framed around an obligation on the CDRP to formulate and implement a strategy to address the crime, disorder and substance misuse issues in their area. These factors were developed during the stakeholder events over the summer of 2006 as the principal factors that will support all CDRPs improve performance They are as follows :-

  1. Empowered and effective leadership
  2. Intelligence-led business processes
  3. Effective and responsive delivery structures
  4. Community engagement
  5. Visible and constructive accountability
  6. Appropriate skills and knowledge

We have issued guidance on each area and this can be viewed on the website. The guidance provides good practice examples and covers other related matters

The National Standards for CDRPs and the new duty to share depersonalised information commenced on the 1st August 2007 and the guidance is now available. The introduction of Crime & Disorder Overview and Scrutiny Committees has been paused on as we await the findings of the Flanagan Review on Policing.

 

Stakeholder Event Background

There were 10 Regional Stakeholder Events in England in June and July 2006 and 2 in Wales in September 2006 at which the views of stakeholders were collected on the various implementation options. The summaries of the feedback are below for reference. The Home Office would like to give its thanks to all those stakeholders who contributed to the consultation both at the regional events and via email.

English Summary Word 284Kb

Welsh Summary Word 288Kb

 

What are CDRPs/CSPs and what do they do?

Responsible authorities have a statutory duty to work with other local agencies and organisations to develop and implement strategies to tackle crime and disorder including anti-social and other behaviour adversely affecting the local environment as well as the misuse of drugs in their area. (s6, Crime and Disorder Act 1998 as amended by s97 & s98 Police Reform Act 2002 and s1, Clean Neighbourhoods & Environment Act 2005)

These statutory partnerships are known as Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships (CDRPs) or Community Safety Partnerships (CSPs) in Wales.

The responsible authorities as set out in s 5 Crime and Disorder Act 1998 are :

  • police
  • police authorities
  • local authorities
  • fire and rescue authorities
  • local health boards (LHBs) in Wales, and
  • primary care trusts (PCTs) in England (PCTs were added on 30 April 2004).

At present, responsible authorities are under a statutory duty to ensure that the key agencies come together to work in partnership in a CDRP/CSP, and carry out an audit of local crime, disorder and misuse of drugs every three years. Using the information arising from this audit and based on consultation with local communities they then formulate a strategy for combating crime, disorder and the misuse of drugs including substance misuse (in Wales) in the local area. The last round of audits were undertaken in 2004. Strategies were published and are being implemented from April 2005 covering the period until March 2008.

The responsible authorities are required to work in co-operation with probation boards parish councils, NHS Trusts , NHS Foundation Trusts, Proprietors of independent schools and governing bodies of an institution within the further education sector and to work closely with Drug Action Teams in two tier local authority areas and have developed integrated working arrangements in unitary authority areas. They are also expected to invite a range of local private, voluntary, other public and community groups including the public to become involved in the audit & strategies development process.

View the list of organisations that need to be working with responsible authorities.

Effective partnership working on community safety is key to sustainable and safer communities. This is why the Government undertook a review of the partnership provisions of the Crime & Disorder Act 1998. For details see above.

The Home Office also welcomes comments and suggestions about implementation solutions via email at [email protected] or by sending comments by post to:

Partnership Policy Team
PCPU
4th Floor SE
Fry Building
Home Office
2 Marsham Street
London SW1P 4DF

Or contact your local Regional Government Office/Welsh Assembly Government Crime Reduction Team if you have a specific question.

 

Relevant publications

This section contains a range of downloadable documents relevant to partnerships in one convenient location. If you cant find what you are looking for send an email to [email protected] and we will track it down.

2006

2005

2004

2003

 

Last update: Thursday, July 10, 2008