Community Safety Performance Policy

Community Safety - Performance

The new national indicator for local authorities and local authority partnerships Performance Framework for Local Authorities and Local Authority Partnerships will be the only means of measuring national priorities that have been agreed by Government. The Local Government White Paper Strong and Prosperous Communities committed to limiting these priorities as well as reducing the number of national indicators.

Included with the performance framework  are the UK government's 'top national priority outcomes for the next three financial years - 2008/09, 2009/10 and 2010/11'. These priorities are set out in 30 Public Service Agreements (PSAs). The  Stronger Communities and Better Quality of Life PSA's  form part of the suite of 30 new PSA's. They set out the key priority outcomes the Government wants to achieve in the next spending period (2008-2011) in those specific areas. 

The new PSAs) for 2008-11 commenced on 1 April 2008. The two significant community safety linked PSAs are: Making Communities Safer (PSA 23) and Reducing the Harm Caused by Drugs and Alcohol (PSA 25). Each of the new PSAs has a number of indicators through which success will be measured.

The Making Communities Safer PSA has six indicators. These are:

• The level of the most serious violent crimes; 
• The level of serious acquisitive crimes; 
• Public confidence in local agencies in tackling crime and anti social behaviour; 
• The percentage of people perceiving anti social behaviour as a problem; 
• The level of reoffending by young and adult offenders; 
• The level of serious reoffending.

There are five indicators in the Reducing the Harm Caused by Drugs and Alcohol PSA. These are:

• The number of drug users in effective treatment;
• The rate of hospital admissions for alcohol related harm;
• The rate of drug related reoffending;
• The percentage of the public who perceive drug use or dealing to be a problem;
• The percentage of people who perceive drunk or rowdy behaviour to be a problem.
  

There are a number of other PSAs which are linked to the broader issues of community safety (see below):

The key PSAs are: 

• PSA 23: Make communities safer
• PSA 24: Deliver a more effective, transparent and responsive Criminal Justice System for victims and the public 
• PSA 25: Reduce the harm caused by Alcohol and Drugs
• PSA 26: Reduce the risk to the UK and its interests overseas from international terrorism

Each of these specific PSA's will be important reference points to link national to local priorities in development of crime, disorder and combating drug misuse local agreements, projects and programmes which seek to utilise central government funding to enable their implementation.

 PSA 23 and Other Key Crime and Disorder linked PSAs

APACs (Assessments of Policing and Community Safety)

APACS has been developed by the Home Office and its community safety partners, including; the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), the Association of Police Authorities (APA), Communities and Local Government (CLG), the Audit Commission, the Local Government Association (LGA) and Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC). See APACS page on this site.

This performance framework is intended to monitor and assess the crime and community safety work of the police and their partners in England and Wales.

    UK Performance Policy Links

National Community Safety Plan 2008-11 :  This is the updated version (December 2007) of the UK plan which describes the delivery of community safety services through partnership work within a statutory framework.

Safer Scotland Scottish Executive

Web pages with policies, contact information for the 32 Scottish community safety partnerships

Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships Mini-site

Home Office site providing guidance on effective crime reduction partnerships

Home Office Circulars

This is the link to the circulars issued by the Home Office covering all aspects of its area - including crime and disorder reduction legislation and programmes of activity.

Wales - Community Safety - WLGA  

Web page from the Welsh Local Government Association