Terms of Reference
Purpose
The purpose of the Community Safety Partnership is to bring together local partners to formulate strategies to tackle crime, disorder and anti-social behaviour in their communities as set out in the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 and relevant legislation. The Partnership will coordinate community safety activity in Castle Point and Rochford at a strategic level with the aim of:
- Reducing anti-social behaviour (ASB) and the negative impact it has on quality of life and the local environment
- Reduce crime and the harm caused by drug and alcohol use
- Address risk threat and harm posed by crime and ASB to victims and local communities
- Create stronger communities through the delivery of local initiatives.
Key Areas of responsibility
The Community Safety Partnership will:
- Oversee the development and review of the annual Partnership Plan.
- Publish a Community Safety Strategy, setting out the Partnership’s priorities for tackling crime and disorder and approaches to be taken in meeting agreed objectives.
- Monitoring and measuring the overall performance of the Castle Point and Rochford District CSP and reporting to the LSP Executive Group on progress.
- To set up Task and Finish Groups as and when deemed necessary, in order to address emerging priorities across the two areas.
- Commission appropriate services in direct response to our identified Strategic priorities and manage the allocated Police Fire and Crime Commissioner grant in accordance with the local government financial procedures.
- Monitor performance against agreed community safety priorities set at a local level.
- Developing and performance managing the SMART action plans, which underpin the Partnership Plan and holding responsible bodies to account.
- Develop strong links with and between local agencies and organisations within the statutory and voluntary sector to assist in the local delivery of priorities.
- Hold statutory partners to account under s.17 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 for access to and use of resources and expertise needed for community safety activity.
- Be aware and sighted of emerging issues and threats in Castle Point and Rochford and instigate actions to mitigate against them.
- Ensure that statutory guidance and good practice in respect of approaches to dealing with certain types of crime including Domestic Abuse, Modern Slavery, Serious Organised Crime is adopted and regard for safeguarding responsibilities is maintained.
Statutory Duties
Annual Partnership Strategic Assessment
Complete an annual audit of crime and disorder, collating data from across partner agencies to assist in the early identification of community safety trends, providing baselines for which performance can be monitored.
Community Safety Strategy
Produce a Community Safety Strategy informed by the finding of the Strategic Assessment and outcomes of a public consultation. The Strategy will be reviewed on an annual basis to take account of changing circumstances and enable the Partnership to respond effectively to those changes.
Community Consultation
To develop effective community consultation and feedback reporting mechanisms to ensure that work towards delivering the Strategy remains responsive to local needs.
Membership
The membership of the Castle Point and Rochford Community Safety Partnership will be:
Core
- Essex Police South Local Policing Area (LPA) (Castle Point and Rochford District)
- Castle Point Borough Council Terms of Reference
- Rochford District Council
- Essex County Fire and Rescue Service
- National Probation Service / Essex CRC
- Essex County Council
- NHS Mid and South Essex Integrated Care Board - South East Essex Alliance
A member from each of the key statutory partners should regularly attend and participate at Steering Group meetings and feedback to their own organisations.
Co-opted partners
- Chair of the Community Development Partnership (Representative of Voluntary/Third Sector)
- Youth Offending Service
- Joint Local Strategic Partnership (JLSP)
- RDC and CPBC Portfolio Holders with responsibility for Community Safety
- Rayleigh Town Council & Canvey Town Council
- Representative of Neighbourhood Watch
A member from each of the co-opted partners should regularly attend and participate at Steering Group meetings and feedback to their own organisations:
Other members
Other community safety partners, such as Police and Crime Commissioner, Neighbourhood Watch, British Transport Police and others who may be able to contribute to collaborative work to address specific community safety issues, will be invited to attend the meeting as appropriate. Individuals with specialist knowledge or experience may be invited to attend meetings without the requirement to attend regularly.
In line with the Castle Point and Rochford Joint Local Strategic Partnership Governance Procedures the CSP will formally review the full membership of its Partnership at least every two years and in addition will annually review both the Chairman and Vice-Chairmanships.
Governance arrangements
Co-Chairmanship
The Co-Chairs of the Partnership will be the elected Member for Castle Point and the elected Member for Rochford holding community safety in their portfolio or delegated to them for 12 months.
Decision making
Decisions will be made in a democratic manner with all statutory partners equal. Each core member will have one vote. If there are equal numbers of votes for a recommendation or decision, then the Chair will have a second or casting vote. Other attendees do not have voting rights.
Frequency of Meetings
Partnership meetings will be held four times a year and will offer the option of being attended remotely. Should an urgent and serious need arise, an extraordinary meeting of the Partnership may be called by any of the core members of the Partnership.
Agenda setting and Administration
At the meetings of the Castle Point and Rochford Community Safety Partnership will determine whether there are specific items that will need to be included as standing items on each Agenda (which may be revised at subsequent meetings by majority agreement). All core partners may request a particular issue to be itemised on a forthcoming Agenda.
A CSP Executive Group (Core Group Members) will meet (or consult with each other remotely) in advance of CSP meeting to agree the Agenda. This will also serve as an opportunity to consider any new/merging priorities of which the wider Partnership should be made aware. This Group will comprise the Lead Officers for Community Safety, the Elected Members and Council officers as appropriate. Other statutory partner representatives may be invited or will be welcome to attend an Executive Group meeting if a specific issue has arisen that will make their participation beneficial. The Executive Group will have delegated authority to take a decision on behalf of the Partnership (in consultation with relevant core partners) in the event of a needing to resolve a resource implication or if a major change in partnership activity is required that needs to be resolved more promptly than the quarterly meeting cycle would allow.
Meetings will be held in Castle Point and Rochford alternately. The meeting will be administered by Castle Point when the meeting is being held in their borough and by Rochford when in their district. Agenda papers will be circulated to attendees no less than 5 working days prior to the date of the meeting.
Accountability
Castle Point and Rochford Partnership will publish its Community Safety Strategy publicly on the relevant areas/Council’s website. Findings of the public consultation and details of key activity will also be published together with details of changing priorities.