The Government is clear that everyone in this country should have the security and confidence that comes from having a safe street and a safe home.
This is central to the Government’s levelling up mission.
The Government’s strategic approach to cutting crime and antisocial behaviour (ASB), reducing the number of victims of crime, and making the country safer is set out in the ‘Beating Crime Plan’ and the recently launched ‘Anti-Social Behaviour Action Plan’.
The Beating Crime Plan shows how the government will focus efforts on ‘hotspot’ areas where crime is disproportionately concentrated; the Safer Streets Fund forms a key part of this approach in supporting local areas.
The Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner has been successful in securing funds from all previous Safer Streets Fund Rounds (previous decision records can be accessed here – Safer Streets 1, Safer Streets 2, Safer Streets 3, Safer Streets 4).
Safer Streets Fund – Round 5 launched in July 2023 has an allocated budget across the country of £43m.
It will run for an 18-month period from 1 October 2023 – 31 March 2025.
The aim of round 5 is to reduce levels of Neighbourhood Crime, Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG), and AntiSocial Behaviour significantly in disproportionately and persistently affected areas, and develop the evidence base to inform future investment and commissioning decisions.
Through this new round of funding, learning from previous rounds is being used to help ensure it is possible to evidence impact against the fund’s objectives.
As such, interventions in scope of funding are focused on those that there is evidence of positive outcomes through the evaluation of previous rounds.
For the first time funding is being directly awarded to Police and Crime Commissioners (PCC) as opposed to competed.
However, PCCs are still required to submit funding proposals to confirm they meet the requirements of the fund.
Each PCC is being allocated £1m of funding over an 18-month period . This is up to £465,000 in financial year 2023/24 (from 1 October 2023 which must be spent by 31 March 2024.)
The sum is up to £535,000 in financial year 2024/25 (to spend between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025).
The Home Office have indicated that a maximum of three proposals per PCC area can be submitted with the minimum budget per proposal bring £200,000 with £500,000 being the upper limit.
Together with local partners, as part of the development of funding proposals, the OPCC conducted some analytical work to understand and identify the areas most affected by the crime/issue types in scope across Cleveland. This resulted in the three areas below being identified with the proposed interventions and deliverables submitted to the Home Office for consideration:
Middlesbrough – Central and Longlands/ Beechwood Wards (Proposal 1) with a focus on Neighbourhood Crime and Anti-Social Behaviour
Total funded requested: Up to £330,720
2023/24 – Up to £152,100
2024/25 – Up to £178,620
Funding will be allocated as below:
Middlesbrough Council – £278,800
Cleveland Police – £26,920
OPCC retains (communications) – £20,000
Community First (Target Hardening Installation) – £5,000
Outputs of this funding will include:
- Physical home security measures
- Safer Streets Officer to tackle Anti-Social Behaviour
- Environmental Interventions
- Additional CCTV and Refuge Points
- Communications Campaigns Professional Witness Service
Stockton – Town Centre and Ropner Wards (Proposal 2) with a focus on Neighbourhood Crime, Anti-Social Behaviour and Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG)
Total funding requested: Up to £329,720
2023/24 – Up to £154,410
2024/25 – Up to £175,310
Funding will be allocated as below:
Stockton Council – Up to £123,500
Cleveland Police – Up to £107,220
A Way Out – £15,000
Empowering Women – £84,000.
Outputs of the funding will include:
- Improved CCTV and street lighting
- Environmental target hardening activity
- Community / residents target hardening
- Educational programme focussing on attitudinal and behavioural change for women to improve understanding and confidence in preventing and responding to VAWG and empowering women to enable change
- Education and support programme with sex workers
Hartlepool – Victoria Ward (Proposal 3) with a focus on Neighbourhood Crime and Anti-Social Behaviour
Total Funding Requested: Up to £333,333
2023/24 – Up to £155,000
2024/25 – Up to £178,333
Hartlepool Council will be awarded up to the full allocation of funding with the outputs including:
- Target Hardening packs for properties in the area and the securing of void properties
- Alley gate improvements
- Additional CCTV and improvements to street lighting
- Community Cohesion Officer to undertake community engagement, development, and capacity building. This will encourage the local community to take ownership of their area, encourage reporting of crime to the police / council, and establish Neighbourhood Watch Schemes
- Environmental Project Officer to gather information and intelligence, investigate environmental Crime and ASB, undertake alley gate checks and environmental enforcement activity.
The remaining £6,227 will split across each of the 3 bids and contribute to the internal costs incurred within the OPCC.
Decision 23/24 – 0014: Safer Streets Fund – Round 5 (application, 208kB)