Working Together to Make Cheshire Safer

This is the latest Blog from our Crime Commissioner, John Dwyer.

Since coming into office I have been clear on the importance of partnership working in making Cheshire even safer. An essential part of my work in this area is working with Cheshire's community safety partnerships (CSPs). We have four in Cheshire, Cheshire East, Cheshire West and Chester, Halton and Warrington. The partnerships are all led by senior officers from the local councils but include close working with partners, including the Constabulary, Fire & Rescue and probation services.

The CSPs are funded by a range of means, including a contribution from my budget. Prior to being allocated from my Office, this funding was ring fenced through what was called a Crime and Disorder Grant. Whilst, this is no longer the case I have decided during each year in office to at least maintain my contribution to community safety funding in Cheshire. The aim is to prevent people in our community becoming victims of crime. I provide the funding against a set of outcomes that I expect the CSPs to achieve through the funding, for example, a reduction in anti-social behaviour or reoffending..

During my meeting with the CSPs last week, the Chairs were able to report positive performance. They detailed reductions in crime and anti-social behaviour across the partnerships. It was also very positive to hear that through our work together, specialist support for victims of domestic abuse, for example independent domestic violence advocates being placed in key locations such as hospitals, is resulting in victims feeling more confident in reporting abusive incidents to the police. The result is that more victims of abuse are able to access the support they need to feel safe and recover from the effects of abuse and the police are able to identify abusers and bring them to justice.

The positive progress of the CSPs against the outcome measures I have set, has enabled me to maintain my contribution to their funding for 2015/16. This represents over £800,000 of funding across the four CSPs.

Community safety is a key priority within my Police and Crime Plan and work will continue to make our community the safest it has ever been.

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