Executive Summary
Changing Landscape
Partnership working has contributed to a sustained fall in crime over the past ten years. However, the landscape in which Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships (CDRPs) in England and Community Safety Partnerships (CSPs) in Wales deliver has changed considerably since legislation was first introduced in the Crime and Disorder Act 1998. Working with stakeholders, we carried out a formal review of the partnership provisions of that Act. The suggested improvements were reflected in the Police and Justice Act 2006 and in subsequent regulations, which came into force on 1 August 2007 in England and in November 2007 in Wales.
Hallmarks of Effective Partnerships
These new statutory requirements form part of the Hallmarks of Effective Partnerships, which have been informed and influenced by our stakeholders. These represent the key aspects of partnership working that underpin effective delivery through partnerships. Partnerships can use them to check their own effectiveness and to identify areas for improvement. The six Hallmarks of Effective Partnerships are:
- Empowered and Effective Leadership.
- Visible and Constructive Accountability.
- Intelligence-led Business Processes.
- Effective and Responsive Delivery Structures.
- Engaged Communities.
- Appropriate Skills and Knowledge.
Each Hallmark comprises two elements:
- New statutory elements for partnership working.
- Suggested practice to achieve increased effective partnership, using the statutory requirements as a foundation.
Guidance for Partnerships
Beyond the statutory requirements, partnerships have the flexibility to deliver in their own way. The guidance provides suggested practice and case studies to support partnerships as they find ways to implement the regulations and embed the Hallmarks in their work. Partnerships are also encouraged to use an implementation checklist to assist in their own implementation of the statutory requirements and Hallmarks. Throughout each section, we emphasise the importance of appropriate skills and knowledge, so that partners are aware of the need to ensure that those who work for them have the capacity and capability to support delivery.
The guidance is structured around the key aspects of partnership business:
Lead and guide
This section covers:
- Which agencies need to be represented and by whom to ensure that there is strong leadership across the partnership.
- Governance within the partnership.
- County-level structures in two-tier areas and how they relate to other partnerships such as Local Strategic Partnerships.
- Establishing protocols for sharing information and other processes.
- Accountability to local communities through face the people sessions.
Assess
This section covers:
- Sharing information for analysis, including the new duty to share certain sets of depersonalised information.
- The importance of involving community concerns and priorities as part of the strategic assessment.
- Links to the National Intelligence Model.
- Conducting annual strategic assessments to identify local issues.
- Identifying county-wide priorities and opportunities for cross-border working across partnerships.
Plan
This section covers:
- Preparation of the three year partnership plan, which is to be refreshed annually (in line with requirements for Local Area Agreements in England).
- The importance of performance frameworks.
- Consideration of resources for delivering within the partnership.
- Publication of a summary of the plan for the community to support improved visibility and accountability, highlighting links to other requirements, such as the publication of the Local Policing Summary.
Deliver
This section covers:
- Setting up structures to deliver priorities identified through the plan.
- Problem-solving processes within delivery to ensure the implementation of effective solutions to identified priorities.
- The importance of performance frameworks to monitor delivery.
- Evaluating individual projects and the delivery of the partnership plan.
We expect partnerships to follow the advice set out in the guidance. It is grounded in effective practice, rather than being statutory guidance, and various stakeholder organisations have contributed to its development. We will update the guidance online on a regular basis, refreshing case studies as further good practice emerges. This will ensure that we keep the guidance current and relevant to provide effective support to partnerships.
The guidance and the Hallmarks will support increased effectiveness among partnerships and enable them to be high performing, responsive and accountable to their communities.
