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Making the Structures Work

The legislation sets out how the essentials of governance at district/unitary and county level can be delivered. However, establishing leadership structures and links with other bodies can be mapped out locally. We recommend developing terms of reference for any new groups outlining, among other issues, the meeting structure. In deciding the meeting frequency for the district/unitary group or the county group, needs should be balanced with availability. Groups may also wish to consider:

• Aligning with availability of performance information (e.g. quarterly).
• Aligning with other meetings, such as Local Strategic Partnership or Local Criminal Justice Board meeting cycles, or even sharing venues with these meetings;
• Aligning with the work of Children and Young People’s Strategic Partnerships;
• Strengthening links with Safer Schools Partnerships to improve young people’s safety.
• Aligning with the business planning process of the partnership, for example the core functions of commissioning and agreeing the strategic assessment and partnership plan.

In terms of who should attend the group, we recommend considering the following people:

Responsible Authority	District/Unitary Group	County Group
Police Force	Senior police commander for the district/unitary (e.g. BCU Commander)	Senior police commander for the county area (e.g. Assistant Chief Constable)
Local Authority	Elected Member with Community Safety portfolio (where applicable) District/Unitary Council Chief Executive Community Safety Manager	County Council Elected Member with Community Safety portfolio (where applicable) County Council Chief Executive or Deputy Chief Executive
Police Authority	Police Authority Member	Police Authority Member
Fire Authority	Middle/Brigade Manager	Brigade Manager
Primary Care Trust (England)	Director of Public Health	Chief Executive or Director of Public Health
Local Health Board (Wales)	Chief Executive	N/A

Where the home organisation covers many partnership areas and it is not practical for one senior representative to be part of all the community safety partnerships at district/unitary level, this responsibility could be delegated to other representatives. However, this is best done alongside the need to consider the ability to delegate or allocate resources. For the local police authority, which does not have direct control over the police force’s resource deployment, the level of membership should be senior enough to negotiate or influence the police use of budget and resources in the area and to consider the county-wide allocation of resources.

In two-tier areas, the respective roles and responsibilities of the district and county groups should be agreed by all parties, but should reflect the following:

• The district level partnership should have a lead role given their accountability for delivery of community safety priorities.
• The county group should act as an effective co-ordinating body, ensuring that there is a strong voice for district level priorities and interests on other partnerships such as Local Criminal Justice Boards and Local Strategic Partnerships. This is particularly important when agreeing the targets and priorities that could be included within the Local Area Agreement and how these reflect the priorities that the district level community safety partnerships have within their own partnership plans. The county group can develop an overview that can support the effective identification of countywide priorities that could be contained within the Local Area Agreement.
• District community safety partnerships may want to maintain their own links with such partnerships to ensure that they play an active role in delivering joint priorities and in developing cross-cutting work.