The Police and Crime Commissioner has approved the merger of the six Community Safety Partnerships (CSPs) to create one CSP for North Yorkshire, alongside the existing CSP for the City of York.
Every part of England has a CSP bringing together the police, local councils, fire and rescue, the probation service and the health service to protect their local communities from crime and help people feel safer; deal with local issues like antisocial behaviour, drug or alcohol misuse and re-offending; and assess local crime priorities and consult partners and the local community about how to deal with them.
The six CSPs merging are Craven, Hambleton and Richmondshire, Harrogate, Ryedale, Scarborough, and Selby. Each of the areas will retain a local delivery team, bring together local operational managers from the police, local councils, fire and rescue, the probation service and the health service. The teams will have a problem solving approach; identifying and reducing the impact of crime and disorder on the local people.
The merger will reduce the time and money spent on administration, both within the CSPs and more widely by partners (for example, by attending one CSP meeting rather than multiple CSP meetings).
The PCC says that the new approach will refocus efforts back onto local people and local communities. The new CSP will concentrate on issues which effect all parts of the county, such as alcohol or hate crime, whilst also allowing local delivery teams to focus their efforts responding to local issues and priorities.
The new structure is also much more suited to a commissioning framework, meaning future funding can be distributed on clear and evidence based need, although there will now be an overhead in the production of bids for funding.
Commenting on the merger, Julia Mulligan, Police and Crime Commissioner for North Yorkshire said: Merging Community Safety Partnerships across North Yorkshire is the right thing to do, and I am very pleased we are able to take forward this change collectively.
A renewed focus on strategic issues will be welcome, and I am sure the new CSP will come up innovative solutions to difficult problems. This won’t detract from practical problem solving in local communities, and that very good work will continue as normal.
