Safer Future Communities to support PCCs [+video]
Safer Future Communities partnership supports the Voluntary Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) Sector to engage and influence forthcoming Police and Crime Commissioners.
Jessica Mullen, Project Coordinator for Safer Future Communities, speaks exclusively to The Information Daily about how the partnership, led by Clinks, will work in the development and delivery of community safety.
The Commissioner, elected by the public on November 15, will be responsible for crime in the local area, oversee the delivery of policing, set budgets and strategic priorities, and hold the police chief constable to account.
Ms Mullen said “The Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise sector is made up of a very diverse range of organisations ranging from large national charities to smaller local organisations.”
“Those organisations have a huge amount to offer the Police and Crime Commissioners in terms of their expertise, and knowledge and experience of working to address community safety in local communities over many years,” she said.
VCSE infrastructure organisations have been appointed in each police force area to set up a Safer Future Communities local network.
Ms Mullen explains “The Safer Future Communities Project has a local network in each police force area across England and Wales and they are working to offer the Police and Crime Commissioners their knowledge and expertise and work in partnership with them.”
The local networks will engage with PCCs and other local community safety commissioners to promote the role of the VCSE sector in local community safety activities, highlight community safety concerns and influence decisions and the agendas set by the PCCs to ensure they reflect local needs.
She said “The [VCSE] sector also has a role in representing the views of those who aren’t heard so much. The sector will work to make sure those voices and their opinions and views are heard and the PCC can act in accordance to the whole community rather than those who may shout the loudest.”
Ms Mullen explains there are going to be huge changes to the way the sector is funded: “The money will go to the Police and Crime Commissioner who will have a community safety fund with which they can then fund community safety activity. But the difference will be that each Police and Crime Commissioner can choose how they use that pot of money and it therefore may vary quite greatly from area to area.”
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