What is the Safer Surrey Heath Partnership?

Under the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, agencies in England and Wales have a statutory duty to form a Community Safety Partnership (CSP) to tackle key community safety issues. The agencies required to take part are the borough and county councils, primary care trust, fire authority, police authority and probation. CSPs are required to review the levels and patterns of crime and disorder in the area, and develop and implement strategies to tackle these problems.

In Surrey Heath, the CSP is known as the Safer Surrey Heath Partnership and is made up of Surrey Heath Borough Council, Surrey County Council, Surrey Fire and Rescue Service (a department of Surrey County Council), Surrey Police, Surrey PCT, Surrey Police Authority and Surrey and Sussex Probation Trust. All partners work together to provide reassurance, raise awareness of community safety issues and implement strategies to reduce crime, and fear of crime. The Partnership works closely with safer neighbourhood policing teams, as well as voluntary organisations such as Neighbourhood Watch, to keep the borough safe.

Representatives of the partners, along with supporting officers, meet quarterly to review progress and share information as part of the wider Surrey Heath Partnership (SHP) Opens in a new window, which incoporates the old Local Strategic Partnership (LSP). The SHP is a single body that brings together different parts of the public sector as well as the business, community and voluntary sectors to work together for the community of Surrey Heath.

Tackling the community's priorities

The government expects local authorities and their partners to help deliver its key priorities to reduce crime and disorder, and misuse of drugs, as expressed in the National Policing Plan. However, these national priorities need to be viewed in both a regional and local context. In this respect, the targets and objectives of the Safer Surrey Heath Partnership are very much community-driven.

All CSPs are required to undertake an Annual Strategic Assessment and publish a Partnership Action Plan, which is refreshed annually, to cover the impact of drug and alcohol misuse as well as crime and anti-social behaviour. The borough's first Partnership Action Plan was published on 1 April 2008.