Community Safety Partnership achievements

Supporting our Communities

• £1,414,038 awarded to the community and voluntary sector through our community grants funding framework, delivering positive outcomes for our communities, £94,214 specifically awarded for early intervention and prevention projects to reduce youth violence and knife crime
• There are now 105 Welcoming Spaces in local and trusted settings, seeing nearly 103,000 attendances and nearly 5,000 referrals for support, including for housing, money, debt and advice and mental health
• 22 funded Chatty Cafes offering face-to-face meetups designed to reduce loneliness and social isolation, in partnership with Action for Happiness 
• 22 Good Neighbour Schemes established and run by local people to provide day-to-day support for residents to maintain a good quality of life, remain independent in their own homes if they wish to, and reduce their reliance on statutory health and care support systems, in partnership with Northants ACRE 
• Ministry of Justice national finalists for our Well Northants programme, asset based community development approach, working with our communities to tackle inequality in our most deprived areas
• 94 Community Events held in the past 12 months. These have included Holocaust Memorial Day, our first Afghan get together party following the departure from hotels, several well Northants engagements with our community, Two-year anniversary of the Ukraine conflict, Serious Violence Launch, International Women's Day, International Men’s Day, Pride, ASB week of Action, International Day of Disability, World Aids Day, IDAHOBIT, Refuge Week, Windrush, County Lines intensification week, No More week, our Young Citizen's two-day event and Kings Heath clean up. All events were well attended and great engagement and feedback from our community and partners
• The Southbrook Community Centre in Daventry has continued to flourish. The new charity and trustees were registered with the charity commission last year and signed West Northamptonshire Council’s lease. Partnership working with The Hope Centre in Northampton and Fareshare led to the Southbrook Community Larder being established to support our most vulnerable families as well as aiming to provide a consistent supply of produce at fair prices and at the same time preventing unnecessary food waste. The trustee board in conjunction with WNC form part of Futures Housing Steering Group who meet up regularly with community and voluntary partners, local Police Community Support Officers and Daventry Town Council to discuss local issues and community cohesion

Tackling crime

• In Daventry Operation Unite is addressing persistent Anti-Social behaviour from a large group of young people, which included disruption of and damage to retail premises: criminal charges have been brought against some individuals and work is ongoing to issue ABCs and CPNs to others. Away from enforcement, partners are looking at a range of diversionary activities. We have begun working with Designated Safeguarding Leads in Daventry’s schools to identify individuals in need of early intervention
• The multi-agency Hate and Anti-social behaviour Action groups heard 21 new cases in Daventry and South Northants and 66 in Northampton
• In the past 12 months the Anti-Social Behaviour Team have issued 52 Community Protection Warnings, 21 Community Protection Notices and six Criminal Behaviour Orders, as well as lower level Anti-Social Behaviour Contracts and Advice letters. The team has continued to support the national Anti-Social Behaviour Awareness Week
• The number of reported hate crimes reduced by 12% to stand at 696 for the year
• Hate Crime Week of Action delivered, including engagement stands in high footfall areas in Northampton and Daventry
• Rural Action Group has continued to meet and rural crime no longer appears as a locally identified priority for either the Daventry or South Northants Policing Areas

Working in Partnership

• We have renewed five Public Spaces Protection Orders (PSPOs) this year and introduced a new PSPO to close Emporium Way in Northampton
• More than £48k invested in improvements to our streets through the second phase of Safer Streets Fund 4 and £11k on Safer Streets Fund 5 projects both being delivered in 2023/24, with some ongoing to deliver a continuation of projects during 2024/25
• Projects delivered in phase 2 (last financial year) of Safer Streets 4 include improvements to street lighting in the town centre, specifically the taxi ranks
• Installation of two new CCTV cameras and upgrading of one camera in a key night-time economy location, and a series of safety messaging lamppost column covers promoting safety initiatives and services
• Safer Streets 5 funding covers the implementation and delivery of a new Taxi Marshal scheme in the town centre on busier Friday and Saturday nights, now extended to cover additional one off event dates highlighted through the Town Centre Task Group
• SSF4 in Bellinge & Blackthorn installed five new CCTV camera in priority areas, upgrades to the underpass lighting and youth provision in Bellinge
• The Street Pastor Scheme continues to operate in Northampton Town Centre, on bank holidays and pay weekends
• Taxi Marshalls are now operating in Northampton town centre on targeted weekends
• Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence Board is now established and the Needs Assessment completed to identify gaps in support, especially for those who are in specialist domestic abuse accommodation having left an abusive relationship and a Domestic Abuse Strategy developed and approved, to meet our statutory duties in relation to the Domestic Abuse Act 2021
• Dedicated Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence Coordinator is in post to ensure the delivery of the Strategy
• Development of an Action Plan to reflect the priorities of the Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence Strategy and multi-agency task and finish groups established to progress and deliver the Action Plan
• 16 Days of activism annual campaign delivered; including Reclaim the Night march and candle-lit vigil at All Saints as well as a number of pop-ups, drop in’s with Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence organisations, and in person and virtual discussion events; additionally, a social media campaign was put together and delivered through WNC social media channels to raise awareness of Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence, educate, and promote the local and national support services
• Community Safety-Young Peoples Animation is now used by a high number of primary schools across West Northants. The programme has been developed for year 6 pupils and is a free resource for schools, youth providers and services who work with young people. The programme covers key community safety subjects, including fire and water safety, knife crime and gangs, personal safety and crime prevention, child sexual exploitation and online safety, hate crime, road and rail safety and mental health
• Delivered LGBTQ Pride event in Northampton Town Centre with a high presence from Police, Fire and East Midlands Ambulance Service in both the parade and event space offering reassurance, engagement and promoting hate crime reporting methods. The second Daventry Pride event was also a great success
• The Road Joint Action Group considered 22 new problem localities during 2023/24, with issues such as road layout at accident hotspots, speeding and HGVs in restricted areas
• The annual Comfort and Joy campaign provided gifts and treats to everybody in Refuge and many others, through the generosity of members of the public and officers
• 60 schools have attended the regular situational safeguarding meetings in Northampton and Daventry

Quarterly review summaries

Community

• £120,000 distributed in grant funding to more than 20 organisations to support youth work and mentoring for young people
• delivering a partnership approach to all incidents of knife crime
• delivered and supported more than 60 community engagement events, bringing our communities together
• successfully bid for more than £1.7m of Safer Streets funding to make our streets safer
• developed focused neighbourhood working groups in eight priority areas
• engagement with 800 young people across Northampton schools around signs of safety mapping and interventions

Crime

• supported victims and tackled offenders in 39 cuckooing cases
• achieved 100% victim satisfaction in over 100 anti-social behaviour interventions
• over 100 interventions made by our Anti-Social Behaviour Team

Partnership

• launched Community Safety Partnership Strategy 2023/24 detailing commitment to tackle crime and disorder and anti-social behaviour
• coordinated night-time economy interventions in Northampton town centre and launched ‘it only takes one’ campaign; two Public Place Protection Orders; and safer routes home initiative
• organised display of the Knife Angel sculpture, community safety education and awareness packages for schools, and campaigns such as Hate Crime Week and 16 Days of Activism
• deliver against priorities and for the Anti-Poverty Strategy; Community Safety Strategy; Domestic Abuse Strategy; Serious Violence Duty
• formed the Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence Board and Domestic Abuse Strategy
• purchase and installation of knife bins, bleed kits and delivery of training, working with Off the Streets and Northampton Partnership Homes