Safer Lincolnshire Partnership strategy 2025 to 2028

Legislative framework

Community safety means:

  • making sure people are protected from crime and anti-social behavior as much as possible
  • helping them deal with any problems they face

The Crime and Disorder Act (1998) requires all local authorities to have a community safety partnership. Changes to this legislation were brought in by the Police and Justice Act 2006. Subsequent regulations came in to force in 2007. The regulations set out the minimum requirements for partnership working. This ensures effective practice, and that all partnerships deliver to a common standard.

The Safer Lincolnshire Partnership (SLP) is the informally merged community safety partnership for Lincolnshire. It has the following statutory duties:

  • prepare and implement a partnership plan that sets out a strategy for:
    • the reduction of reoffending
    • crime and disorder
    • combating substance misuse
    • addressing antisocial behaviour
    • understanding serious violence
    • community engagement
    • addressing the priorities identified in the strategic assessment which must be undertaken annually
  • set up protocols and systems for information sharing
  • regularly engage and consult with the public about their community safety priorities and issues
  • hold one or more public meetings during each year
  • commission domestic abuse related death reviews (DARDR’s) following notification from the police of a domestic homicide

The Serious Violence Duty was introduced in 2022. This statutory guidance:

  • incorporates the Crime and Disorder Act (1998)
  • calls on authorities within specified geographic boundaries to work collaboratively to 'prevent people from becoming involved in serious violence, both as victims and perpetrators, and reduce instances of serious violence in the area', Home Office (2022)
  • mandates that Lincolnshire’s serious violence prevention strategy must be refreshed on an annual basis to reflect any changes in the local serious violence profile
  • mandates that responsible authorities must convene meetings to oversee and monitor delivery of the Serious Violence duty. SLP’s strategy board functions as this formal meeting

The Victim and Prisoners Act received royal assent on 24 May 2024. Individual measures within the act will not come into force until the government specifically commences them. However, the duty could commence from Spring 2026. This act will demand the collaboration of:

  • local policing bodies
  • local authorities
  • integrated care boards (ICBs)

These services will be required to commission community support in England for victims of:

  • domestic abuse
  • sexual abuse
  • serious violence

The Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015 (section 19) places a duty on specified authorities to have ‘due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism’. It has been agreed locally that Prevent will fall under the governance of the SLP to provide county wide assurance and escalation mechanisms. Prevent is part of the UK government’s counter terrorism strategy. Its aim is to stop people being drawn towards terrorism or supporting terrorism. This involves:

  • supporting individuals who may be susceptible to extreme ideologies
  • re-directing them as opposed to criminalising them

Prevent training aims to give frontline staff, community workers and key people in the community:

  • an understanding of Prevent
  • how it works
  • how important their role is within the strategy.