The Partnership uses Strategic Intelligence and Assessments which draw on a wide range of data sources relating to crime, anti-social behaviour, environmental issues and substance misuse alongside perception information concerning public confidence and reassurance.

We also consider the changing socio-economic and demographic profile of Pennine Lancashire that plays a role in influencing some of the community safety hotspots in the region.

The next section outlines the key findings from these documents and sets out how the feedback and statistical analysis feeds into our priorities.

Each priority will be overseen by a strategic lead that will be responsible for developing the CSP’s response for this area. This will include developing a delivery plan, commissioning analysis and activity, allocating funding, monitoring activity and performance as well as working with other priority leads on cross-cutting areas of work.

Pennine Lancashire Community Safety Priority Areas

The following areas will have their own tactical groups, chaired by a member of the Steering Group, and supported by the Pennine Lancashire Community Safety Coordinator, and will report in directly to the Pennine Lancashire Community Safety Steering Group.

Maintaining Low Crime and Anti-Social Behaviour

Anti-social behaviour (ASB) is the common term used to describe incidents or actions that cause damage or affect the quality of life of people. It can be any behaviour that causes harassment, alarm or distress to one or more persons not living in the same household and can include things such as noise, neighbour nuisances, abandoned vehicles, litter and vehicle nuisance, vandalism, graffiti and fly posting, verbal abuse, threatening behaviour, harassment and intimidation.

Over the last three years, there was a significant increase in reported ASB incidents. A number of those reports related to breaches and complaints against others regarding the pandemic lockdown measures. As we move out of these measures, it remains to be seen as to whether the levels of reported ASB incidents returns to those seen in the previous two years. Current data suggests many areas have increased levels of anti-social behaviour.

Anti-social behaviour in Pennine Lancashire is addressed at the neighbourhood and district level, particularly through local Community Safety Partnerships. Local Authorities, the Police and other partners work together to address ASB using tools and powers where appropriate, as well as diversionary activities and safeguarding measures.

This priority will continue to focus on targeted activities to prevent and detect crime, alongside dealing more effectively with anti-social behaviour. It will include focused work on acquisitive crime prevention and crimes associated with the evening and night-time economy, including violent crime. This will be alongside measures to reduce the number of adults in crisis; the by-product of which is anti-social behaviour on our streets and in our town centres. Our residents will be emotionally healthier and feel safer.

The Community Safety Partnership will:

Success Measures over the 2012-25 period will be:

• To promote consistency of approach across Pennine Lancashire of the use ASB tools and powers so that residents can expect a common approach.
• Raising awareness of Hate Crime using a community led intelligence approach, and developing more third party reporting centres to ensure an increase in reporting of these crimes.
• Utilising existing community group networks to raise awareness of these aspects of community safety, to ensure that residents feel safer and more aware of how to report incidents, measuring this through these community groups and links with local residents.

Targeting repeat offenders and those causing the greatest harm

There are Lancashire wide governance arrangements for this group, with mature partnership arrangements in place. There is a local Reducing Reoffending group for East, and this reports into both the Pennine Community Safety Steering Group, and the Lancashire Reducing Reoffending Board. This group is Chaired by an Independent Chair, appointed by the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner.

We will work to tackle the issues which underpin crime committed by prolific offenders, namely problem drug and alcohol use, peer networks, homelessness and employability alongside developing more effective methods of identifying individuals at risk of future involvement in crime and target those posing the greatest risk of harm to our communities.

The Community Safety Partnership will:

• Reducing re-offending by effectively managing prolific and priority offenders within an Integrated Offender Management System.

• Change the way offenders think, to bring home the effect of their behaviour on themselves and others, and to teach positive techniques to avoid the situations that lead to offending.

• Using new technology and data systems to improve the monitoring of the activities of prolific local and cross border offenders.

• Tackle financial and housing need among perpetrators. This should include improved discharge from prison, and prevent resettlement in an area outside of their local network.

• Securing safe and appropriate accommodation for those who would otherwise be homeless on release should be a priority, resisting low quality, multi occupancy premises being used as a default. The use of a housing first model will developed at scale.

Success Measures over the 2022-25 period will be:
– Using the provision of bespoke support over that available to all across all pathways to offending and repeat offending from all key partners and commissioners.

– Review Restorative Justice options available for adults and transition cases, confirming the options to sustain or improve them.

– Review the current arrangements of the offers available for female offenders, making recommendations for further development, in order to establish a clear offer

Serious Violence

There will be an East Serious Violence tactical group formed, to address issues of serious violence, and work towards the Serious Violence Duty, set to come into law in the latter part of 2022.

Work under this priority area is also undertaken by the Lancashire Violence Reduction Network, set up in 2019 and funded by the Home Office.

The VRN leads work to reduce serious violence across the County. Nationally, violent offences typically make up just 1 % of all crime recorded by the police. However, they cause some of the most serious harms to individuals, communities and societies.

Lancashire Violence Reduction Network (VRN), one of the original 18 Violence Reduction Units, pioneers a new approach that brings together local partners in policing, education, health, and local government to deepen understanding of the root causes of violence and put interventions in place. Those interventions shown to be the most successful are rolled out to other areas in the county.

The VRN produced a county wide needs assessment and local serious violence district profiles and has one-year and five-year work plans which incorporate both violent and knife crime pilot work streams.

These include parenting, awareness raising, prevention, multi-agency violence reduction, accident and emergency department interventions, Lancashire Divert, prison and prisoner family programmes and family support to exploitation.

The longer-term plan will focus on prevention, enforcement, cultural transformation, workforce development, evaluation and data. Full implementation plans will supplement the Strategy.

The VRN leads the Trauma Informed Lancashire whole system trauma-informed approach to tackling violence and is having a positive impact in reducing violent crime in the County.

The Community Safety Partnership will continue to support and seek assurance from the VRN that it is delivering on its four strands of work, as well as covering these through the local tactical group for East Lancashire, which cover

Road Safety

The Lancashire Road Safety Partnership is the coordinating body for Lancashire, Blackburn with Darwen and Blackpool which aims to reduce road casualties through the management of speed, enforcement, engineering, emergency response, driver education and training and through developing collaborative approaches to teaching, awareness, engagement and other measures.

The Partnership is going through a period of change with a recently appointed Road Safety Manager overseeing a review of aims, purpose and objectives.

The following top five priorities are currently (May 2022) being discussed and agreed at Joint Operational Group and Executive Board levels;

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collisions as well as disproportionate trauma for those injured parties.

A peer review of the partnership has recently been conducted by West Yorkshire with numerous recommendations being offered in the final report. As a partnership, the Lancashire Road Safety Partnership was deemed as effective and evidence-based.

Road Safety has been highlighted by all fourteen districts of Lancashire as a Community Safety priority and the Lancashire Road Safety Partnership aims to work closer than ever with all key partners and stakeholders in tackling issues of roads policing and making the roads safer, and feel safer, for all users.

Tackling serious and organised crime

Operation Genga is Lancashire’s partnership approach to tacking serious organised crime. Genga was launched in 2011 to compliment the Home Office pilot ‘extending our reach’. Tackling the problem of serious and organised crime requires collaboration with partners and is not solely the responsibility of the police. Since its inception, Genga has grown in both strength and numbers and is now with embedded co-ordinators across all the districts of Lancashire, and is a testament to the commitment and drive to tackle organised crime across all partner agencies.

The Genga team assist in managing the threat from organised crime from neighbourhood policing through to specialist departments using a variety of overt and covert tactics. It is recognised that in addition to targeting offending behaviour and disrupting organised crime, Genga is also committed to ensuring appropriate safeguarding and protection across individuals and communities. Alongside this, civil officers are aligned across the districts that use a collection of tools and enforcement powers from both police and partners to target the threat from organised crime.

The Lancashire serious and organised crime (SOC) strategy, reflects the 2018 national strategy of a 4P (pursue, prevent, protect & prepare) framework to tackle SOC. The strategy is built on a fully engaged partnership approach, involving stakeholders and partners from the public sector, statutory community safety partners, other government and law enforcement agencies as well as the third and private sectors in order to ensure that all available information, resources and powers are brought to bear locally to tackle SOC.

The Strategy aims to:

• Ensure a comprehensive understanding of organised crime including known offenders and hotspot areas.
• Gather and share intelligence from all partner agencies, third and private sector, including the community.
• Take a partnership approach to disrupting organised criminal activity and bring offenders to justice.
• Protect vulnerable people from harm caused by organised crime.
• Engage all of our communities in becoming more resilient to serious organised crime

• Support the development of appropriate diversion schemes to prevent those becoming involved in serious organised crime The Community Safety Partnership will ensure it works with colleagues across Pennine Lancashire to assist the SOC strategy to continue to protect vulnerable people from harm caused by organised crime.

Domestic Abuse

Domestic abuse is an important issue for Pennine Lancashire. Across Lancashire, it accounts for approximately 14% of all crime, however, it is widely accepted that this is likely to be an underestimation. Domestic abuse can be largely hidden but is a significant concern and an increasing problem for health and social care services. Domestic abuse includes a wide range of harm including physical, sexual, emotional and financial abuse.

In Lancashire, the response to domestic abuse is co-ordinated through the Pan Lancashire Domestic Abuse Steering Group. The Lancashire Domestic Abuse Partnership Board, initially established to ensure that the statutory requirements the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 are fulfilled, has recently widened its remit to ensure all aspects around domestic abuse are being considered concurrently.

Domestic abuse officers from East Lancashire regularly attend the Pennine Steering Group to offer assurance to members, and update on projects funded through part 4 of the Domestic Abuse Act 2021, specifically those relating to safe accommodation.