£4.5M to help victims, contribute towards community safety and aid reduction of serious violence

More than £4.5M is being spent in Wiltshire during this year (2023/4) to help and support victims, contribute towards community safety, aid in the reduction of serious violence and reduce reoffending.

The budget is held by Wiltshire’s Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner (OPCC) and financed from money raised through the precept and grant funding from central government, as well as additional funding from the Ministry of Justice and the Home Office.

OPCC’s Commissioned Services, a department within the office, ensures all funding is allocated to organisations and charities which provide the services needed to deliver the PCC’s Making Wiltshire Safer: Police and Crime Plan 2022-25 and the Wiltshire Criminal Justice Board (WCJB) Strategy.

Wiltshire PCC Philip Wilkinson said: “It is really important the public understand why my office commissions the services it does and the vital support these funded services are delivering across the broad spectrum of the criminal justice system in order that Wiltshire Police can concentrate on policing, fighting crime, and making Wiltshire Safer.

“My office commissions services which help and support victims, contribute to community safety, as well as co-ordinating services which will help aid the reduction of serious violence in our communities and work hand-in-glove with Wiltshire Police.

“All of these elements are key in delivering the priorities within my police and crime plan and are often a by-product of policing and the criminal justice system, like victims support and rehabilitation services, but are not, and should not, be provided by Wiltshire Police.”

Victims’ services commissioned and funded by the OPCC include:

• Grants to Wiltshire’s Horizon service, which supports victims and provides restorative justice services.
• Funding allocated to Splash, which supports children who have been victims of crime.
• Funding to provide Independent Sexual Violence Advisors (ISVAs) and Independent Domestic Violence Advisors (IDVAs) to help support victims.
• Funding to provide refuge and safe spaces for victims of domestic abuse and sexual violence.
• Funding allocated to the Sexual Assault Referral Centre, which supports victims of serious sexual offences without having to have a police referral.

“Supporting victims in the time when they are most vulnerable and need help is a core priority for my office and is a clear priority contained within my police and crime plan,” Mr Wilkinson continued. “We know we cannot eradicate crime completely so we must ensure the service we are funding is delivering for victims when they need it most.”

The OPCC also commissions services which helps with preventable causes of police demand, prevention of offending by children and the commission of services and interventions to divert them from the criminal justice system where appropriate.

Services which aid safer communities and crime prevention, early intervention, serious violence and exploitation reduction and youth participation and engagement include:

• Provision of funding to Swindon and Wiltshire Youth Justice Services as part of OPCC statutory requirements.
• Premier League Kicks which provide football related interventions for young people in Swindon and north Wiltshire and opportunities for those being supported by youth justice services.
• Street Doctors interventions for children being supported by youth justice teams, educating them to understand how to treat and respond to injuries from sharp weapons or head injuries caused by violence.
• Investment in youth mentoring services to support children attending alternative education provision.
• Mental health control room triage which provides dedicated mental health specialists in the Force control room to advise on mental health issues during incidents and support deployment of appropriate health resources alongside police units.
• Community messaging system which is used by Wiltshire Police to communicate with communities across the force area to provide free crime alerts and crime prevention advice specific to localities.
• Independent facilitation of a diverse Youth Commission to enable peer to peer community conversations in relation to policing and community safety, recognising the need to ensure the voices of children and young adults in our communities are represented and acted upon.
• Investment to support implementation of Focused Deterrence within local communities
• Investment into early intervention initiatives to support reducing serious violence such as The Blunt Truth.

Mr Wilkinson added: “Reducing crime in communities, tackling the root causes of serious violence and making our streets safer alongside working to prevent crime and reduce demand on police services means we can fundamentally make a difference to people’s lives and that is what our commissioned services are doing.”

The OPCC also commissions service which aim to reduce re-offending and to deliver against the WCJB Strategy to ensure services are available at the right time to support reductions in reoffending and keep our communities safe.

These include:

• Custody healthcare - which provides a healthcare service to people who are bought into police custody.
• Mental health treatment requirements contract (provision of court community order for attendance at mental health support programme) which has been co-commissioned with NHS England.
• Substance misuse contracts for Wiltshire and Swindon with the provision of drug and alcohol support services) which has been co-commissioned with Wiltshire Council and Swindon Borough Council.
• Domestic abuse serial perpetrator support -behaviour change support for males and female offenders who have used abusive and cohesive behaviours towards their partners or family members - which has been co-commissioned with Probation Service.
• Co-funding of a housing support worker with Wiltshire Council and Probation Service to support effective transition of offenders from prison to the community following completion of custodial sentences.
• Funding of out-of-court disposal pathways for female offenders and an intervention hub which provides a range of evidenced based online interventions to help offenders better manage a range of issues or challenges which may be contributing to their patterns of offending
• Ongoing management of co-commissioned contract with Wiltshire Council and Swindon Borough Council to provide appropriate adults to support vulnerable people during police interviews.

Mr Wilkinson continued: “Making our communities safer places to live, work and enjoy needs a holistic approach and requires co-ordination with a variety of partners across the criminal justice system. My office helps to bring those agencies together and ensure the police and crime plan and Wiltshire’s criminal justice board are being delivered cohesively.”

As well as holding its own funding budget, the OPCC has supported successful bids with Wiltshire Council and Swindon Borough Council, to assist with tackling anti-social behaviour, and helped to secure £1.6M as part of the Government’s Safer Streets fund.

Mr Wilkinson added: “By my office working together with local authorities, and other key partner agencies, we can make sure our priorities are aligned and our services are streamlined and working together as efficiently and effectively as possible.

“With funding becoming ever more finite, we must make sure we are avoiding unnecessary duplication and all working together to achieve a common goal of safer communities, less crime, better support for victims and helping to rehabilitate perpetrators and reduce the chance of re-offending.

“We can also ensure that our organisations, collectively, are taking every opportunity open to Wiltshire to bring as much funding as we can into the county with a co-ordinated approach.”

For more information on the commissioning budget and where funding is being allocated, please visit: www.wiltshire-pcc.gov.uk

Published Wednesday 28 June 2023