Police Crime Prevention Initiatives (Police CPI) will be providing another round of support to the Government’s latest crime-busting Safer Streets Fund initiative, which was launched at the end of last week.
This second, £20m round of the Safer Streets Fund aims to build upon the momentum instilled by the first round of funding, offering Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) and Local Authorities the opportunity to invest in new hotspot areas.
Safer Streets Fund 2021-22 will maintain a number of the core characteristics of the fund that have made it a success to date, whilst making minor strategic changes such as allowing local authority led bids.
For 2021-22, a total fund of £20 million has been set, with a maximum of £432,000 grant funding per successful bid. There is a requirement for a 20% matched funding contribution towards the bid, which can be provided as a financial contribution, or the equivalent of 20% in resourcing costs, e.g. staff/officer time. Bidders will also have flexibility to use the matched funding contributions for a wider range of supplementary activity to their bid, e.g. officer resource in a hotspot.
Police CPI will be providing technical guidance to help PCCs, Local Authorities and DOCOs deliver on the new objectives, which focus the fund onto four neighbourhood crime types – burglary, robbery, theft from the person, vehicle crime. Safer Streets Fund 2021-22 allows investment into commercial and non-residential areas as well, such as car parks and city centres. Wider acquisitive crime types (e.g. shoplifting and bike theft) will be considered as secondary outcomes, as will things like anti-social behaviour, violence, drug and alcohol related crime.
Three priority bids per PCC area can be submitted, regardless of the lead bidder and PCCs will decide on prioritisation and be required to sign off any Local Authority led bids.
The deadline for bids is midnight on 25 March 2021. Bidders will be informed whether they are successful by the end of May 2021.
Police CPI support for the Safer Streets Fund includes five ‘How to’ crime prevention guides, Peer Reviews of fifteen police forces approach to acquisitive crime prevention and the provision of adhoc advice & guidance to forces having difficulties with delivering specific interventions.
Jon Cole, Chief Operating Officer, Police CPI, said: “I am delighted that we can continue to support PCCs, local authorities and police forces in their delivery of the Safer Streets Fund bids”.
The updated Safer Streets Fund crime prevention toolkit can be accessed here – https://whatworks.college.police.uk/Research/Documents/Safer_Streets_toolkit.pdf
Further details about applying to the Safer Streets Fund are available here – https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/safer-streets-fund-application-process
The 2020-21 Safer Streets Fund provided £25m funding to 35 PCCs to invest in a range physical situational crime prevention measures, such as home security, alleygating, CCTV, street lighting, training community wardens or establishing Neighbourhood Watch Schemes across 52 high crime areas in England and Wales.
Police CPI created a range of support material for the Safer Streets Fund 2020-21, which included a number of technical guides, a range of training courses to assist PCCs making their bids, a series of 26 blogs in the Knowledge Hub and 26 weekly, live, hour-long crime prevention question and answer session, delivered virtually via Microsoft Teams, for those involved in the delivery of the fund. Police CPI also provided ongoing support to local police Designing Out Crime Officers (DOCOs), who are attached to police forces and help introduce and implement crime prevention measures and techniques into local areas to deter and reduce crime.
Police CPI is a police owned organisation that works to deliver a wide range of innovative and ground-breaking crime prevention and demand reduction initiatives to support the wider UK Police Service, Government and the general public.
Police CPI maintains close working links with the National Police Chiefs’ Council National Leads, central government, manufacturers and companies involved in security products (within the UK and those in countries that supply the UK), standards authorities and key stakeholders such as Planners, Architects, Developers, Local Authorities, Housing Associations, academia and the public.
Police CPI is a not-for-profit organisation, which delivers significant crime reductions at no cost to the Police Service or the public purse. Senior police officers from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland control and direct the work Police CPI carries out on behalf of the Police Service.
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