Governance

Birmingham Community Safety Partnership is accountable to both Birmingham Strategic Partnership (BSP) and Government Office West Midlands (GOWM).  Both of these bodies set targets for the Partnership and provide funding resources to support delivery of these targets.

Partnership Structure

A review of Birmingham Community Safety Partnership (BCSP) in January 2004 highlighted the need for a governance structure for the Partnership that both enhanced pan Birmingham priority setting and delivery and, empowered local communities to identify and address local community safety issues.

Whilst it has become a central principle that community safety should be delivered on a Constituency basis, it is recognised that there will be core priorities or activities that have to be managed and co-ordinated centrally because they are either:

•   Mandated by the Home Office or Central Government

•   Inherently complex or pan Birmingham in nature and so require a cross-City interagency approach to address them, especially in the developmental stage

•   Issues that are so costly that they could not be expected to develop locally

•   Are recognised as being of strategic importance to community safety in Birmingham.

An assessment of community safety in Birmingham and discussions between partners identified that the Partnership's core priorities should be reconstituted to address the following 6 areas of activity:

•   Reducing Gang Violence

•   Offender Management & Drug Treatment

•   Safer and Cleaner Neighbourhoods

•   Violence and Vulnerability

•   Young People

•   Community Engagement & Empowerment

The Devolution and Localisation of the Community Safety Agenda

The overarching philosophy of this approach is local empowerment in order to deliver community safety interventions that address locally identified needs.  Hence, the structure encompasses the creation of ‘Local Delivery Groups’ (LDGs) which are partnership based community safety forums which operate at a Constituency level. LDGs comprise of members of Partnership agencies as well as others based locally, sometimes including elected Members. LDGs have the following characteristics:

• Own the responsibility for actually delivering the core partnership priorities to local communities
• Identify and agree locally determined priorities that deal with local circumstances and needs
• Resource or mainstream the co-ordination of activity to address local priority targets

Partnership Team

A Birmingham Community Safety Partnership support infrastructure will provide, facilitate or broker:

•   The delivery of the core priorities for the Community Safety Partnership.

•   Independent programme management of pan-Birmingham community safety funding steams.

•   The development and maintenance of a business planning function, to review and co-ordinate a pan Birmingham approach to community safety.   This includes an overview and co-ordination support for Local Delivery Group activity.

•   Partnership and project development support including the co-ordination of specific pan Birmingham developments.

•   The provision of an information, intelligence and analysis function.

•   A policy analysis, innovation and research function.

The new Partnership structure amalgamates Birmingham Drug Action Team and Birmingham Community Safety Partnership Team resources.  Both teams now operate within a new Divisional structure of Birmingham City Council, but under the executive control of Birmingham Strategic Partnership and Birmingham Community Safety Partnership.