Author and Job Role: Sarah Haywood, Commissioning and Policy Lead for Community Safety
Protective Marking: Official
Executive Summary:
Since 2013/14 the Police and Crime Commissioner has made available funding to ensure continued support to local community, voluntary and faith organisations through the Community Safety Fund. This decision note sets our how approximately 40% of the Community Safety Fund will be ringfenced for work focusing on supporting children and young people.
Detail:
The current Community Safety Fund totals £658,000 which includes £120,000 incorporated into the budget following the precept uplift in 2020. This funding continues to support projects and initiatives in our communities to help prevent and tackle crime and disorder across Surrey.
Following the election of the new Commissioner Lisa Townsend in May 2021, she gave direction that the office will consider how it listens, speaks, and support young people in Surrey with the aspiration to do more. In June 2021 the Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner Ellie Vesey-Thompson was appointed with a work portfolio that includes Children and Young People.
As such the Community Safety Fund was reviewed with the intention of considering ringfencing an amount of funding for the sole purpose of supporting children and young people through awarding grants or commissioning services.
The advantage of ring-fenced funding would be it clearly sets out the PCC’s aspirations with regards supporting children and young people, it increases visibility and transparency of funding dedicated to services and projects for this priority and it will ensure the office safeguards funding for children and young people projects so applications are not competing with other priorities.
The proposal is to ring-fence £275,000 of the current Community Safety Fund and create a new Children and Young People’s Fund, leaving a Community Safety Fund of £383,000.
The process and criteria for awarding the funding will be the same as for the Community Safety Fund, but projects must be tailored for children and young people with applications assessed as such. Online applications are submitted and logged in to our SUMs platform and applications will be shared with the Deputy PCC and key partners to ensure the project/service meets the fund criteria and ultimately meets the delivery of the Police and Crime Plan. Successful applications will be issued with the Grant Agreement and monitoring will be completed in line with that agreement.
Recommendation
That the Commissioner agrees to ring-fence £275,000 of the Community Safety Fund for the intention of creating a Children and Young People Fund.
Police and Crime Commissioner Approval
I approve the recommendation(s):
Signature: Lisa Townsend, Police and Crime Commissioner for Surrey
Date: 13 April 2022
All decisions must be added to the decision register.
Areas of consideration:
Consultation
Consultation has taken place with appropriate officers and feedback embedded into the process.
Financial implications
The funding is currently set with in the PCC overall budget. A review of the Community Safety fund show that ringfencing the funding would not be detrimental to the Community Safety Fund.
Legal
No legal advice was required.
Risks
The Children and Young People’s Fund and the Community Safety Fund applications are shared amongst subject experts to ensure those awarded are able to meet the criteria as set of in the commissioning strategy.
Equality and diversity
The two funds consider equality and diversity implications against each application. An end of year review will seek to ensure funding was distributed with equality and diversity needs in mind.
Risks to human rights
The two funds consider human right implications against each application. An end of year review will seek to ensure funding was distributed with human rights needs in mind.