The Safer Devon Partnership is the County Strategy Group which provides the strategic leadership for addressing community safety matters across Devon.
Our vision is working together to make Devon even safer.

About the Safer Devon Partnership

The Safer Devon Partnership provides strategic leadership for community safety work across the county. Guided by its vision – “working together to make Devon even safer”– it coordinates efforts that help keep people and communities safe.

Safer Devon partners include the four Community Safety Partnerships (CSPs) in Devon – East and Mid Devon; Exeter; North Devon and Torridge; and South Devon and Dartmoor (covering Teignbridge, South Hams, and West Devon) – as well as Devon County Council, Devon and Cornwall Police, Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service, NHS Devon, the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner, the Probation Service, His Majesty’s Prison Service, Youth Justice, and a range of voluntary and community organisations.

 

How the Partnership is Governed

The Safer Devon Partnership Executive, made up of senior leaders from partner organisations and the chairs of the four Community Safety Partnerships (CSPs), sets the strategic direction for the partnership. It is supported by a network of specialist groups and partnerships that lead on key priority areas, working together to advance the shared vision, uphold core principles, and fulfil collective responsibilities.

 

Strengthening Community Safety Through Strategic Collaboration

To address the broad and complex challenges impacting community safety, the Safer Devon Partnership works closely with a wide network of strategic partnerships. These include the Devon Safeguarding Children Partnership (including the Child Exploitation Strategic Group), Torbay and Devon Safeguarding Adults Partnership, Devon Health and Wellbeing Board, Devon Drug and Alcohol Strategic Partnership, Devon Youth Justice Partnership Board and the Devon Trauma Network.

Through these collaborative relationships, the Partnership is able to respond more effectively to complex issues such as domestic abuse and serious violence. This collaborative approach helps align efforts, maximise the impact of resources, and ensure that communities are better protected and supported.

Chart showing the structure the governance of the Safer Devon Partnership.

Setting Our Priorities

Each year, the Safer Devon Partnership undertakes a Community Safety Strategic Assessment (view webpage version here) to identify the most pressing issues affecting the safety and wellbeing of people across Devon.

Importantly, the assessment acknowledges the diverse nature of Devon’s communities. It takes into account local variations in geography, population, and community needs, ensuring that both county-wide and local plans are shaped by the specific challenges and opportunities present in different parts of the county.

The insights gained from this assessment play a vital role in shaping the priorities and actions of both the Safer Devon Partnership and the district-led CSPs.

Informing Broader Work

The assessment also helps identify system-wide gaps and opportunities for improvement.

Findings from Devon’s assessment are shared with other key partnerships – such as the Devon and Torbay Safeguarding Adults Partnership and the Devon Safeguarding Children Partnership and its Sub Groups – to inform work across the wider partnership landscape.

Additionally, Devon’s insights contribute to a Peninsula-wide Community Safety Strategic Assessment, developed in collaboration with Torbay, Plymouth, and Cornwall. This broader view helps shape regional planning and is used to inform the Police and Crime Commissioner’s Police and Crime Plan.

Focus for 2025-26

In 2025–26, the Safer Devon Partnership will concentrate on areas where it can lead most effectively and where its efforts align with shared statutory responsibilities. This focused approach ensures that the Partnership adds value without duplicating the work of other strategic partnerships.

Drawing on the findings of the 2024 Community Safety Strategic Assessment, and recognising the work already underway across the wider partnership landscape, the Partnership will prioritise developing joined-up, solution-focused approaches to tackling violence and its causes.

Core Priorities

  • Reducing Violence in Families and Intimate Relationships – tackling domestic abuse and sexual violence and abuse (excluding child sexual abuse)
  • Preventing Violence in Communities – preventing serious violence, including youth violence
  • Preventing People being drawn into Terrorism – preventing the risk of people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism

Cross-Cutting Priorities – influencing all areas of our work:

  • Reducing offending and reoffending
  • Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls
  • Embedding ‘test and learn’ and trauma-informed approaches
  • Increasing community confidence

The Partnership defines violence as:
“The intentional use of physical, sexual or psychological force or power, threatened or actual (this includes coercive and controlling behaviour).”

Our Principles

We are guided by a set of core principles that shape how we work and make decisions:

  • Collaborative and trauma-informed: We take a joined-up, multi-agency approach that recognises the impact of trauma and the importance of working in ways that are sensitive to people’s lived experiences.
  • Inclusive and equitable: We acknowledge that some individuals and communities face greater risks and barriers. Our work aims to be inclusive and responsive to diverse and intersecting needs.
  • Evidence-led: We base our decisions on data, research, and lived experience to ensure that funding, resources, and services are used effectively.
  • Accountable and transparent: We are committed to measuring our impact and being clear about who is responsible for delivering change.
  • Continuous improvement: We take a step-by-step approach to progress, learning from what works and adapting as needed.
  • Community-driven: We believe in the power of engaged communities and strive to involve people in shaping safer places to live.

 

Our Accountabilities

As a statutory partnership, we are responsible for:

  • Fulfilling legal duties under the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 and other relevant legislation.
  • Leading the annual Community Safety Strategic Assessment for Devon and contributing to the Peninsula-wide assessment.
  • Supporting the Police and Crime Commissioner’s priorities, including active involvement in the development and delivery of the Police and Crime Plan.
  • Collaborating with local and regional partnerships to address shared challenges and ensure that serious threats to community safety are being tackled.
  • Delivering an annual Community Safety Agreement

Our Priority Commitments

In 2025–26, the Safer Devon Partnership will focus on three key areas of community safety. These priorities are supported by statutory duties and reflect our commitment to prevention, protection, and long-term change.

Priority 1: Reducing Violence in Families and Intimate Relationships

Safer Devon Partnership Executive Commitments:

  • Provide strategic leadership and oversight to the Interpersonal and Gender-Based Violence and Abuse Partnership Board.
  • Support the development of a new Children and Adults (whole family) Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence Strategic Plan for 2026-2029.
  • Ensure delivery of impactful Domestic Homicide Reviews and apply the learning to improve services.
  • Support the implementation of the new Duty to Collaborate under the Victims and Prisoners Act.
  • Work with regional partners to influence national policy using local insights and lived experience.

What We Aim to Achieve:

  • Women and girls feel safer in their relationships, homes and communities.
  • Harmful attitudes and behaviours that lead to gender-based violence are challenged.
  • Victims and survivors (including child victims of domestic abuse) receive timely, trauma-informed, and person-centred support.
  • Those that cause harm in these contexts are held accountable and supported to change.
  • Lived experience informs service design and system improvements.

Working with people with lived experience and partners across Devon, we have created a Safe Lives, Strong Communities plan that responds to interpersonal and gender-based violence and abuse across the county from 2026-2029.

If you, or anyone you know, is affected by interpersonal and gender-based violence and abuse (including domestic abuse and sexual violence), you can find support here.

Statutory Duties:

Domestic Abuse Act:

The Domestic Abuse Act 2021 is a wide-ranging piece of legislation that aims to raise awareness and understanding about the devastating impact of domestic abuse on victims and their families, improve the effectiveness of the justice system in providing protection for victims of domestic abuse and bringing perpetrators to justice, and strengthen the support for victims of abuse by statutory agencies.

To find out more about the legislation and responsibilities and to access Devon County Council’s Strategy for Delivering Domestic Abuse Support in Safe Accommodation please click here.

Domestic Homicide Reviews:

Community Safety Partnerships have a statutory responsibility to conduct Domestic Homicide Reviews (DHRs), as outlined under section 9 of the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act (2004). This provision came into force in April 2011. The Safer Devon Partnership administers DHRs on behalf of the four Community Safety Partnerships in Devon.

Domestic Homicide Reviews are ‘a review of the circumstances in which a death of a person aged 16 or over has, or appears to have, resulted from violence, abuse or neglect by:

a. A person to whom they were related or with whom they were or had been in an intimate personal relationship, or

b. A member of the same household as themselves,

held with a view to identifying lessons to be learnt from the death.’

To find out more about Domestic Homicide Reviews and to access all Reviews carried out in Devon that have been published to date please click here.

Victims and Prisoners Act:

The duty to collaborate under the Victims and Prisoners Act 2024 requires local policing bodies, local authorities, and integrated care boards to work together when commissioning services for victims of domestic abuse, sexual abuse, and serious violence. This collaboration aims to ensure that community support services are effectively provided to those in need.

Priority 2: Preventing Violence in Communities

Safer Devon Partnership Executive Commitments:

  • Provide strategic leadership and oversight to Devon’s Preventing Serious Violence Partnership.
  • Support delivery of Devon’s Preventing Serious Violence Strategy 2024-2029.
  • Engage with Devon’s Child Exploitation Strategic Group, Devon’s Youth Justice Partnership Board and the Peninsula Strategic Serious Violence Prevention Partnership to align local and regional efforts.
  • Support the implementation of the new Duty to Collaborate under the Victims and Prisoners Act.
  • Work with regional partners to influence national policy using local insights and lived experience.

    What We Aim to Achieve:

    • Young people feel safe and supported in schools and communities.
    • Those at risk of violence receive early, trauma-informed support to build resilience.
    • Risk factors are understood and addressed through evidence-based interventions.
    • Peer-to-peer violence is prevented through education and positive relationships.

    Statutory Duties:

    Serious Violence Duty

    The Serious Violence Duty was introduced in 2023 through the Police, Crime Sentencing and Courts Act. It requires specified authorities in local areas to ‘work together to prevent and reduce serious violence’.

    Specified authorities subject to the Duty are: Local Authorities, the Police, Integrated Care Boards, Probation services, Youth Justice services and Fire and Rescue Services.

    The Duty requires the specified authorities to publish a Needs Assessment detailing what kinds of serious violence are happening locally and its drivers, and a Strategy outlining a response.

    Devon Serious Violence Needs Assessment 2023 – Executive Summary
    Read Executive summary online
    Download executive Summary as pdf

    Devon Serious Violence Needs Assessment 2023
    Read assessment online
    Download Assessment as pdf

    Devon Preventing Serious Violence Strategy 2024-29
    Read Strategy online
    Download Strategy as pdf

    Priority 3: Preventing People being drawn into Terrorism

    Safer Devon Partnership Executive Commitments:

    • Provide strategic leadership and oversight to the Devon and Torbay Prevent Partnership.
    • Promote awareness and training to increase understanding and appropriate referrals to Prevent.
    • Focus on safeguarding young people and those most susceptible to radicalisation.
    • Work with regional partners to influence national policy using local insights and lived experience.

    What We Aim to Achieve:

    • Individuals are safeguarded and supported from being drawn into terrorism or violent extremism.
    • Professionals are equipped to recognise risks and respond appropriately.
    • Those identified as at risk receive timely, trauma-informed support to reduce susceptibility and wider vulnerabilities.

    Statutory Duties:

    Prevent Duty and Channel Duty

    The Prevent duty requires specified authorities such as education, health, local authorities, police and criminal justice agencies (prisons and probation) to help prevent the risk of people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism.

    Channel is a voluntary, confidential, early intervention programme that supports people who may be at risk of being drawn into terrorism. It is part of the Prevent programme and involves a multi-agency process with partners from local authorities, police, education, health providers, and others.

    To find out more about Prevent and Channel please click here.

    To find out more about what we are doing in Devon to Prevent radicalisation and the help and support available please click here.

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