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.

OUR PRIORITIES

Safer Devon works with Devon’s four Community Safety Partnerships and county-wide groups including the Devon Children and Families Partneship and the Torbay and Devon Safeguarding Adults Partnership to tackle a broad range of community safety issues that negatively affect local people and communities. These include crime, hidden and visible harms and exploitation. 

Safer Devon’s current aim is to develop new arrangements for tackling violence and its causes, with a particular focus on the following priorities:

  • Violence within families or intimate partner relationships (Domestic and Sexual Abuse and Interpersonal Violence)
  • Violence outside of families or intimate partner relationships (with a focus on Interpersonal Violence involving young people up to 25 years)
  • Terrorism and Violent Extremism

Our cross-cutting priorities are: reducing offending and reoffending, tackling Violence Against Women and Girls, using trauma-informed approaches and increasing community confidence.

Our definitions

Violence: the intentional use of physical, sexual or psychological force or power (including threats of violence, and including coercive and controlling behaviour).

Interpersonal violence: involves the intentional use of physical force or power against another person(s) by a person or a small group of people

OUR PRINCIPLES AND ACCOUNTABILITIES

Safer Devon partners are committed to the following principles and accountabilities:

Principles

  • Using approaches that focus on solutions, are trauma informed, and are multi-agency
  • Recognising that many people are marginalised, under-represented and discriminated against, meaning that they are disproportionately impacted – including by crime and other harms, impacts on their wellbeing, the accessibility of services and the quality of service received. This can include Asian, Black people and other ethnically diverse people including Gypsies and Travellers, LGBT+ people, Disabled people and people who have experienced disadvantage, for example poverty, childhood trauma. 
  • Having freedom to act (joining up services and doing things once)
  • Making evidenced-based decisions about funding, resourcing and commissioning
  • Measuring and understanding impact and having accountability about who is doing what
  • Focusing on step by step improvements with clear ways to deliver change
  • Developing engagement with communities.

Accountabilities

  • Fulfil existing community safety duties, including those outlined in the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, and develop effective and proportionate responses to new legislation and duties
  • Lead the development of an annual county-wide Community Safety Strategic Assessment and support the development of a Peninsula Community Safety Strategic Assessment
  • Support the priorities and work of the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner and play an active role in the development and delivery of the Police and Crime Plan and the Peninsula Serious Violence Prevention Programme and Strategy
  • Work collaboratively with other Partnerships and Forums in and beyond Devon to influence and progress priorities and work around shared issues that cause, or threaten to cause, significant harm to people and communities
  • Develop and deliver an annual Community Safety Agreement and Spending Plan.

GOVERNANCE

Safer Devon’s partners include the four Community Safety Partnerships (CSPs) in Devon – East and Mid Devon; Exeter; North Devon and Torridge; and South Devon and Dartmoor, Devon County Council, Devon and Cornwall Police, Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service, NHS Devon Integrated Care System, the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner, the Probation Service and His Majesty’s Prison Service.

Strategic direction is set by the Safer Devon Partnership Executive which is made up of chief officers from all partner agencies and the chairs from the four CSPs. A number of Groups and Partnerships outlined in the governance structure below support the Safer Devon Partnership Executive in achieving its vision, principles and accountabilities. The Partnership also provides support and challenge to the delivery of services and initiatives across Devon.

Safer Devon partners also work closely with a number of other county-wide and peninsula Strategic Partnerships and Groups on a range of shared priorities. This is all shown in the diagram.

    Safer Devon Partnership governance diagram. Top row: The Safer Devon Partnership Executive is listed in the centre, with the District Community Safety Partnerships on either side (East and Mid, Exeter, North Devon and Torridge and South Devon and Dartmoor). They all link into the groups listed next, shown in the diagram as subsequent rows with connecting lines. Second row: Community Safety Partnership Violence Prevention and Violence Against Women and Girls Groups; Devon Community Safety Leads and Officers Group; Serious Violence Duty Working Group; Peninsula Serious Violence Working Group. Third row: Devon Domestic Abuse Local Partnership Board (including the Domestic Homicide Review Core Group; and Various working groups and task and finish groups); Devon Youth Crime and Violence Prevention Partnership (including Lived Experiences Engagement Work - shared with the Devon Domestic Abuse Local Partnership Board; Chances Steering Group; and Turning Corners); and the Devon and Torbay Prevent Partnership Board (including the Young People and Prevent Group - shared with the Devon Youth Crime and Violence Prevention Partnership; the Devon Channel Panel; and the Devon, Torbay and Plymouth Workforce Development Group for Prevent). The Prevent Partnership Board links to the Contest Board, Torbay Community Safety Partnership, and Plymouth Community Safety Partnership. Fourth Row: Torbay and Devon Safeguarding Adults Partnership; Devon Children and Families Partnership; Devon Health and Wellbeing Board; the Strategic Partnership Chairs Group; and the Devon Drug and Alcohol Strategic Partnership (linked to the One Devon Partnership). Fifth row: Devon Trauma Network.

    STRATEGIC INTELLIGENCE

    We publish annual intelligence assessments of local community safety issues to highlight areas of greatest threat in terms of impact, prevalence and trends, evaluate our current ability to prevent and address the causes and impacts of these issues, and inform our community safety priorities.
    Devon Strategic Assessment 2019-20

    We also contribute to an annual peninsula-wide assessment of community safety issues across Devon, Torbay, Plymouth and Cornwall. This assessment provides information and intelligence to inform our priorities and those of partner organisations across the peninsula.
    Peninsula Strategic Assessment 2020-21

    The Devon Joint Strategic Needs Assessment is developed by Public Health Devon and provides an overview of the current and future health and care needs of local populations to inform and guide the planning and commissioning (buying) of health, wellbeing, social care and related services. The Headline Tool provides an interactive overview of the main factors influencing local health and wellbeing.
    Devon Joint Strategic Needs Assessment and Headline Tool.

    Domestic Homicide Reviews

    We have a statutory duty to conduct and publish Domestic Homicide Reviews to inform policy and practice. Click here to find out more… 

    Accessibility by WAH