Frequently asked questions

The Safer North Tyneside Partnership, also known as the Community Safety Partnerships (CSPs) were established in 1998 from the Crime and Disorder Act.  The Act requires identified responsible authorities to form a partnership to tackle crime and disorder issues that affect the borough. 

The partnership meets four times per year with one of those meetings open to public attendance.  

The statutory partners involved in the Community Safety Partnership for North Tyneside are: 

• North Tyneside Council
• NHS North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board (ICB)
• Northumbria Police
• The Probation Service
• Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service

Through legislation the partnership has a specific responsibility to ensure that there are plans in place for: 

• Reducing crime and disorder, 
• Combatting substance misuse, 
• Reducing re-offending, 
• Preventing serious violence. 

The partnership is required to carry out an annual Strategic Needs Assessment. This is where a series of data sets and information is gathered from across the partners, such as the number of reported crimes, anti-social behaviour, population and depravation figures, fire data, and health information.  This information is then analysed to identify year on year increases, emerging areas of concern, spikes in some data, but also where the figures are showing reductions.   There are some areas of work that the partnership must do, as shown in question 3. From the analysis the partners then agree on additional key areas that require attention.  

• Tackling Neighbourhood crime and anti-Social Behaviour 
• Tackling Domestic Abuse and Violence against Woman and Girls
• Tackling Serious Violence and Organised Crime
• Promoting Community Cohesion and resilience

 Each of these areas have a significant amount of work and sub topics within the main priority heading, each priority is as important as each other. 

Each priority will have a lead officer and governance process in place to monitor progress, this will then report directly to the partnership at each meeting.  Many aspects of the work are also linked to broader local and regional structures such as the Police and Crime Commissioner, Violence Reduction Unit, Safeguarding boards, and Domestic Abuse Boards.

The UK’s overall counter-terrorism strategy is known as CONTEST and 'Prevent' is part of this.

The aim of Prevent is to reduce the threat to the UK from terrorism by stopping people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism by focusing on the following 3 objectives:

1.Challenge the ideology of terrorism and reduce the threat we face by disrupting those who promote it.

2. Prevent people from being drawn into terrorism and ensure that they are given appropriate advice and support.

3. Reduce the risk in sectors and institutions and take effective action against radicalisation.

Prevent is one of the 4Ps that make up the government Counter Terrorism Strategy, and currently the only P where the Local Authority/Community Safety Partnership have a statutory duty to have plans in place to do the above. 

Prevent is in general a safeguarding process and follows the same safeguarding principles if someone was concerned about exploitation, county lines, or neglect.    If someone has a concern, they can make a referral using a national referral form that goes to Counter Terrorism Policing and the Safeguarding MASH where a multi agency approach is applied to assessing and vulnerabilities to the individual.   If after the assessment is carried out a risk and safeguarding need is identified the referral is put forward to Channel, this is the individual safeguarding case management part of Prevent where multi agency officers come together to look at ways of diverting the person away from their radical or extremist views.

Prevent/Channel is in the pre-crime space , so no offences have taken place, and it does not create a data footprint for future use.   Once a case is discussed and closed all records are retained by Counter Terrorism Police.

As the lead agency for Prevent and Channel, the local authority undergoes an annual assessment and benchmarking, carried out by the Home Office to ensure we are delivering all of the required elements of the Prevent duty.