Councillors in Sandwell have backed a new partnership community safety plan to help keep people safe and make sure vulnerable people are supported.
Sandwell Council’s Cabinet endorsed the Safer Sandwell Partnership Police and Crime Board’s Community Safety Strategy 2022-26.
The main priorities of the strategy – which is co-ordinated across a number of different organisations – are to:
- prevent violence and exploitation
- reduce offending, reoffending and serious organised crime
- prevent and reduce crime and anti-social behaviour
The Partnership will continue work to protect and support vulnerable victims and tackle substance misuse, saving lives and reducing crime. Tackling serious violence is also a key aspect of the plan.
Councillor Bob Piper, Sandwell Council’s cabinet member for community safety, said: “We want everyone in Sandwell to feel safe, protected and confident in their homes and neighbourhoods.
“Community safety is not something that can tackled by any single agency – it requires good and effective partnership work at a local level as well as having good links with regional and national partners.
“Over the past three years, we have strengthened our approaches to community safety. We’ve worked with partners to tackle violence and exploitation and to better support those experiencing domestic abuse, hate crime and anti-social behaviour. Sandwell has become a national exemplar of good practice for our modern slavery work.
“But any victim is one too many – we are committed to tackling crime and disorder, improving information sharing and identifying and supporting those at risk as early as possible.”
The strategy has been developed following a range of surveys and engagement with Sandwell people and partners. It also highlights examples of good practice and recognises the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on vulnerable people in Sandwell’s communities.
The Safer Sandwell Partnership includes a wide range of organisations with the following statutory board members – Sandwell Council, West Midlands Police, West Midlands Fire Service, Black Country & West Birmingham Clinical Commissioning Group and the Probation Service. The Partnership works closely with the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner, Violence Reduction Unit and the West Midlands Community Safety Partnership.
