Praise for partnership project tackling Serious and Organised Crime
Posted on Wednesday 27th February 2019
A project to tackle Serious and Organised Crime (SOC) in Newport will continue for a second year after the Home Office approved funding.
The work is carried out under the umbrella of the One Newport Public Service Board partnership supported by Newport City Council, Gwent Police, Barnardos, Newport Live, Mutual Gain and Crimestoppers.
Newport was identified as one of the pilot locations for the scheme and Home Office funding delivers a coordinator and delivery programmes to support prevention and intervention work, develop community resilience and raise awareness of the growing problem within communities.
A joint letter praising the project’s success so far has gone out from Newport City Council Leader Councillor Debbie Wilcox and Jeff Cuthbert, Police and Crime Commissioner for Gwent, to all organisations involved.
The letter says: “We are well aware serious and organised crime harms individuals and communities on a daily basis and has a corrosive impact on the fabric of communities.
“We would like to thank the PSB and partners and staff for the huge commitment to the programme to date
“And we are pleased to announce that the Home Office has confirmed that funding will be made available for a second year of this work, to March 2020.
“This means the prevention and intervention programmes will be extended for this period, with further work being considered subject to the year one evaluation by Swansea University, which is also underway.
“All of the feedback so far tells us that partnership has been key to the success in Newport and this has enabled us to progress with events, identification and intervention with ‘at risk’ groups, the development of referral pathways, shared data and intelligence, making the most of this funding opportunity.
“We are sure this will have influenced the funding extension.”
The work also supports council policies by contributing to the well-being plan, community resilience, the ACEs work by Gwent Police and is leading to development of understanding across partners and services, including the third sector.
The SOC delivery board, chaired by Gwent Police, will continue to have oversight of the funding and delivery, reporting to the Safer Newport subgroup of the PSB.