Drugs & Alcohol
Communities Against Drugs 2002-03 Guidance
Home Office Circular 15 /2002
This Circular is about: The Communities Against Drugs Initiative: - 2002 - 2003
From: Crime Reduction Programmes and Partnerships' Unit
Expiry Date: None
Effective From 10 September 2002
For general information about this circular contact:
Helena Pawson, CRPU, Room 608, Clive House, Petty France, LONDON, SW1H 9HD Tel: 020 7271 8335 email: Helena.Pawson@homeoffice.gsi.gov.ukThis Circular is addressed to:
Crime & Disorder Reduction Partnerships
Drug Action Teams
Chief Officers of Police (England and Wales)
Clerk to the Police Authority
Chief Executives of Local Authorities (England and Wales)
1. Introduction
1.1 This circular provides guidance on the second year of the Communities Against Drugs (CAD) programme to Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships. The circular deals with:
the programme's outcomes and objectives.
allocation of funds
specific arrangements for the 10 areas participating in the Street Crime Initiative in 2002-03.
1.2 The circular is also for the information of Drug Action Teams (DATs) in England, and Drug and Alcohol Action Teams (DAATs) in Wales, and of Local Authority Finance Officers to whom the Communities Against Drugs funds will be paid in the first instance.
1.3 This circular is additional to and builds on the advice given in Home Office Circular 23/2001 and the programme management guidance in Home Office Circular 14/2002.
1.4 The Communities Against Drugs initiative is aimed at illicit drugs as covered by the Government's 10 year strategy to tackle the problem of drug misuse, 'Tackling Drugs to Build a Better Britain' (1998). The initiative is not intended to deal with problems or crime caused by alcohol, or other substance misuse.
1.5. Further guidance will be issued on the Communities Against Drugs initiative for 2003 – 2004.
1.6 Guidance on anti-drugs and crime reduction activity can be found on the crime reduction and drugs web sites (www.crimereduction.gov.uk and www.drugs.gov.uk).
2. Background
2.1 Home Office Circular 23/2001 provided advice to partnerships for the effective use of CAD funding in 2001 – 2002
2.2. This circular provides further advice and guidance to partnerships in planning and delivering the CAD programme in 2002 - 2003. In particular, the guidance:
sets the wider context of the programme.
provides information about the allocation of the additional £20 million funding to partnerships in the 10 Street Crime Initiative police force areas for capacity building and interventions, in 2002 – 2003
confirms the programme's baseline allocations, totalling £50 million, to all partnerships.
2.3 The circular sets out the immediate steps that partnerships need to undertake to plan additional CAD activity and secure funding for CAD activity already under way.
2.4 In preparing this guidance, we have endeavoured to take account of the comments received from partnerships about Home Office Circular 23/2001, and the management of the programme in 2001 – 2002.
3. Communities Against Drugs – Delivering on Outcomes
3.1 The Communities Against Drugs programme is part of the Communities aim of the Government's 10 year anti-drugs strategy which deals with the effect of drugs on communities including crime, social exclusion, neighbourhood decline and drug supply. It sets Crime and Disorder Partnerships three key delivery objectives to:
disrupt drugs markets.
tackle drug related crime
strengthen communities to withstand drugs problems.
3.2 In planning the mix of activity required to deliver locally, partnerships should also ensure consistency with the delivery of other programmes such as those covering such as crime reduction and neighbourhood renewal. Partnerships should use best value performance indicators and local public service agreements, where they are being negotiated, to inform their planning. But it remains up to CDRPs, in conjunction with DATs, to decide how best to meet the programme's key objectives in their own area.
3.3 Meeting these objectives and sustaining them over the longer term requires a genuine "community" approach, involving such bodies as educational establishments, local landlords, voluntary groups etc.
3.4 This funding is to provide services that would not otherwise be provided – it is not to shore up or replace mainstream funding.
4. Communities Against Drugs - allocation of Funds in 2002 - 2003
4.1 The total funding available for Communities Against Drugs in, 2002 – 2003, is £70 million. Partnerships already have baseline allocations totalling £50 million. The total additional funding available is therefore £20 million.
4.2 Partnerships' baseline allocations for 2002 – 2003 are the same as the sums received in 2001 – 2002, allocated on the basis of a funding formula comprising recorded acquisitive crime (50%), population (30%) and even split 20%. The allocations are set out in Table 1 at Annex A to this circular. Funding for 2003 – 2004 is subject to final decisions being made on the spending review, due as soon as possible.
4.3 Ministers have decided that the additional £20 million should be allocated to the 10 police force areas which are covered by the street crime initiative, to ensure that those aspects of the problem which are drugs related can be dealt with effectively. The funding is ring fenced for two purposes: interventions and building partnerships' capacity.
4.4 The additional funding was allocated on 1 July 2002, initially on an indicative basis, to the 46 robbery hotspot CDRPs in the 10 street crime areas. There was local flexibility to adjust the allocations by up to 30% taking account of local needs and requirements of the street crime programme (see para 5.3). The funding has been allocated on the basis of a funding formula comprising robbery (70%) and even split (30%). The allocations are confirmed in Table 2 at Annex A.
4.5 The capital element on the programme (baseline and uplift) in 2002 – 2003 is 34 %. Partnerships must spend 34% of their total allocations for 2002 – 2003 (baseline and where allocated, additional funding) on capital items. The remaining 66% of allocations can be spent on revenue or capital items. The split on the programme's funding is shown in the table below
Capital | £24m | (34%) |
Revenue | £46m | (66%) |
5. Communities Against Drugs – Ways of Working
5.1 This section deals with the immediate steps partnerships are already taking on the CAD programme. As before, it is up to CDRPs (in conjunction with DATs) to decide how best to deliver the programme's objectives in their own area. Partnerships in all areas should seek to co-operate in sharing spend on activities which can impact against the key aims of CAD but which can best be delivered on a larger area, county or even regional basis, where these can be demonstrated to impact on local problems. Activities should be monitored to ensure that they simply do not displace problems across boundaries. Partnerships in the Street Crime areas will need to also be mindful of how they might best support the drug related aspects of this initiative, consulting those responsible for it, as appropriate.
(a) Partnerships in receipt of baseline allocations
5.2 Partnerships outside the 46 CDRP robbery hotspots which have not received a share of the additional funding should be taking the following steps with the DAT and local police commander, if they have not done so already:
Review activity underway in 2001 – 2002 and committed for 2002 – 2003 (for example, many interventions will be planned to run for each of the three years of the programme, or some capital projects may span more than one year).
Provide a plan to the Crime Reduction Team and Drugs Prevention Advisory Service showing on-going interventions and new activity for 2002 – 2003, showing what was completed in 2001 – 2002.
Show outturn on expenditure for 2001 – 2002 together with an application to draw down grant for the first quarter of 2002 – 2003 (see Home Office Circular 14/2002).
(b) Partnerships in the Street Crime Initiative Areas
5.3 Partnerships will have taken the following steps:
CDRPs and DATs should be consulting Street Crime Action Groups in drawing up their plans.
Those involved in developing the Partnership's plan should consider whether up to 30% of the extra funding should be made available to those neighbouring CDRP areas which had not received any further funding, especially where displacement may be an issue, or should be used for cross border programmes of work.
5.4 Once local partnerships' have agreed their plans these will need to be provided together with plans for baseline funded activity to Crime Reduction Teams and the Drugs Prevention Advisory Service with a claim for payment for the first quarter's CAD funding.
5.5 Grant payments will continue to be paid to the relevant Local Authority Finance Officers, who will be responsible for the administration of Communities Against Drugs funding. However, payments in 2002 – 2003 will be staged differently and linked to the monitoring of partnerships' CAD activity. The first 25% installment of grant will be paid after a CAD activity plan has been agreed by the local partnership and submitted to the Crime Reduction Team and Drugs Prevention Advisory Service. The subsequent installments will be paid quarterly following a certified claim and report from partnerships on progress against their CAD activity plan (see Home Office Circular 14/2002). These arrangements do not alter the CDRP's and DAT's ability to determine its own local priorities.
6. Conditions of Grant
6.1. The full grant conditions relating to the Communities Against Drugs initiative in 2002 – 2003 are attached at Appendix B to this notice (some partnerships have already been issued with these). The conditions of grant continue to set out the basic requirements on the local authority in terms of audit and accountability, the conditions on which the money is to be assigned to CDRPs, and their responsibilities in ensuring that funds are used appropriately. The key existing conditions on the programme remain, and these are:
activities funded under the programme must be directly related to achieve its key delivery objectives and outcomes.
the Crime and Disorder Partnership's plan for the use of the funding must be agreed by the DAT and the local police commander (who may also be members of both partnerships). Those charged with this role must ensure that their agreement is in line with the broader anti-drugs strategy and that of their organisation alongside an understanding as to the impact the agreed CAD plan may have on their mainstream activity and vice versa.
6.2 Communities Against Drugs funding will continue to be paid to the relevant local authority who will act as treasurer for the partnership. The money is transferred to the local authority for the specific use of the CDRP and for the designated purposes of Communities Against Drugs and for no other purpose. For audit purposes, the local authority will continue to provide an annual statement of expenditure for each year of the funding programme and provide this to the auditor appointed by the Audit Commission.
6.3 Local Authorities should not sign and return the grant conditions on the basis of this circular. A separate letter will have been sent to them, or will shortly be sent to them, by Crime Reduction Directors.
7. Communities Against Drugs Evaluation Strategy
7.1 The Drugs and Alcohol Research Unit of the Home Office is evaluating Communities Against Drugs projects to examine what works best in disrupting the operation of local drug markets and reducing the harm and social nuisance to local communities. The evaluation will consider a range of issues including; whether interventions have only short-term or long-term effects in tackling local drug issues, whether they divert problems to other areas and which types of interventions are best suited to respond to local circumstances. Results will be fed back to assist local partnerships in using funds effectively. This evaluation is intended to augment rather than replace any local evaluation implemented by partnerships and will include a number of cross-site streams of work.
7.2 Action plans received from CAD partnerships are examined to identify promising projects for evaluation. A key area of interest from the 140 plans received by November 2001, were interventions to tackle the local supply of drugs. Two promising streams of work included mobile CCTV and the use of neighbourhood wardens. For each stream, three socially and geographically diverse partnerships were identified as being involved in carrying out such work - they were consulted about, and agreed to be included in a multi-site evaluation. Evaluation specifications and invitations to tender were issued to a range of potential evaluators and work began in April 2002. Early findings are expected later in 2002 and these will be reported back to Crime Reduction Teams, DPAS, Partnerships, the Crime Reduction Website and toolkit.
7.3 Further evaluation topics will be identified over the coming months. The evaluations will be carried out by Drugs and Alcohol Research Unit staff or contracted external evaluators. Further details are available from Jennifer Airs (jennifer.airs@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk )
7.4 As part of their ongoing review of projects funded by the partnership, partnerships should consider the need for local evaluations of their specific projects to determine their impact and effectiveness; and to report on these as required in the course of review by regional Crime Reduction and drugs teams
8. Guidance and Advice
8.1 Essential guidance and advice on dealing with the problems of drugs markets and drug related crime can be found in the
Communities Against Drugs toolkit on the Crime Reduction website (www.crimereduction.gov.uk) - comprehensive guidance on how to assess need and to plan and manage programmes tackling drug crime and supply. Other toolkits and areas of the site may also provide useful advice and guidance.
Drugs web site (www.drugs.gov.uk)
Calling Time on Crime - the HMIC report on crime reduction (ISBN 1-84082-486-7)
8.2 Crime Reduction Teams and the Drugs Prevention Advisory Service in the regions in England, and the Crime Reduction Team and the Substance Misuse Intervention Branch in Wales, will continue to provide advice and support to partnerships as they develop their plans.
8.3 Contact addresses and telephone numbers are attached at Annex C.
8.4 Further information about actions to tackle drug problems in communities can be obtained from:
Robin Burgess Drugs Strategy Directorate 50 Queen Anne's Gate LONDON SWIH 9AT Tel: 020 7217 8435 email:Robin.Burgess@homeoffice.gsi.gov.ukGeneral enquiries to:
Helena Pawson Crime Reduction Programme Unit Home Office Clive House Petty France LONDON SW1H 9HD Tel: 020 7271 8335 email:Helena.Pawson@homeoffice.gsi.gov.ukYours sincerely
Liz Wicksteed
Crime Reduction Programmes and Partnerships Unit
Appendices
Last update: Friday, October 06, 2006