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Good practice for Police Authorities and Forces in obtaining CSO funding
Neighbourhood policing is mainstream policing activity and community safety is an outcome shared between Crime & Disorder Reduction Partnership (CDRP) partners. That being so, you shouldn't only look for funding from the Home Office for Community Support Officer (CSO) funding. Seeking support from other sources – such as other central funding streams and local government, business and other organisations - is just as important. Moreover, there is a distinct advantage in achieving additional matched funding. Where police authorities and forces achieve their target number of CSOs by 2008, then any surplus resources obtained may be spent as they see fit – provided that the money is spent on neighbourhood policing. Therefore, the more matched funding acquired, the better placed Forces will be to invest further in policing your local communities.
Title: Good practice for Police Authorities and Forces in obtaining CSO funding
Author: Home Office
Number of pages: 28
Date published: February 2006
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There are a variety of partners who may be interested in providing matched funding. These include local authorities, parish councils, universities, colleges and schools, local markets, local transport providers, chambers of commerce, local businesses, and others interested in safer neighbourhoods and the well-being of local communities. There is no better way to promote the benefits of matched funding than to draw in media sources, linking the investment to the opportunities this presents to foster safer communities. Increased community safety then promotes increased business and personal opportunities and the delivery of local economic and social development. Holding open meetings and open sessions, inviting potential investors, can have a significant impact.
Potential partners will need to be persuaded of the benefits. There are altruistic, commercial and business benefits. Natural community supporters such as charitable trusts will need little persuasion in terms of the likely outcomes of supporting focussed, neighbourhood policing initiatives such as CSOs. Many trusts, businesses and partners may find it unaffordable to provide the funding for a full time, fully funded CSO. In these situations two approaches could be adopted: either agree to employ CSOs on a part time basis, or agree to match fund, (for example if a CSO costs £25,000pa and the 'Client' contributed half this amount, £12,500pa, then the authority would match fund, providing a full time CSO). This approach has been adopted by Hertfordshire Police Authority and Constabulary and is proving an excellent way of engaging with Parish and Town Councils, which normally would not be able to bear the cost implications.
Funding need not be only in the form of cash. It could take other forms of tangible support, such as accommodation for teams, secure lock up for equipment, meetings or training events or the provision or use of equipment e.g. CCTV, or vehicles/bikes or mobile phones to make CSOs accessible. Some providers may also wish to offer staff time, experience and expertise, be it administrative, technical or otherwise.
Once you have found an organisation supportive of neighbourhood policing which is willing to invest, you should agree the terms and conditions applying to the funding. Potential partners should be encouraged to fund for an initial fixed period, which could be extended. Two years would be a reasonable start-up period, and the amount of funding is negotiable. There may be justification for seeking initial set-up costs. Negotiations with the provider should focus on what they will gain from the funding; and on details such as where, how and when the CSOs will be deployed and what they will be expected to achieve, which should be integrated, prioritised and tasked according to the National Intelligence Model process. A guide to developing your own service level agreement, used by Sussex Police Authority and Sussex Police, is given in the full guidance document.
Government Offices for the regions (GOs) can facilitate links between crime reduction programmes and other Government initiatives such as social inclusion, neighbourhood renewal and sustainable development, through local and regional partnership working. They are not themselves a direct source of funding but are well placed to signpost and provide advice and information about regional and national funding sources. The GOs also oversee the negotiation of Safer & Stronger Communities Fund (SSCF) Agreements and Local Areas Agreements (LAAs) where they exist.
Both the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF) and the SSCF are funding streams that give local areas added flexibility to spend money according to local priorities. You may be able to tap into these funding streams in order to fund CSOs.
The NRF is a targeted grant that can be spent in any way that will tackle deprivation in the 86 most deprived neighbourhoods. The Fund for the next 2 years will be £525 million pa. For further information on NRF allocations and applications procedures, please contact the eligible local authority's Neighbourhood Renewal Team. To see if your area receives NRF go to http://www.odpm.gov.uk/pns//pnattach/20050142/1.doc
The SSCF is aimed at tackling crime, anti-social behaviour and drugs, empowering communities and improving the conditions of streets and public places. It is paid to all local authorities in England for allocation to partners in line with local priorities. It will total at least £220m in 2006/07 and at least £230m in 2007/08. All local partners should be involved in negotiating the area's SSCF agreement which will determine how the money is spent. These negotiations will be led by the Local Strategic Partnership or the CDRP. You could present proposals to use some of the Fund to provide for CSOs but this would need to have all partners' approval before any funding was agreed. In areas that have a Local Area Agreement (LAA) the SSCF becomes the Safer and Stronger Communities block of the LAA. LAA negotiations are led by the Local Strategic Partnership.
The full guidance document also contains details of 9 case studies and an example service level agreement for provision of additional CSOs.
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Good practice for Police Authorities and Forces in obtaining CSO funding
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Last update: 16 February 2006