Key External Boards, Panels and Strategic Groups

WCCSJ brings together academics from eight Welsh universities to encourage inter-institutional collaboration to generate high quality, theoretically informed, policy-relevant research on crime and social justice in Wales and beyond.  It also seeks to add value to policy-making and practice by fostering regular communication and debate between academics and members of governmental, public, private and third sector organisations. The WCCSJ is a key research partner for community safety.

Welsh Government, UK Government and Policing in Wales are working together with justice partners to develop Blueprints for delivery of Women’s Justice. The Women’s Justice Blueprint sets out the ambition to accelerate the transformation of services to create a fairer, more equal society with better outcomes and justice for all. It will create sustainable community-based solutions to keep women and communities safe and free from criminal behaviour. The All Wales Women in Justice Board was established to take forward relevant actions, including the engagement of women with lived experience.

Criminal Justice Board for Wales brings together criminal justice partners, including Policing, Police and Crime Commissioners, Public Health Wales, Welsh Government, voluntary sector bodies and Victims Commissioner, as well as the key justice delivery agencies in Wales (HMPPS, HMCTS, YJB, LAA and CPS). The aim is to achieve better outcomes and experiences for those that come into contact with the Criminal Justice System in Wales whether as victims, witnesses or offenders. The Board is chaired by Ian Barrow, Executive Director, HM Prison and Probation Service, Wales and Community Accommodation Services.

Criminal Justice Board for Wales is informed by Local Criminal Justice Boards and has responsibility for the delivery of Integrated Offender Management (IOM) Cymru.

Rachel Allen provides the secretariat for the Board, and is the Criminal Justice Board for Wales Coordinator.

To read the programme of work and up-to-date key messaging from the All Wales Criminal Justice Board click here.

Contest Cymru was established in 2008 and is jointly chaired by the Director of Local Government within Welsh Government and the Chief Constable of South Wales Police.

The Prevent strand of CONTEST has perhaps the biggest impact on Community Safety Partnerships. The Prevent Strategy, published in June 2011, has 3 main objectives:

• to respond to the ideological challenge of terrorism and the threat faced from those who promote it;
• to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism and ensure that they are given appropriate support; and
• to work with a wide range of sectors and institutions (including education, faith, health and criminal justice) where there are risks of radicalisation which need to be addressed.

IOM supports partners in taking a coordinated approach to the management of offenders. While traditionally focused on tackling persistent offenders who commit a lot of crime, it has in recent years been extended in Wales to other priority groups jointly identified by partner agencies.

More recently, the IOM Neighbourhood Crime Strategy, published in December 2020, provides a focus on neighbourhood crime, specifically robbery, burglary, theft from the person, and vehicle theft, whilst still enabling IOM schemes to address local needs. IOM recognises that the complex needs of these individuals are most likely to be met by agencies working together and making the best use of local resources. For more information, including the eight principles in their approach and a link to the new IOM Strategy, visit the IOM Cymru website.

The Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) Consumer Reference Panel meets quarterly, bringing together a range of consumer bodies to gain insight into the consumer perspective and challenge to the work that we do. Membership includes the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA), BSI Consumer Forum, Child Accident Prevention Trust (CAPT), Citizens Advice, Consumer Council Northern Ireland, Advice Direct Scotland, and Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI).

The panel discusses a wide range of OPSS policy and regulatory matters impacting on consumers, including the product safety review, cross-government e-bike and e-scooter activity, and online marketplaces.

Working directly for the eight Corporation soles (the four Police and Crime Commissioners and the four Chief Constables) in Wales Paul Morris is the current Head of Unit with a small but dedicated and dynamic team of serving police officers and staff.

The unit has an office within Welsh Government but is directly accountable to Policing in Wales. The PLU is responsible for ensuring engagement with the devolved administration in Wales, UK Government departments, other key stakeholders in the criminal and social justice arena, representing Chief Constables and Police and Crime Commissioners in those discussions.

The PLU provides a professional voice for Policing in Wales, attending, hosting and offering secretariat for numerous meetings including the Policing Partnership Board for Wales and the Welsh Chief Officer Group. The PLU acts as a bridge between policing as a non-devolved service and Welsh Government, especially in areas of legislation and policy making devolved to Welsh Government.

Contact: PLU@gov.wales

The Policing Partnership Board for Wales is a Police led forum chaired by either the First Minister for Wales or the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice.

The PLU provide the secretariat for this important quarterly meeting and membership includes Welsh Government, Policing in Wales, Secretary of State for Wales, Home Office, HM Prison and Probation Service, Criminal Justice in Wales, Welsh Local Government Association, Violence Prevention Unit, Public Health Wales and the Welsh Safer Communities Network.

Whilst policing is not devolved in Wales this Board provides an opportunity to discuss and advise on policing issues that impact wider public services in Wales.

Secretariat: PLU@gov.wales

The minutes of the meeting are published and can be accessed on the Welsh Government Website – Policing Partnership Board for Wales.

The Single Unified Safeguarding Review (SUSR) is a Welsh Government process which supports agencies in Wales to conduct a cross sector single review. The process creates a simplified yet concentrated approach to reviews which reduces trauma to families, duplication of effort, saves valuable time and achieves best value. The result is a report which focusses on learning and improving service delivery. Reports are then collated and curated in the Wales Safeguarding Repository. The repository enables reviews to be used to highlight themes, recommendations and learning to safeguard future generations. The SUSR support network provides national oversight to the SUSR process and includes the SUSR ministerial board and the SUSR strategy group.

Monthly SUSR briefings are published by the Network.

The Wales Violence Prevention Unit was established in 2019 through the Home Office Violence Reduction Unit fund. The Wales Violence Prevention Unit is a partnership between the South Wales Police and Crime Commissioner, Public Health Wales, and South Wales Police.

The core team work closely with over 30 multisectoral organisations, including health, policing, education, local authorities, governments, and the third sector, supporting a whole-system approach to preventing violence in Wales.

By using evidence to develop interventions that focus on the underlying causes of violence the VPU can properly evaluate these interventions before scaling up each one to help more people and communities across Wales. Through this approach the VPU aim to develop a whole system response to the prevention of violence.

Contact: phw.violencepreventionunit@wales.nhs.uk

The Wales Wildfire Board draws together the Mid and West Wales, North Wales and South Wales Fire and Rescue Services, the four Welsh police forces, Welsh Government, Welsh Local Government Association, Natural Resources Wales, and Welsh national parks. It is a multi-agency approach to better understand and manage the risk of wildfire on the environment and the communities of Wales.

It’s aims and objectives, delivered through a Wales Wildfire Charter, build on the knowledge and experience gained over the last decade whilst paying cognisance to the ever-present danger of climate change and the value of encouraging communities and individuals to work together to protect the areas where we live, work and visit.

The Wales Youth Justice Advisory Panel (WYJAP) is jointly chaired by Welsh Government and the Youth Justice Board. It carries out strategic oversight of the system in Wales and acts as a strategic reference group for change programmes in Wales providing check-and challenge to ensure the “child first” principle is central to development and due regard is always given to the UN Child Rights Convention. This includes the Youth Justice Blueprint.