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Key External Boards, Panels and Strategic Groups

The Wales Safer Communities Network, works with and attends a range of National Partnership Boards, Panels and Strategy Groups across Wales and England and Wales. The following provides a summary of a number of these. There are other meetings that we are involved in on a less formal footing including presenting to Community Safety Partnerships, Fire Chief Community Risk Reduction and Regional/Local Serious Violence and Organised Crime, as well as being involved in specific themed areas of work such as the development of a new VAWDASV Strategy for Wales.

The 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. For more information please visit the WCCSJ website

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.

The ASB Strategic Board sets out its purpose in the terms of reference as:

“The purpose of the Anti-Social Behaviour Strategic Board is for a range of partners and representatives from  relevant  agencies and  Government Departments to  work together to identify and assess strategic issues relating to ASB and share information and good  practice in  order  to support an  effective  multi-agency response to ASB. Victims’ perspectives and needs will always be a key consideration of the Board.” This is an England and Wales Board.

Criminal Justice in 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 Amy Rees, Director General for Probation and Wales.

CJiW 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 in 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, please visit the IOM Cymru website.

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 Minister 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 SUSR project, is a Welsh Government initiative, which will support agencies in Wales to conduct a cross sector single review process. 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 end result is a report which focusses on learning and improving service delivery which is collated and curated in the Wales Safeguarding Repository. The repository then enables the reviews to be used to highlight themes, recommendations and learning to safeguard future generations.

Staywise Cymru aims to provide safety resources, activity packs and lesson plans in the medium of Welsh and English from a diverse range of services for both primary and secondary school age children. There is also information for parents.

The Wales Violence Prevention Unit was established through funding from the Home Office in 2019. The core team comprises members from police forces, the Police and Crime Commissioner, Public Health Wales, Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS), Home Office Immigration and the voluntary sector.

Director of the Unit is Jon Drake works with both core members and associate members in order to take a public health approach to preventing violence.

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

For more information: Violence Prevention Unit

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.