Safer Kingston Partnership Plan 2024-2029

The Safer Kingston Partnership has taken the decision to integrate the serious violence duty requirements within the Safer Kingston Plan as the priorities and activities required to address them are closely linked. The plan sets out a balanced approach, working in and with communities to prevent, reduce and respond to crime and antisocial behaviour and improve community safety. It outlines our commitment to support victims, a public health approach to prevent and reduce serious violence and reduce reoffending.

Our plan aligns with the statutory priorities and aspirations outlined in London’s Police and Crime Plan 2022-25. It also aligns with Kingston’s Council Plan 2023-27, which provides a vision for working with partners and communities to ensure the borough is Greener, Fairer, Safer, Together. It reflects the ambition outlined in Inclusive Kingston 2021-25 to reduce inequality and establish Kingston as an area with equality of opportunity, an area of fairness and an area that is inclusive. Kingston is a Marmot borough and we will embed the Marmot principles from the Marmot Review, Fair Society, Healthy Lives into our work to reduce inequality and improve health outcomes. This guarantees a collective approach to achieving the best possible outcomes for our communities.

What is community safety?

Community safety is about helping communities to be safe and feel safe. It is important that people feel safe where they live, work, study or spend their leisure time. Community safety is not just about focusing on the crime types that are committed, we also have to focus on understanding and addressing what causes people to be vulnerable to becoming victims or perpetrators of crime, exploitation and antisocial behaviour. 

Crime harm

Crime harm refers to the negative impacts of crime on individuals and society. While crime is often seen as a harm in its own right, the negative impacts related to any one incident will differ by the type of crime experienced as well as the perspective of the victim. These harms include a wide range of outcomes for both individuals, such as physical harm and financial loss, and for communities and wider society, such as fear of crime and increased use of health and victim support services.

Perceptions of safety

Perceptions of safety contribute to personal wellbeing and community health, it has economic implications, and is a matter of equity and social justice. Understanding and addressing perceptions of safety contributes to quality of life and creating safer, more inclusive and vibrant public spaces that benefit communities and local businesses.

A proactive relationship with our residents and communities

By engaging with our communities, we hear the concerns about crime, antisocial behaviour and feelings of safety but it is also clear that different people and communities experience different things. There are variations in views and experiences by gender, age, ethnicity and socio-economic groups; as well as variations in patterns of crime and anti-social behaviour, with the types of issues that are prevalent varying across and within different types of areas, leading people to have different views and experiences of where they live, work, study or spend their leisure time.

Our services are valued for keeping people safe and safeguarding and protecting people who are at risk of harm, but there is also a strong desire for community action and wanting to do more together, particularly to improve safety in our public spaces. Our residents have told us they want efficient and effective services, no matter who provides them. We will continue working in partnership to:

1. Place people and communities at the centre of our planning
2. Have regular engagement with our communities
3. Make sure that there are better-connected services

We will work alongside victims, amplifying their voices and promoting their interests to ensure the victim's voice is heard and that lessons learned from their experiences are used to inform and shape practices, policies and service provision.

We will empower those with lived experience of the criminal justice system to talk directly about their experiences to better understand how current systems can exacerbate the cycle of crisis and crime and how we can better provide the support necessary to break this cycle.

Being safe and feeling safe is recognised as an important element of wellbeing and can provide the foundation for wider improvements in people’s quality of life. We are committed to community collaboration to strengthen trust, confidence and accountability.

Tackling the issues that matter

It is important to recognise that crime trends can be very local and specific to a neighbourhood, high street location or public space. Therefore, there are differences in the types and experiences of crime dependent on the area of the borough.

There is strong evidence to suggest that crime and antisocial behaviour is not evenly distributed, but rather is highly concentrated. Some neighbourhoods, streets and people are much more likely to experience crime than others, and more regularly. Similarly, some offenders are more prolific than others and commit higher volumes of crime. The Beating Crime Plan published by the Government in 2021 indicates that nationally:

• Homicide, serious violence, and neighbourhood crime are concentrated in certain neighbourhoods, with nearly a quarter of neighbourhood crime concentrated in just 5% of local areas.
• Many of these crimes are committed by a small number of persistent offenders, with just 5% of offenders accounting for up to 50% of all crime.
• Drugs often play a prominent role; and in the year to March 2020 48% of homicides were drug-related.

The research findings on how crime is concentrated have important implications for crime prevention and suggest that focusing resources on, and targeting crime prevention activities towards, the people and places that experience most crime or contribute most to the problem will be most effective.

There will also be differences in the types of crime that go unreported, which may also cause a disproportionate effect on understanding crime locally. The voices of those who have been directly affected, as well as the experiences of local communities are critical in helping us to understand the things which affect their safety and can assist us to better respond to specific needs.