Drawing up a Local Strategy: Agreeing Priorities
One way of agreeing priorities for the partnership area is to hold a partnership
meeting.
Each of the agencies involved will come to the meeting having first clarified their
own priorities for action. Partners, including the police, local authority, and fire
service will already be devising their own strategic plans with objectives and targets.
Some of these targets will have been guided by national strategies and others will
be planned in response to locally identified needs.
Drafting the Partnership's response to arson problems should take account of individual
agencies' own service objectives, (e.g. policing plan objectives for reductions in
crime and disorder or fire service objectives for reducing hoax calls). Strategies,
which incorporate or complement the objectives of key partners, enabling them to work
in partnership to achieve their own goals, are more likely to succeed. This will
promote a shared understanding of the arson problem and provide useful information
for developing and integrating other plans. See box below.
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Development of other local plans
Although the primary purpose of the audit is to assist in developing strategies
for tackling arson, it can also provide useful information for developing:
Local Policing Plans
Youth Justice Plans
Children’s Services Plan
Local Transport Plan
Social Inclusion Partnership Plans (e.g. SRBs, New Deal for Communities, Health
& Education Action Zone Plans)
Health Improvement Plan
Housing Strategies
Community Care Plan
Probation Service Business Plan
Internal corporate & business plans
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Key partners should also be encouraged to incorporate the partnership's goals in
relation to tackling arson into their own service plans, taking account of the audit
findings for their service. They will then be in a better position to identify their
own specific contribution to the work of the partnership. This will assist Crime
& Disorder Partnerships in complying with s17 of the Crime & Disorder Act, which requires
partner agencies to review the community safety implications of their work.
It is, therefore incumbent on each agency to come to a partnership or inter-agency
task group meeting outlining:
The Group as a whole can then consider the resulting agenda, looking at
Areas of agreement & disagreement
What is known about effective practice in tackling arson
Agree priorities for action
After the meeting individual partners will need to endorse the agreed priorities.
The agreed priorities should be specific to tackling arson.
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