Warwickshire News Mine

A number of extremely positive outcomes were reported at the partnership’s meeting last week. Highlights include a significant fall in young people entering custody, a steady rise in people entering effective drug treatment and a dramatic reduction in the number of people killed or injured on Warwickshire’s roads.

The Warwickshire Youth Justice Service reported a drop of 67 per cent in young people entering custody from 34 in 2006 to only 11 in 2009. Diane Johnson, head of service said: “It is really pleasing to see fewer young people entering custody and courts recognising that there are other alternatives available to help prevent re-offending.

“For instance, our intensive supervision programmes are designed to address the issues behind the young person’s offending and helps them understand the consequences of their crime, with the majority of those placed with us responding well to the programme and committing no further offences.”

The county’s Drug and Alcohol Action Team have been instrumental in ensuring that Warwickshire continues to perform well in relation to drug treatment targets. Local data shows that there were 27 more people in effective drug treatment in the six months April-September 2009 at 1,031, compared to 1004 in the same period in 2008.

DAAT Manager, Kit Leck said: "Tackling drugs has been a county and district priority for some time. Research shows that between a third and a half of acquisitive crimes such as burglary and robbery are drug related. 

"This is why we are so pleased to announce that our NHS and voluntary sector partners have achieved such impressive results in the sustained engagement of drug users in treatment." 

Provisional data also shows a sustained year on year reduction in the number of people killed or seriously injured on Warwickshire’s roads, down from 397 in 2007, to 348 in 2008 and 255 to date in 2009. Partnership efforts to advice and instruct new and existing drivers about road safety have played a big part in getting these figures down.

Estyn Williams, Road Safety Group Manager at Warwickshire County Council said: “Whilst we are pleased to report a reduction in casualties on Warwickshire roads, we cannot become complacent in our efforts to reduce this number further.

“Too many people are still being injured or killed with devastating effects on local families so we will continue to work together with our partners to raise awareness of road safety initiatives to residents.

“One such initiative is Driving Ambitions – a course for secondary school pupils to embed good driving attitudes before they even get behind a wheel. Our figures show that young people are involved in a disproportionately large number of incidents so we are currently working with 85 per cent of the county’s secondary schools to deliver this course which we hope will reduce their risk of being involved in an accident.”

Councillor Richard Hobbs, Portfolio Holder for Community Protection and Chair of Warwickshire Safer Communities Partnership said: “The impressive figures reported to the group prove the great success of the partnership’s work to promote a shared vision to tackle crime and disorder in the county.

“I’m reassured to know that people are getting the support they need, that information is readily available to them, and most importantly that our approach is working.”

The Safer Communities Partnership includes membership from Warwickshire County Council, Warwickshire Police, the district and borough councils, NHS Warwickshire, Warwickshire Probation, and the Crown Prosecution Service.  Each represented agency is committed to protecting communities by fighting crime, providing treatment and support services and issuing relevant safety information to residents.

For more information please visit http://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/communitysafety.

Link to WCC