The Safe Newcastle Board is scheduled to meet on Monday 6 October 2025 to discuss the Safe Newcastle Annual Report 2024-25, an update on EPiC hubs and City Safe, and an alternative giving scheme. The board will also receive an update on fixed term recalls and review the forward plan.

Here are the topics that are scheduled to be discussed at the meeting:

Safe Newcastle Annual Report 2024-25

The board is scheduled to discuss the Safe Newcastle Annual Report 2024-25. According to the covering note, the report has been produced by the Newcastle City Council (NCC) Community Safety Team with input from board member agencies.

The report is the first annual report produced on behalf of the Community Safety Partnership (CSP) for some time. According to the covering note, the board will be asked to receive the report and sign-off the final version for publication on the Safe Newcastle website.

The annual report is scheduled to include:

• Achievements, successes and challenges faced by the CSP
• Key projects and details of what the CSP does
• An illustration of the level of demand for community safety services in Newcastle during 2024-25
• Key performance indicators for the past three years, including trends over this period. The key measure for the CSP is around public feelings of safety, which remains around 93% for residents of Newcastle.

The report is structured around the four key objectives set out by the Safe Newcastle Plan (2023-26):

• Building safer neighbourhoods
• Protecting people from harm
• Reducing violence
• Strengthening leadership

The report also looks forward to the year ahead.

Building safer neighbourhoods

The report highlights the work of the Empowering People in Communities (EPiC) project, which has been expanded across Newcastle on a priority basis. The team are split into three hubs (north, east, west). Over the last twelve months, EPiC has achieved:

• 5843 residents engaged through interventions
• 35 new projects initiated to tackle issues in their neighbourhoods
• 470 additional fly-tipping identified and reported
• 14 Community Volunteers recruited
• 460 community walkabouts arranged and undertaken with partners, councillors and others
• 108 additional housing related issues identified and reported
• 673 businesses engaged
• 564 youths engaged

The report also mentions the Victim Approach to Anti-Social Behaviour (AVATAH) hub, which ensures that all agencies involved with the victim are aware of all the details of the case and can exchange information and plan suitable interventions specific to the case.

The City Safe project, launched in 2024, is also highlighted. Working from a base in the city centre, officers from Newcastle City Council, Northumbria Police and NE1 tackle issues of crime and reduce anti-social behaviour.

The report states that City Safe has made 230 arrests, 233 persons have been stop and searched for weapons, drugs and stolen items, 146 crime investigations for wide ranging offences, 46 Community Protection Warnings, 15 Community Protection Notices have been jointly served and 1 Sexual Risk Order has been served.

Turnaround, a youth early intervention programme led by the Ministry of Justice, is also mentioned. Between 2022 and 2024, the programme supported 141 children, through a dedicated practitioner.

The report also notes that the council has been reducing the use of custodial sentences in the Youth Justice system, down from 5 in 2023-24 to 3 last year.

Other initiatives mentioned include:

• Operation Impact: Targeted days of action combining education, visibility, offender targeting and enforcement across key locations.
• Operation Canvas: A new retail crime initiative with 61 retail crime prosecutions and 31 retailers onboarded.
• Operation Lagan: Resulting in a 57% reduction in vehicle crime targeted towards taxi drivers
• Operation Capio: to tackle motorcycle related anti-social behaviour, with increased seizures and offender targeting.
• Approved an extended property licensing scheme for private rented properties (five years from April 2025), focussed on dealing with deprivation and antisocial behaviour.

Looking forward, the report mentions the Community Bridge Builders initiative, a government funded project which aims to strengthen relationships and bridge divides within communities to create a more connected Newcastle.

The report also mentions the implementation of an Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) Graded Response Pathway, which provides a framework for Police, Local Authority (LA), Youth Justice Service and Early Help when supporting identified young people engaging in negative behaviour in Newcastle.

The Young Futures Programme is also mentioned, under which the government will intervene earlier to ensure children and young people who are facing poorer outcomes and are vulnerable to being drawn into crime are identified and offered support in a more systematic way.

Finally, the report mentions initial discussions that have taken place about developing an alternative giving scheme in the city centre, to ensure that donations from the public go directly to charities working with the street community, providing services to vulnerable individuals.

Protecting people from harm

The report states that Newcastle received a ring-fenced allocation of £766,658 in 2024/25 from MHCLG for its statutory duty and increased capacity of local services to reduce waiting lists for Violence Against Women & Girls (VAWG) services.

The report also mentions that the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner have funded the council to expand the perpetrator offer. The new service provides early intervention work for perpetrators, support for those causing high risk and high harm to their victims and support to children and adolescents who are using abuse and violence towards their parents and carers.

The report notes that Rape Crisis Tyneside and Northumberland (RCTN) continued to deliver Shout Up training to staff and managers or pubs, clubs, and venues to tackle sexual harassment in the night-time economy. 65 venues are currently accredited, with further venues to be added during 2025/26.

The council was successful in a funding bid for Safer Streets Round 5 funding, which allows the council to provide Street Marshals in Jesmond, Byker and the West End, until March 2025 although with reduced capacity.

The report also mentions the council's White Ribbon Accreditation, and that the council maintains its network of Ambassadors and Champions across the authority who have supported the council to promote and advocate the campaign messages in their workplace and communities.

The report notes that the council continues to offer specialist domestic and sexual violence training through a regular schedule of courses alongside bespoke training courses to meet identified training needs.

The council completed three domestic abuse related death reviews (DARDs) and are implementing the learning and recommendations. The council has recently commenced two further DARDs.

The report states that the council works with a range of partners to tackle hate crime and monitor community tensions across the city, and that the council coordinates and chairs the multi-agency Newcastle Hate Crime and Community Tensions Monitoring Group (HCCTMG).

The council continues to actively work with the Local Government Association (LGA) and colleagues across the country in countering hate activity targeting asylum seekers and refugees who are living in emergency accommodation provided by the Home Office.

The council continues to commission the charity Stop Hate UK (SHUK) as its third-party reporting option for the city.

The report mentions that the council has established an Alcohol Action Group, reporting to the Health & Wellbeing Board, working with partners to tackle broad alcohol harms in the city.

The report also notes that additional spend from the drug & alcohol grant has led to a number of initiatives and projects linked to community safety, including:

• A dedicated post to review all Safeguarding Adult Reviews and Domestic Abuse Homicide Reviews where substances have been a factor.
• Working together with the VRU and the other 5 local authorities across the force area to co-commission a drug testing on arrest provision across the force with extension of testing to violence and domestic violence which will include evaluation.
• A stigma education package has been produced by Northumbria University, which will be rolled out supported by lived experience.
• Bespoke training has been funded on Mental Capacity Act (MCA) and alcohol as well as a consideration of additional training around drugs and alcohol and domestic abuse.
• The new Revival Lived Experience collaboration partnership is made up of organisations, services and people with lived experience of substances and a range of vulnerabilities.
• Various operational delivery support from the grant to improve targeted groups such as rough sleepers, criminal justice support for people affected by substances, increasing naloxone¹.

The report also mentions CONTEST, the government's strategy for Counter Terrorism, and that the local governance of CONTEST is overseen by the Community Safety partnership.

Looking forward, the report states that the council has extended the contract with Harbour for the behaviour change programme for perpetrators of domestic abuse until March 2027.

The council will focus activity on raising awareness of the impact of domestic abuse on children and young people.

The council is developing new training focused on domestic abuse and suicide risk as well as domestic abuse and housing.

The council will be carrying out a further five DARDs during 2025/26 with the potential for other reviews to also be initiated should other deaths occur which meet the Home Office criteria.

The report notes that the high cost of living, and energy cost increases are placing a strain on families and individuals, and that such stressors increase the risks for those living with domestic abuse with the potential for more severity of incidents and limiting victims' options.

The council will continue to raise awareness of the different forms of hate and promote the importance of reporting all hate incidents.

The council recently received funding from MHCLG's Community Cohesion and Resilience Programme (CCRP) to deliver community cohesion work directly with the community and voluntary sectors, to support to local areas to deliver projects that build community relationships and work to prevent and counter harmful narratives.

From issues identified through the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) ethnic minorities health needs assessment, the council will continue its work supporting and working with key leads in the ethnic minority communities to agree their key priorities and community led support for drug and alcohol and recovery, increasing awareness of services.

The council will focus on a review of criminal justice pathways for people affected by substances, with a dedicated task and finish group and consideration of an offender health needs assessment.

The council is embedding a new non-fatal overdose pathway and developing a regional suicide cluster response.

The council will promote the new Home Office online Prevent and Channel awareness training packages.

Reducing violence

The report mentions the Hotspot Response Fund (Project Shield), which targets anti-social behaviour and serious violence in 15 specific hotpots in Northumbria.

The report also mentions the Seasonal Violence Fund, through which the VRU provide funding to tackle seasonal issues across the city.

Through VRU funding, the Youth Justice Service developed a focussed deterrence model, working with young people who are committing serious violence in the city.

The VRU Education Team educate young people on the risks and consequences of violence and carrying weapons, covering the law around knife crime, exploitation, online safety, drugs & alcohol. In 2024-25, the team delivered 1584 sessions across 169 schools in the region, reaching over 34,000 pupils.

In October 2024 the Violence Prevention Ambassadors Programme was launched to help tackle the root causes of serious violence. Since its launch, the programme has trained over 130 ambassadors.

Other initiatives mentioned include:

• Operation Aegis: taking a problem-solving approach to reduce the impact of repeat high frequency domestic abuse.
• Operation Edinburgh: A police & partner response to organised crime
• Creation of the Serious Violence Disruption Unit: A force-wide resource deployed into serious violence hotspot areas and responding dynamically to incidents as they arise.
• Intensive work around 'County Lines'
• Trainee Detective Programme: Offering young people an immersive, handson experience to understand the impact of knife crime through a week-long programme that mirrors a real-life investigation.

Looking forward, the report mentions an extension of funding for the Focussed Deterrence programme, which will enable the dedicated officer to be retained and the interventions designed to support young people at risk of committing serious youth violence.

Children's Social Care are currently leading on the development of a multi-agency service co-located within Youth Justice (YJ) to coordinate, support and manage children across all tiers of safeguarding who are deemed to be at risk of exploitation and extra-familial harm. This is referred to as Risk Outside The Home (ROTH).

The Government has a made a commitment to halving knife crime and violence against women and girls (VAWG) over the next 10 years as part of its Safer Streets manifesto pledge. As part of this, the revised guidance for VRU's clearly indicates a need to work with partners to prepare for a 'pivot' of activity locally. Part of this work will see the establishment of Prevention Partnerships across all Local Authority areas.

Strengthening Leadership

The report mentions that the council has been developing a new performance framework and reporting mechanism, to standardise the updates for actions.

The work of the Community Safety Partnership has significant crossover with other strategic partnerships, such as Safeguarding (adults & children), Youth Justice and the Health & Wellbeing Partnership. Over the course of the last few years the chairs of these partnerships have come together to form the Newcastle Partnerships Group for Safeguarding & Vulnerability (NPGSV), to promote joint working towards shared objectives and avoid duplication of effort, to maximise efficiency of resources.

This year, public health leads have been collaborating with Sir Prof Michael Marmot and the Institute of Health Equity to work together to reach the ambition to become a Marmot City.

Public Health co-ordinated the development of the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) website and dashboard, which supports evidence led planning.

Looking forward, the council will continue to strengthen the leadership and governance arrangements of the Community Safety Partnership over the course of the next twelve months.

This will include:

• Building on the existing relationship with other strategic partnerships across Newcastle, and wider Northumbria region.
• Updating the Safe Newcastle Constitution, to ensure board members are clear of their role & responsibilities in line with recent changes in legislation (e.g. domestic abuse duty, serious violence duty etc)
• A review of thematic delivery subgroups and reporting mechanisms, to ensure the relationship with these is strengthened.
• A review of the partnership Information Sharing Protocol, to facilitate good information sharing between partners.
• Carry out a strategic needs assessment and review partnership objectives for 2026-29

Update on EPiC Hubs and City Safe

Superintendent Joanne Park-Simmons, Northumbria Police, and Christine Knox, NCC Community Safety Lead, are scheduled to provide an update on EPiC hubs and City Safe.

EPiC, or Empowering People in Communities, is a project that aims to tackle issues in neighbourhoods by engaging with residents and initiating new projects. The EPiC team is split into three hubs: north, east and west.

City Safe is a project working from a base in the city centre, where officers from Newcastle City Council, Northumbria Police and NE1 tackle issues of crime and reduce anti-social behaviour.

Alternative Giving Scheme

Superintendent Joanne Park-Simmons, Northumbria Police, is also scheduled to discuss an alternative giving scheme.

Initial discussions have taken place about developing an alternative giving scheme in the city centre, to ensure that donations from the public go directly to charities working with the street community, providing services to vulnerable individuals.

Update on Fixed Term Recalls

Kathryn Harrington, Probation Service (North East), is scheduled to provide an update on fixed term recalls.

Any Other Business and Forward Plan

Councillor Irim Ali, Cabinet Member for Communities, is scheduled to lead a discussion on any other business and the forward plan. The Safe Newcastle Board Forward Plan lists the following items for future meetings:

• Integrated Offender Management
• Poverty Needs Assessment and Anti-Poverty Strategy
• Police structural changes
• End of Custody Supervised Licence scheme
• Supplementary Substance Misuse Treatment and Recovery Grant (SSMTRG)
• Community Tensions Framework
• Violence Against Women & Girls Strategy
• Synthetic Opioids
• Police & Crime Plan
• Community Safety funding arrangements
• Byker Hub
• Alternative Giving
• Strategic Assessment / Safe Newcastle Plan 2026-29