Jo Coles - York and North Yorkshire Deputy Mayor for Policing, Fire and Crime

Jo Coles - North Yorkshire Deputy Mayor for Policing, Fire and Crime

28 November 2013 – FOI Response: 694.2013-14 – Freedom of information request

Request

  1. For 2013-14, please provide information about how much of your Community Safety Fund has been allocated to services relating to drug or alcohol use. This could include (for example) continuing funding for Drug Interventions Programme (DIP) – type interventions, investing in other referral routes from the criminal justice sector into drugs and/or alcohol treatment, funding diversionary or educational work, or financially supporting community or residential treatment services.
  2. Are you able to give any indication of what the allocation is likely to be in 2014-15, and what the decision making process for next next year’s funding will be in your police area?
  3. Please describe how you engage with Health and Wellbeing Boards within your police area, and what level of involvement you have in Joint Strategic Needs Assessments and Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategies.
  4. Do you currently commission any services using a payment by results (PbR) mechanism, or are you considering this for future years?

Response

I write in connection with your request for information which was received by the Police and Crime Commissioner for North Yorkshire on 28 November 2013. Please accept our apologies for the delay in providing you with a response. I note your request also refers to a previous letter dated the 4th September 2013, which we do not appear to have received. I note you seek access to the above information.

Extent and Result of Searches to Locate Information

To locate the information relevant to your request searches were conducted within the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner for North Yorkshire.

I can confirm that the information you have requested is held by the Commissioner.

Decision

I have today decided to disclose the located information to you.

  1. I have interpreted your request as relating to payments made to partners, either by way of a community grant or a partnership grant. Details of all such payments are available via the following link: https://www.northyorkshire-pfcc.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Grants-information.jpgYou will note that there are contributions made to the Public Health Department Drugs Services Programme for North Yorkshire and the City of York.
  2. For the financial year (2014/15), the Commissioner is changing the way community safety is funded. Instead of issuing grants, providers will have to bid for specific projects with clear community-based outcomes. These will then be evaluated against specific criteria. This is to enable enhanced scrutiny of expenditure and improved evaluation of outcomes.
    The community fund is allocated on a quarterly basis, and details of that process are available via the following link: https://www.northyorkshire-pfcc.gov.uk/how-can-we-help/community-projects/fund/
    As yet no decision has been made about how this will work for the next financial year.
  3. Currently the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner has no representation on the Health & Wellbeing Board for York or North Yorkshire (although North Yorkshire Police are represented on the York Board), however, the Commissioner is working towards being more involved and discussions with Council leads are ongoing in respect of this.
  4. Currently no services are commissioned using a payments by results mechanism, however, the Commissioner is considering the use of this funding method in the future as appropriate by service area.

Section 21 – Information reasonably accessible by other means

It has been decided that the Commissioner is exempt from providing you with a separate copy of the information you have requested in questions 1 & 2, as it is already published on her website and fully accessible via the above links.

Section 21 is a class based absolute exemption which does not require consideration of the harm or public interest when applying this exemption.

Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the Act) requires the Commissioner when refusing to provide information because the information is exempt, to provide the applicant with a notice which: (a) states the fact, (b) specifies the exemption in question and (c) states (if it would not otherwise be apparent) why the exemption applies.

Pursuant to Section 17(1) of the Act this letter acts as a Refusal Notice in relation to the exempted parts of your request.

Complaint Rights

Your attention is drawn to the attached sheet which details your right of complaint.