Adur & Worthing Community Safety Partnership

Thank you to all our residents who took the time to complete the recent survey carried out by the Safer West Sussex Partnership in order to understand the community safety issues that matter to you most.

We had 339 responses in total, 220 from Worthing residents and 129 from Adur, which has given us a real insight into how safe our residents feel and what they are most concerned about.

The Adur and Worthing Safer Communities Partnership is a multi-agency partnership comprising Adur and Worthing Councils, Sussex Police, West Sussex County Council, West Sussex Fire and Rescue, The Office of the Police Crime Commissioner and Probation. Community Works, who support our vibrant community and voluntary sector also participate.

Each partner is committed to making our communities feel and be safer together and we can pool our resources to really make a difference. Hearing your voices, means we can incorporate what you care about most into planning our partnership priorities.

For Adur and Worthing, anti-social behaviour (ASB) was your top priority. It is one of our priorities too and this is how we tackle it:

• We have a dedicated ASB Caseworker who supports over 300 victims of ASB each year- this also includes carrying out complex case work with people who cause anti-social behaviour.
• This year, we are also recruiting an additional ASB caseworker to support those living in Adur Homes’ properties that are impacted by ASB. This work is supported by our Contextual Safeguarding Co-ordinator who specialises in bringing partners together to reduce the harm caused to and sometimes by, children and young people. The Adur and Worthing Neighbourhood Policing team also prioritise ASB and this year, have seen an increase in PCSO numbers and more dedicated patrols, informed by the community sharing locations of concern.
• The Partnership has also accessed money from the Safer Streets’ funding to commission initiatives to reduce ASB, such as increasing positive activities for children.

Violent Crime was the second highest priority for you, and with several high profile incidents in our communities in recent years, we recognise how unsafe this can make people feel and why it is one of our priorities too.

• We have used funding from the West Sussex Violence Reduction Partnership to provide interventions for children most likely to be involved in violent crime, either as a victim or perpetrator.
• We have also supported our school communities to deliver education and interventions for children including support after serious knife incidents.
• Using Safer Streets money, we have increased safety in the night time economy in Adur and Worthing through commissioning training to support staff to spot early signs of problematic behaviour. In Worthing, we have funded taxi marshalls and Street Buddies to prevent escalation of some of the conflict that can happen when people have been drinking.

For Worthing, issues relating to the street community came next. Small in number, but sometimes highly visible in the town, there have been incidents of ASB relating to this community.

• Adur and Worthing councils have maintained a team of outreach workers who are in both Adur and Worthing most days, engaging with people who are rough sleeping and supporting them into accommodation and recovery services.
• Where offers of support are declined and there is ASB, the police and councils have taken enforcement action including dispersal orders, community protection warnings and criminal behaviour orders. This has been successful in preventing the most significant nuisance and disorder from a small minority of people.
• Adur and Worthing Councils also continue to fund and source a variety of accommodation options to ensure that all those who are vulnerable to homelessness, can access stable and secure housing.

In Adur, road safety was the third highest priority. Whilst this isn’t a current partnership priority, the Sussex Police Roads Policing Unit continue to lead this important area of work and the partnership is able to feed into this through reporting any relevant trends/ areas causing concern.

For more information on our current priorities and to learn more about how we are tackling these, please visit our website, where you will find our current three-year strategy:

Adur and Worthing Safer Communities (opens in new window).