07/04/04 - Darlington's Community Safety Partnership has been awarded the coveted Beacon Status which is the highest Government accolade for a council service. The Beacon Council scheme selects high achieving councils to act as centres of excellence and help spread best practice to other local authorities. The successful authorities will receive a share of Government funding worth £3m to help boost their activities for spreading best practice. The report of the Advisory Panel on Beacon Councils commented that "Darlington is the epitomy of true partnership working. The Partnership has developed a unique cross-organisation model of delivering community safety activity and can, through this mechanism, demonstrate sustained reductions in crime and disorder and improvement in substance misuse services."
Darlington's Community Safety Partnership was the first in the country to see community safety professionals working alongside police officers under one roof. The Partnership has provided a host of ground-breaking initiatives such as Assertive Outreach Workers, Parenting Plus, Youth PODS, young offenders reparation schemes and the popular uniformed warden service.
Bill Dixon, Deputy Leader of Darlington Council, said: "We are thrilled to receive this award and it is a real credit to all who have worked so hard to establish the Partnership so successfully. Darlington's Community Safety Partnership already has a national reputation for innovation and quality; scores of local authorities from across the UK have paid visits to the service to see best practice at work. Perhaps the most visible face of the Partnership is the uniformed warden team which has brought a new dimension to community safety in Darlington with its success in reducing crime and anti-social behaviour and its work to increase public reassurance. This work has also made it one of the Council's most popular services with local residents."
Darlington Council has already been awarded Beacon Status for its Community Legal Service and its Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services.