Inventing our future Collective action for a sustainable economy

Regional Social Strategy – the strategy to achieve social inclusion throughout the East of England
iii) Cultural opportunities
The importance of cultural opportunities in creating sustainable communities is recognised in the Joint
Agreement on Culture and Sustainable Communities between the chief executives of the five leading national
cultural agencies and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, and Communities and Local Government,
which was signed in July 2006. At the time of writing a Regional Action Plan to support the Joint Agreement is
being developed.
iv) Crime
The Government places partnership working at the heart of tackling crime and disorder and the misuse of
drugs (SO6: 10). The 1998 Crime and Disorder Act established Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships
which draw membership from the police, local authorities, Probation Service, PCTs, the voluntary sector and
local residents and businesses. This multi-agency membership enables crime to be placed within the context
of the broader social exclusion agenda. While the work of the 48 partnerships around the region is focused
primarily on crime reduction, it impacts on many other areas.
Similarly, each of the agencies represented have committed themselves to aligning strategies. For example,
many local Health Improvement Plans include a section that outlines the PCT’s contribution to the crime
agenda and the clear links between their work and the impact they can have in reducing crime. Indeed the
Police Reform Act 2002 reinforces this point by making PCTs responsible authorities.
As far as drugs misuse is concerned, the Home Office’s Drug Strategy has nationally proved very successful.
The strategy is underpinned by three main targets:
• reduce the harm caused by illegal drugs, including substantially increasing the number of drug-misusing
offenders entering treatment through the criminal justice system
• reduce the use of Class A drugs and the frequent use of any illicit drug by all young people under the age
of 25, especially the most vulnerable
• increase the numbers of problematic drug users in treatment by 100% by 2008, and increase year-on-year
the proportion of users successfully sustaining or completing treatment.
As a result of the Drug Strategy, in 2004 there were 54% more drug users in treatment than in 1998, and the
launch of an anonymous interactive drugs information portal (Talk to Frank) has been extremely successful
nationwide, with 3.5 million website visits, and 675,000 phone calls between May 2003 and December 2004.
In addition to this, drug-related crime has fallen, and in 2004/5 was a fifth lower than in 2002/3.
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