The Police and Crime Commissioner has the power to commission services and to award grants to organisations or bodies to assist them in delivering the priorities in their Police and Crime Plan.

The Commissioner has the power to commission services and to award grants to organisations or bodies to assist them in delivering the priorities of the Police and Crime Plan.

The Commissioner does this to:

• Reduce crime and disorder
• Support victims and witnesses as well as other people affected by criminal offences or antisocial behaviour
• Improve community safety

The PCC works with the police, local authorities, the courts, prisons, health, prosecution, youth justice service and probation services among others to prioritise and tackle community safety and criminal justice issues in Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, and beyond.

To assist the Commissioner, the Office of Police & Crime Commissioner (OPCC) has a small Criminal Justice, Partnerships and Commissioning Team. The team works, often in partnership with other agencies, to enhance, commission or co-commission projects and services which support the criminal justice system. The term ‘commissioning’ is the cycle of assessing need and where identified designing and securing the appropriate service.

Each year the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner writes a commissioning intentions plan which sets out the Commissioner’s approach for making decisions about which interventions will be commissioned, how existing services will be updated and what new services will be created.

This is to ensure that funding is allocated fairly and proportionately, with due regard to the competing demands on available funding. The plan is presented to the Police and Crime Panel each year as part of the budget setting process.