Safer Stronger Communities

Building safer and stronger communities is one of our key priorities in Rotherham. This page explains why this is an important area of work for us and describes what we will do to make sure that we continue to build safer and stronger communities in Rotherham. 

Why is This a Priority?

Recorded hate crime in Rotherham increased by 17% in 2020-21 compared to the previous year and has increased further since. Most recorded strands were racial (64%), disability (15%) and sexual orientation (13%).

Antisocial behaviour is increasing across the borough. Pre-existing anti-social behaviour hotspots have seen an increase. Trends around increased nuisance neighbour complaints continue, as well as nuisance vehicle complaints, often off-road bikes or vehicles racing are an increasing problem.

What Have We Done?

We have continued to improve our integrated anti-social behaviour (ASB) service, which comprises Police and Council officers co-located within three locality teams (Central, North, and South areas). Good data and information sharing has allowed for “hotspot” areas to be quickly identified, enabling tailored assessments and responses.

Positive progress to reduce ASB incidents, achieved in the year prior to the Covid pandemic, is now back on track. There were 24% fewer ASB incidents reported from April 2021 to December 2021 when compared to the same period in 2020. 

We have invested almost £0.5 million in improving CCTV as a deterrent to offending and to improve public use and feelings of safety in public spaces.

We have supported Community Payback initiatives, where offenders work on projects to pay back the community for their crimes.

We have been successful in securing external funding for an innovative project in partnership with Remedi that has delivered 65 restorative interventions with young people and adults involved in hate crimes and incidents. The project also provided education sessions with 2723 young people.

In 2020, Rotherham Youth Cabinet launched their hate crime charter for schools which contains eleven pledges for schools to implement that demonstrate their commitment to tackling hate. 22 schools have adopted the Charter to date, to raise pupils’ awareness of hate crime and to help end bullying within schools.

Additionally, we have worked with others to more than double the number of hate crime reporting centres in Rotherham and delivered training to council colleagues and external partners to aid intervention when a hate incident occurs.

What Are We Doing Now?

Making Communities Safer

Our aims: tackling community safety priority locations - review and refresh the partnership approach to problem solving in local neighbourhoods, including thresholds and methodology for partnership activity. 

Preventing Hate Crime 

Our aims: focus on the use of education and engagement to prevent hate crime by tackling the drivers of hate. Improve victims’ experiences of reporting hate crime and incidents.

Online Crime 

Our aims: explore innovative ways in which partners and the public can be educated around online safety and digital technologies and develop engagement with young people, families, and older people.

Identify best practice in embedding online activity within service user assessments.