Road Safety Partnerships in 2012: Sustainability in the ‘Big Society’

Road safety charity GEM Motoring Assist funded this research looking at the importance of Road Safety Partnerships and how these initiatives have been affected since the end of the Road Safety Partnership Grant (RSPG) in March 2011.

The report details how local institutions have dealt with changes in partnerships caused by the grants ending and public services being cut due to the economic recession, including the barriers and facilitators of partnership working, their sustainability and how they engage with the community as a partner.

19 road safety officers, who had previously received the Road Safety Partnership Grant, were interviewed anonymously to gauge their opinion and provide insight into the difficulties they now face to continue to keep strategic partnerships going.

Summary of the findings:
Most road safety partnerships have been influenced by economic recession and a consistent theme emerged of the cuts severely damaging partnerships. Despite this there was a clear commitment and desire to continue to work in partnership and rise to the challenge of doing the same or more with less and to be more creative in finding solutions to ensure sustainability.

Future challenges seem to be how to best equip practitioners in ways to meaningfully engage with the community and its diversity; how to disseminate good practice or case studies in partnership working and to understand how best to strategically embed road safety.

It is recommended that a systematic reappraisal of what is still feasible is now undertaken. This will identify areas for prioritisation and new, viable, partnership models. Failure to do this is likely to lead to further fragmentation of effort which may impact on local authorities’ ability to deliver further casualty reductions.