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Building connections for safer communities
About Us
What is community safety?
Community safety means helping people feel safe and be safe where they live, work and spend time.
It’s often thought of as preventing crime and anti-social behaviour, but community safety is also about:
- Home safety – preventing fires and accidents
- Road safety – keeping drivers, cyclists and pedestrians safe
- Water safety – staying safe near rivers, lakes or the sea
- Online safety – protecting people from harm on the internet
- Substance misuse – helping people avoid or recover from drug and alcohol problems
- Child protection – keeping children safe from harm
- Community justice and counter-terrorism – ensuring laws are followed and people are protected
Community safety also means building strong, welcoming communities where people feel included, supported and able to cope with challenges.
What is a community safety partnership?
A big part of our work is supporting the framework of Community Safety Partnerships (CSPs) across Scotland.
A CSP is a collaboration between local authority departments (for example, community safety, social work and education), Police Scotland, and other public bodies such as emergency services, courts, prison services and local community groups. Together, they work to improve community safety in their local area.
Each partnership creates a strategic plan to achieve its goals, supported by action plans that outline specific activities to address local needs. Examples include Anti-Social Behaviour Strategies and Local Outcome Improvement Plans (LOIP).
What Do CSPs do?
- CSPs often promote safety through prevention and education activities in schools and local community centres.
- Some CSPs also work closely with Community Justice partners to support individuals who have committed offences, helping them reintegrate into the community and reduce reoffending.
- All CSPs report into their Local Authority’s Community Planning Partnership. These partnerships were created under the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015, which requires all local authorities to work together with communities to plan local services.
- Not every local area has a CSP dedicated specifically to community safety, but in these areas, community safety work is still carried out by individual agencies such as the police, fire service and local authorities.
Our Approach to Safer Communities
Building Capacity
We strengthen local delivery by equipping practitioners with the skills, tools, and confidence they need. From toolkits and training to peer networks and mentoring.
Partnership first
We act as a hub for collaboration, bringing together local authorities, emergency services, third-sector organisations and academic institutions.
Evidence-led
Our programmes are grounded in research, data, and real-world insight. We draw on national statistics, local intelligence, and international best practice.
Who We Are
SC Scotland is the national network for community safety.
Previously known as the Scottish Community Safety Network (SCSN), SC Scotland is a small charity, established in 1997 and currently based in Glasgow. We are an apolitical, evidence-led intermediary organisation. We host events, share research, build relationships, and create opportunities for inter-disciplinary, cross-agency exchanges and collaboration. As the sole national advocates for community safety without peer in Scotland, we hold a privileged bird's-eye view over this multifaceted sector.
We are grateful to the Scottish Government for their support over nearly three decades, which helped establish and sustain our work until March 2026. We now continue our mission with the support of partners and funders who believe in the value of community safety.
Our Mission
Our core objective echoes the Scottish Government’s own ambition, “To enable everyone in Scotland to live in communities where they feel secure and safe from harm”. We strive to achieve this by helping to connect people, knowledge, and experience for their mutual benefit, by highlighting the commonalities that exist between private, public, academic, and third-sector practices across all 32 Scottish local authorities, and beyond. This approach mirrors the Christie Commission’s (2011) recommendations for “A collaborative culture throughout our public services”, to motivate joint-working and innovation with a focus on prevention, community participation, and the maximisation of scarce resources.
In days of prolonged austerity, financial restraint and dwindling resources, the value of effective partnerships, co-creation, and shared learning becomes more essential and pronounced. In the world of community safety, with its overlapping causation and complexity, collaboration between services and communities is critical to discovering what works, and why.
Great work is being done in Scotland, sometimes unseen, often underappreciated. It is our job to find it, share it, and champion it.
Our Values
SC Scotland focuses on prevention, evidence and partnership as its core doctrine. At SC Scotland, our greatest asset is our people. We empower and trust our staff, offering flexible, remote working within a four-day working week, encouraging innovation, creative thinking and personal responsibility.
We believe in learning from failure, not punishing it, and we strive to lead with compassion, recognising that everyone has priorities beyond work. Life happens.
A happy workforce rewards faith. For us, it’s about people before process.
Leading the Work
Our staff team may be small, but we’re driven by big ambitions. Working remotely as a close-knit team, we lead the delivery of SC Scotland's projects, partnerships, and strategic work. Get to know the team behind the emails, Teams calls, and newsletters!
Supporting the Vision
Our board of trustees generously give their time and expertise to guide the strategic direction of our organisation. As volunteers, they play a vital role in shaping our vision, supporting good governance, and helping us stay true to our mission. We're incredibly grateful for their commitment to creating safer communities for everyone.
Who We Support & Work With
Annual Report &
Strategic Plan
We’re committed to transparency and long-term impact. Our annual report provides a clear picture of our activities in the last financial year, while our strategic plan sets out our vision, priorities, and goals for the years ahead.
Annual Report 2024/25
Our 2024/25 Annual Report showcases how SC Scotland connected Scotland's 32 Local Authorities through evidence-based learning, national policy contribution, and innovative tool development.
Strategic Plan
Our roadmap for the next three years focuses on expanding evidence-led prevention programmes, strengthening partnerships across every local authority area.