Presented at Chief Constables Council on 17 July 2019 Dan Greaves, - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Serious Violence Fund – Surge & Violence Reduction Units

Presented at Chief Constables Council on 17 July 2019 Dan Greaves, Crime Director Alex Hurst, Head of the Serious Violence Priority Projects Unit

• Police Surge

Slide 1

• Violence Reduction Units

& Spending Review

Slide 2

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£65 million has been allocated to help in the police’s immediate response to the rise in serious knife crime. £63.4 million of this funding has been allocated to 18 police forces with the highest incidences of serious violence to pay for surge operational activity, such as increased patrols, and £1.6 million to help improve the quality of data on serious violence, particularly knife crime, to support planning and operations.

Police Surge

1

Spending Proposals

Funding Allocations:

• All forces intend to carry out surge policing activity in hotspot areas using overtime and other staff

movement options.

• All forces intend to spend a small part of funding on new equipment including knife wands/arches,

protective equipment, Taser, mobile CCTV etc.

• The proposed activity is broken down in activity strands as set out below:

Allocations set using NHS data on hospital admissions for assault with a sharp object. Data Projects

• £1.3m National Data Quality Improvement Service (NDQIS) which aims to transform the way in

which police classify and report knife (and gun) enabled crime data, working with 7 forces. Preparatory work being developed with these 7 forces and a cloud based system expected to be delivered by the end of the financial year for use by all 43 police forces.

• £300k to complete the ingestion of Police National Computer (PNC) data into the HO Data Analytics

Competency Centre (DACC). HO analysts are awaiting PNC data to develop this work further. Next Steps

• 18/07 – Forces to be notified of spending proposals agreement.
• 26/07 - Grant agreements issued to forces and signed by 26/07.
• 02/08 – Forces to submit their funding requests and quarterly activity reports.
• 09/08 – First payments made to forces by 09/08.

Primary success measures:

• Reduction in hospital admissions for assaults with a

knife or sharp object, especially among those victims aged under 25.

• Reduction

in knife-enabled serious violence, especially among those victims aged under 25.

• Reduction in all non-domestic homicides, especially

among those victims aged under 25 involving knives.

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On 18 June, the Home Secretary announced the provisional allocation of the £35 million to the 18 police force areas worst affected by serious violence to develop Violence Reduction Units. These will bring together a range of agencies including health, education, social services and others, to develop a multi-agency approach in preventing serious violence altogether.

Violence Reduction Units and Spending Review

2

VRU Key Requirements

Funding Allocations:

• Core purpose of VRUs is to provide leadership and strategic coordination of the local response to serious

violence, delivered in accordance with ‘public health’ principles.

• Funding model provides sufficient flexibility for local areas to build on existing strengths and capabilities whether

in respect of an existing VRU or appropriate multi-agency structures.

• To ensure delivery of core purpose, minimum VRU membership must include the Chief Constable, the PCC,

relevant local authority/ies, relevant Clinical Commissioning Groups, Public Health England/ Wales, the Youth Offending Team and representation of local educational institutions.

• VRUs must deliver two mandatory products in the course of the funding period, which include a Problem Profile

identifying the drivers of serious violence in the local area and a Response Strategy which describes the multi- agency response being delivered by the VRU.

• Funding success measures drive focus on tackling serious violence in public places, though in recognition of the

links between forms of violence, it’s open to VRUs to adopt a broader definition of serious violence.

• Allocations set using NHS data on hospital

admissions for assault with a sharp object, with tiered allocations.

Next Steps

• w/c 17/07 – update to Ministers on nature of proposals and further information required from applicants;
• 19/07 ongoing as necessary – requests for further information issued to PCCs;
• w/c 22/07 – additional requested information received from PCCs;
• w/c 29/07 – substantive advice to Ministers recommending confirmed awards;
• ASAP thereafter in line with Ministerial approval – grant agreements issued.

Spending Review

• Recognise the need for multi-year funding to effectively deliver VRUs and a sustained impact on tackling

serious violence. However, we are unable to commit funding beyond 2019/20 due to the spending review.

• Public health approach to tackling serious violence being prioritised through planning for Spending Review

2019.

• Currently considering the establishment of VRUs nationwide as a platform for coordinating and delivering

public health approach.

• The Home Office is working through how serious violence sits within the wider spending review picture on

policing with other investment proposals such as precision policing/additional officers. Primary success measures are the same as surge.

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