Frequently Asked Questions
What is Serious Violence?
Serious violence has a devastating impact on lives of victims and families and instils fear within communities and is extremely costly to society.
Serious Violence within Avon and Somerset
The Avon and Somerset Violence Reduction Partnership purpose is to create safer and more resilient communities for now and the generations to come, by reducing serious violent incidents across Avon and Somerset. The mission is to work collaboratively with partners, to understand and address the root causes of violence in Avon and Somerset, with a focus on education, prevention and protection.
To support these, the VRP and its specified authorities under the Serious Violence Duty has reviewed and updated its definition of Serious Violence to:
- Enable a clear, aligned agreement on our priority focus of what is identified as Serious Violence.
- Develop a common awareness of contextual factors and indicators.
- Ensure the ability to flex and respond to emerging and changing need.
The priority focus for the VRP, details our standards across Avon and Somerset. Whilst striving for a common approach, the partnership recognises that at no point the problems faced by each LA will be the same, nor that their responses should be identical.
The breadth and complexity of serious violence is vast. In 2023/24, the ASVRP collectively agreed a common definition of serious violence that they would work to, please see below:
The ASVRP embraces a priority focus on the prevention and reduction of public space violence for under 25s (children and young people); including homicide, attempted homicide, robbery, wounding, grievous bodily harm, knife and gun crime, alcohol and drug related violence and areas of criminality where serious violence or its threat is inherent, such as county lines and modern slavery. We also recognise and commit to supporting a joined-up response to existing partnership work to tackle serious violence across the whole pathway and in the broadest sense, including domestic abuse, rape and serious sexual offences and violence against women and girls more generally.
What is the serious violence duty?
The Home Office Serious Violence Duty document reports that “incidents of serious violence have increased in England and Wales since 2014. For example, offences involving knives or sharp instruments increased by 84 percent between the year to June 2014 and the year to June 2020.”
Following public consultation in July 2019, the Government announced that it would bring forward legislation introducing a new Serious Violence Duty on a range of specified authorities. This will ensure relevant services work together to share information and allow them to target their interventions, where possible through existing partnership structures, collaborate and plan to prevent and reduce serious violence within their local communities.
The Serious Violence Duty was introduced as part of the Police Crime Sentencing and Courts Act 2022. The Duty requires specified authorities (Police, Justice, Fire & Rescue, Health and Local Authorities) and relevant authorities (where identified) to prevent and reduce serious violence in their local area.
Click here to read the Home Office Serious Violence Duty Statutory Guidance.
What is a Violence Reduction Partnership?
The Avon and Somerset Violence Reduction Partnership was one of the original 18 Violence Reduction Units (VRU), which form part of the Home Office’s targeted approach to serious violence.
Each VRU brings together essential partners to reduce local violent crime and address the underlying causes. The VRUs understand their local needs and identify where and how interventions would be most effective.
What is a VRP Hub and Spoke model?
The OPCC created a Hub and Spoke model for the Avon and Somerset VRP, with the OPCC is the Hub and the five local authority areas are the VRP spoke areas.
These Spoke areas are:
How does the VRP hub and spoke model work?
Where is the VRP located?
The VRP hub is located within the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner.
There is no one location for our VRP spokes.
How is the VRP evaluated?
Each VRP spoke provides quarterly returns on their work, which supports the evaluation of the overall work and each intervention.
The ASVRP has a board which meets regularly to discuss the strategic objectives and progress of the VRP.
How Many VRPs are there?
In March 2019, the (then) Home Secretary announced £100million Serious Violence Fund to help tackle serious violence, £35 million was invested into the creation of 18 Violence Reductions Units, which are: