Purpose

The Serious Violence Duty came into effect in Jan 2023,
requiring police, councils and local services to work together to
share information and target interventions to prevent and reduce
serious violence. The authorities responsible were responsible for
forming a relevant partnership, agreeing a local definition of
serious violence, producing a serious violence needs assessment for
the borough and using this to inform a strategic delivery plan for
the partnership to tackle serious violence. The serious violence
and exploitation strategy group is a sub-group of the Community
Safety Partnership.

This item presents the Draft Serious Violence and Exploitation
Strategic Plan: formulated using the findings from the Serious
Violence needs assessment, recommendations, engagement with
professionals and wider consultation with our local residents
(including children, young people and young adults).

The Serious Violence Plan on a Page, produced in Jan 2024, has been
used to consult the public and professionals on the proposed
approach to tackling violence and exploitation: contributing to the
development of the full strategic delivery plan.

Content

DECISION
 
1.   
Approve the Serious Violence and Exploitation Strategy (Appendix 1
to the report) which is being brought to Cabinet for adoption by
the Council as a “duty holder” and a member of the
Community Safety Partnership (CSP).
 
2.   
Advise the Community Safety Partnership that robust governance
arrangements for the new strategy are put in place to oversee
delivery and to ensure there is accountability for all the
“duty holders’, involved.
 
3.   
Advise the Community Safety Partnership that an effective data set
is developed to assess performance and will enable constructive
challenge across the system.
 
4.   
To note the existing Violence and Vulnerability Reduction Action
Plan (Appendix 2 to the report). This plan encompasses the broad
spectrum of partnership work and operational delivery that will
form the local response to serious violence and exploitation. This
will be further developed as part of this range of work.
 
5.   
To note the governance arrangements for the Strategy will be
through the statutory Community Safety Partnership Board. However,
there are a number of other statutory boards that have
responsibility and play a critical role in the delivery of this
strategy across the wider system e.g. the Health and Wellbeing
Board, the Safeguarding Adults Board and the Safeguarding
Children’s Partnership.
 
Action by
CORPORATE DIRECTOR COMMUNITIES (S.
BAXTER)
Director of Community Safety (A. Corbett)