New funding for Sussex has been announced as part of the Conservative Government’s £130 million investment to tackle the most devastating types of crime – including knife crime, gun crime, and homicide.
Locally, the programme has attracted £1,903,054 of new funding. The Government also revealed that Violence Reduction Units and ‘hotspot policing’ initiatives prevented 49,000 violent offences across England and Wales, as it set out an ambitious funding programme to build on these efforts to tackle serious violence. Set up in 2019, Violence Reduction Units are a pioneering initiative established in 18 areas across England and Wales, bringing together local partners in policing, education and health, and local government, to share information in order to identify vulnerable children and adults at risk, helping steer them away from a life of crime and violence.
Figures published in an evaluation of these Violence Reduction Units’ first 18 months of operation demonstrate the impacts they are having up and down the country, changing lives and reducing violent crime. Areas that have rolled out Violence Reduction Units saw 8,000 fewer incidents of violence leading to injury and 41,000 fewer incidents without injury, compared with areas that didn’t. This has resulted in an estimated £385 million avoided in associated costs for victims and society.
In the Chichester District, as part of this work, the ‘West Sussex Coastal Detached Youth Programme’ is identifying hotspots and high harm areas where there are the most significant challenges of serious violence amongst young people. The project targets these areas of emerging concern and employs early intervention techniques to prevent escalation in violence and crime.
Commenting, Local MP, Gillian Keegan said: “This funding is supporting communities and young people who are vulnerable to being sucked into criminal activity. Intervention and support are hugely important tools to protect vulnerable young people and prevent criminal activity from the get-go. Across the county, there is a range of targeted work ongoing and I am hugely grateful to Katy Bourne, Sussex Police, and all the partners involved for delivering on this life-altering programme.”
Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner Katy Bourne said: “The Home Office’s commitment to the future of our Violence Reduction Partnership is welcome news and will mean that Sussex Police and partners will be able to continue to intervene, rehabilitate and divert people away from crime, especially young people. We know now that this approach, to learning more about and tackling serious violence, is working and I’m reassured that, in Sussex, partners are taking a positive, united stand against serious violence by working together to make a real difference.”
Commenting, Crime & Policing Minister, Kit Malthouse said: “The very worst part of my job is hearing from families who have lost loved ones to violence and finding out that something could have been done to prevent it. We must do more to reach those at risk of violence early on to break the cycle of crime. Only then will we truly level up the country and give everyone the security of a safe street and home. We're throwing everything we have at this. At the heart, our pioneering Violence Reduction Units galvanise all parts of the public sector to tackle violent crime, and this approach is really starting to work.”
