In 2019, the Home Office released funding to 14 police force areas, including Avon and Somerset, to tackle serious violence, which saw the introduction of Violence Reduction Units (recently renamed locally as Violence Reduction Partnerships, VRPs).
The Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner (OPCC) is the VRP hub for the Avon and Somerset teams, providing a central coordination function; overseeing all five spokes, coordinating the Home Office grant allocation and ensuring that the Avon and Somerset VRP is collectively meeting the objectives of the public health approach to tackling serious violence. The five local authorities are the spokes, including North Somerset.
The Violence Reduction Partnership (VRP) operates with a public health approach to violence reduction, focusing on understanding the causes of violence, and the reasons why people get drawn into a life of crime.
North Somerset VRP comprises:
- VRP Co-ordinator
- VRP Project Officer
- embedded police, including a Sergeant, Police Officers and Police Community Support Officers.
With its partners, North Somerset VRP works to identify risk and vulnerability; in doing so works to address the underlying causes of violent crime, deliver bespoke care plans, offer specialist interventions and/or work with the family or education service to ensure diversion is achieved
North Somerset VRP operates in 4 key programme areas, with various projects and collaborate working within each area:
- Risk Programme – identifies those at risk of crime and violence to address risk
- Interventions Programme – uses approaches and interventions to divert people away from violence
- Education Programme – provides awareness and training to communities, young people and professionals in relation to violence
- Community Programme – provides approaches to building community capacity and confidence.
You can read more about the VRPs across Avon and Somerset on OPCC website.