Home > Agenda item

Agenda item

Developing a Public Health Approach to Violence Reduction

To receive a presentation on developing a Public Health Approach to violence reduction.

 

The Committee is asked to consider whether it wishes to make any recommendations following the discussion of this item.

Minutes:

The Committee received a presentation from the Cabinet Member for Safer Croydon and Communities, Councillor Hamida Ali, on the Safer Croydon Partnership’s move towards implementing a public health model for violence reduction in the borough.

During the presentation from Councillor Ali the following points were noted:-

-       Serious youth violence in the borough had fallen by 22.9% over the past twelve months, with 368 crimes reported against 477 in the previous twelve months. This reduction compared favourably with the rest of London which had a 5.8% reduction.

-       Knife crime in the borough had also reduced in the past year with 531 crimes compared to 637 in the previous twelve month. This represented a reduction of 16.6% against a London wide reduction of 0.4%.

-       The reduction in knife crime involving injury had decreased by 27.3% over the past twelve months, with 80 reported crimes compared to 110 in the previous year. The London wide reduction was 13.6%. 

-       The data demonstrated that Croydon was seeing a greater reduction in knife crime, youth crime and violence with injury than the London average. Croydon actually had a lower level of knife crime offences compared to the London average for the first time since 2015.

-       The Safer Croydon Partnership was now developing a public health approach to violence reduction which aimed to deliver long term, sustained reductions in violent crime.

-       The public health approach was data driven and focussed on preventing violence before it occurred using community based support, targeted interventions and enforcement.

-       The Public Health Approach would be used to look at all forms of violence including domestic abuse and sexual violence against women.

-       The priorities for the new approach would be to ensure that all partners understood their roles in helping to reduce violence in the borough, taking opportunities to intervene at an early stage were appropriate, reducing school exclusions and developing community support networks.

-       The next steps for the project would be a number of listening event in March and April before the framework and delivery model was finalised by the Safer Croydon Partnership Board in April. The Cabinet would give the project its final sign off in June 2019.

Following the presentation the Committee was given the opportunity to ask questions about the new Public Health Approach for violence reduction. The move towards a data driven approach was welcomed, but reassurance was sought that the approach would be led by data and not overruled by political priorities. Reassurance was given that future work would be driven by evidence as this was a vitally important part of employing a public health approach.

It was questioned what the Council could do to ensure the better use of digital data. It was advised that it was essential to ensure that the data was constantly being refined and developed. Evidence demonstrated that early trauma in the life of a young person was a common factor in many instances of those committing knife crime and as such it was important to use data to allow the Council and its partners to move towards a preventative approach.

It was confirmed that data would form the first principle of the Public Health Approach and it was currently being considered whether the Council needed additional resources from an analytical perspective to help inform the new approach. There were other areas that needed to be considered including social infrastructure as the new approach developed with opportunities to share information and test possible plans amongst partners.

In regard to interventions, it was noted that it may need a multi-stage approach to continue to make a difference in a young person’s life. From the Vulnerable Adolescent Review, evidence had demonstrated that a large proportion of the cohort had been known to the Council and its partners from an early stage. It would be important as the use of the public health approach progressed to gain an understanding of the effectiveness of interventions and use this learning to refine and improve practices.

In response to a question about whether the Council was using examples of the best practice from elsewhere, it was advised that there had been a visit to Glasgow who had been using the public health approach to violence reduction for ten years. There were also plans to visit Lambeth and Birmingham, with the partnership keen to learn wherever possible. It was hoped that anything that Croydon learnt from the process could also be passed on to other agencies and the Government to inform the wider approach.

Conclusions

Following the discussion of this item, the Committee reached the following conclusions:

1.    The Committee agreed that youth violence was of one the most important issues facing the Council and the information on the proposed Public Health Approach was promising.

2.    The Committee felt that Scrutiny would have a role to play by providing additional challenge on the process as it progressed and where possible the key themes from the Public Health Approach should be incorporated into the Scrutiny Work Programme 2019-20 to allow for a more focussed approach.

3.    The Committee agreed that the use of data would be key to informing the new Public Health Approach and felt that it would be a major challenge to get the data needed to fully inform the process. 

4.    The Committee agreed that identifying when was the right time to make an intervention was another major challenge in using the Public Health Approach to violence reduction.

Recommendation

The Scrutiny and Overview Committee agreed to recommend to the Cabinet Member for Safer Croydon & Communities to use Scrutiny as resource to provide additional challenge to the Public Health Approach as it developed.

Supporting documents: