Agenda item

Report of Liz Gaulton, Director of Public Health and Wellbeing 

Chief Superintendent Mike O’Hara, West Midlands Police introduced the  report of Liz Gaulton, Director of Public Health and Wellbeing, which informed of the work of the Coventry Youth Prevention Partnership Board, the development of a strategy, the work already in place across the city and putting an action plan in place to use a public health approach to tackle rising levels of youth violence.

The report indicated that the West Midlands Region had seen a steep increase in knife crime offences. Government research indicated knife crime was heavily linked to gang activity. Knife crime has risen nationally by 20% between 2016 and 2017 and, although Coventry mirrored this national trend, the number of young people becoming victims and/or perpetrators of violent crime was of particular concern. In response, Coventry’s senior leaders agreed that violence in the City should be addressed via a public health approach, acting on its root causes as well as providing an effective response. The Violence Summit held in January this year led to a commitment to tackling this issue together across the whole system.

During the summer the Coventry Youth Violence Prevention Partnership Board (CYVPPB) was established which was supported by a Project Board and an Operational Group. The Project Board oversaw the delivery of three projects while the Operational Group would develop and deliver the action plan on behalf of the board.

At their meeting on 17^th June, 2019 the Board had agreed to draft a multi-agency strategy using a public health approach to address the issue of youth violence in the City. The draft strategy had been developed using an outline framework adopted by the West Midlands Regional Violence Reduction Unit as well as learning from public health approaches used across Scotland. The draft strategy sets out six key strategic objectives (based on the public health approach). Key to the success of the strategy would be the ‘plan, do, review’ process. There would be a 12-month delivery plan to support each key objective. These short-term plans would be reviewed annually for their effectiveness and adapted if needed. The report set out the approach and progress against these six key objectives: building strong foundations; primary prevention; secondary prevention; tertiary prevention; enforcement and criminal justice; and attitudinal change using effective communication.

Since the first meeting of the Board in July, much work has been undertaken to mobilise the Strategy and to progress the short-term priorities identified. This included:

Mobilising three projects within the City including one funded by the Police and Crime Commissioner which is working with young people admitted to hospital with traumatic injuries as a result of violence.

Establishing joint, co-located police and children’s services team focussed on youth violence within the Horizon Team.

Securing substantial funding for the City (approx. £1million) from various sources including the Police and Crime Commissioner and Central Government.

Focussed operational policing towards violence and gang suppression activity

Establishing schools interventions – Mentoring Violence Prevention Work

Setting up schools panels (schools and police partnership) at both primary and secondary level.

Created Summer diversionary activities

A significant piece of work, which was yet to take place, was the effective mapping of the systems, assets, ways of working and resources already in place across the City. This would be a key focus for the newly appointed programme manager over the coming weeks. The report set out the governance arrangements for the Partnership Board. 

Members referred to the One Coventry approach which was highlighted by the partnership working and asked about the involvement of the Youth Offending Service. Attention was drawn to a second Violence Summit that was planned for January, 2020.

RESOLVED that:

(1) The Draft Coventry Youth Violence Prevention Strategy 2019-29 be endorsed.

(2) The progress to date on the draft strategy and the work already takin place on youth violence across the city be noted.