Issue - meetings

This report provides the Health and Wellbeing Board with an update on Surrey’s delivery against the Serious Violence Duty.

Witnesses:

Lisa Townsend - Police and Crime Commissioner for Surrey

Sarah Haywood - Serious Violence Programme Lead, Office of the PCC 

Key points raised in the discussion:

1.    The PCC emphasised the importance of the second recommendation around endorsing the establishment of the Surrey Serious Violence Reduction Partnership, its establishment was necessary to provide the strategic leadership and governance needed. Reminded the Board that whilst the OPCC was a recipient of funding for the Serious Violence Duty, there were several partners which had a statutory responsibility to follow it to ensure all residents are and feel safe. Thanked the Serious Violence Programme Lead (OPCC) for her hard work.

2.    The Serious Violence Programme Lead (OPCC) noted that:

·         She was employed by and worked across the Partnership, with funding via the PCC from the Home Office.

·         The Serious Violence Duty came into force in January 2023 and required those specified authorities to work together to understand and then reduce violence locally. It required a whole system multi-agency approach to understand and address the drivers of serious violence, protecting people from becoming victims and perpetrators of violence.

·         A Strategic Needs Assessment and Surrey Serious Violence Reduction Strategy were being developed, working with partners such as the Surrey Office of Data Analytics (SODA), SCC and Surrey Police.

·         The needs assessment looked at hot spot areas and cohorts: those more at risk were males aged 30 to 34 years old, hot spots were in urban areas, and there was a growth in violence in the young female cohort; and identified gaps and areas requiring in-depth work. Police data would form the core, building around the contextual factors to understand the Surrey picture.

·         Whilst Surrey was safe and there was low crime, serious violence greatly impacted victims and communities; preventing the increase of crime numbers was vital and she would circulate a comprehensive PowerPoint Presentation.

·         Partnership connectivity and networking was crucial, whilst there were several mature workstreams around violence; having that single place through the Partnership to discuss serious violence, understand the risks, collect data and commission responses was vital. The Partnership had oversight of the strategy and the delivery plans, and four overarching priorities had been identified: leadership, evidence-based response, community connections and focused prevention.

·         The funding for this year’s Serious Violence Home Office grant had been assigned and there was an opportunity next year to use the insights from the needs assessment and learning to target support to projects and communities, linking into the towns and the place-based work.

3.    The Chair valued the extended presentation that she had received, she asked what the governance pathway was for the Partnership. The Serious Violence Programme Lead (OPCC) noted that the overarching governance sat with the Board where the Partnership would report to, as referenced in Priority Three with milestones built into those delivery plans. The Chair recognised the cross fertilisation of the Partnership’s work with many of the other activities under the Board’s remit and welcomed regular updates in the Highlight Report.

4.    A  ...  view the full minutes text for item 39