Agenda item

65.      Serious Violence Duty Update

(Item B4)

1.  Mr M Powell (Director, Kent and Medway Violence Reduction Unit) introduced the report and outlined the new legal duty that has been placed on a number of authorities to collaborate and plan to reduce or prevent serious violence.

2.  The Serious Violence Prevention Partnership (SVPP) had been established, chaired by the Police and Crime Commissioner and had already agreed the definition of serious violence, including public place violence, and violence linked to domestic and sexual abuse.   In January 2024 the Strategic Needs Assessment and Serious Violence Strategy 2024-2027 were agreed by the SVPP Board.

3.  The Serious Violence Needs Assessment (SNA) was based on data from all contributing specified authorities and used a three-year data set to identify the patterns and trends relating to serious violence included within the definition agreed by the SVPP. The strategy agreed was for the period 2024 – 2027.

4.   In terms of Public Place Serious Violence, there had been a reduction in the 12 months up to the end of the SNA. This type of violence was unevenly spread across the County, with districts along the North and East coastline of the county generally experienced higher levels of serious violence than those in South and West Kent, although Maidstone had the fifth highest levels of serious violence. There were peaks in violence between 3–4pm, 6–8pm and during night time economy hours of 11pm to midnight.

5.  The peak age at which suspects of serious violence were identified was 17 and those aged 10-25 were overrepresented in the data. The numbers of adults involved in knife or weapon related violence fell but there was not a similar decrease in children. This was a concern.

6.  A decision was taken not to look at domestic abuse because the team working around domestic abuse (the Kent and Medway Domestic Abuse Executive) were already completing their own needs assessment.

7.  In terms of sexual violence, the volume of reported sexual violence fell in 2022-23 when compared with the previous year. The majority of suspects were male, and the majority of victims were female. There was insufficient data to identify the relationship between the suspect and victim. The victims were primarily girls of school age. The majority of suspects were boys under the age of 18.

8.  With regard to the Voice of Young People - their feedback included that they knew places local to them which were unsafe, and highlighted some transport hubs, high streets and parks as being of particular concern. They also reported that they felt unsafe when being around groups of men; girls in particular felt unsafe due to the language or behaviour of groups.

9.  The Serious Violence Strategy 2024 -2027 has three key strands:

· Sexual Violence and Domestic Abuse

· Serious Youth Violence

· Violence linked to drugs and alcohol.

10.     The SVPP Board has identified leads for each strand who are currently developing detailed plans which will inform and shape the work to deliver against the strategic aims. It is anticipated that the plans will be in place by June 2024 dependant on the SVPP Board approval.

RESOLVED that the KCSP note the contents of this report.