The Coventry Community Safety Partnership Plan 2025- 2028

Reducing serious violence

Under the Police Crime, Sentencing and Court Act 2022, Coventry City Council and its partners have a duty to collaborate to reduce serious violence within its area (The Serious Violence Duty (SVD)). Since 2020 the partnership has had a particular focus on those 25 years and under because, as a group they are most at risk of becoming involved in serious violence. The SVD requires the partnership, to address the root causes of violence for all and try to reduce the levels of serious violence over the long term.

In 2020, the partnership adopted a Public Health approach to tackling serious violence and committed to a 10-year plan to address serious violence.

A Public Health approach focuses on understanding and addressing the root causes of violence rather than just responding to its symptoms. It treats violence as a preventable issue, much like a disease, and works to reduce it through early intervention, prevention, and long-term solutions. This approach involves analysing data to identify risk factors, engaging communities, and promoting collaboration between agencies to tackle the wider social and economic factors that contribute to violence.

 

It is a key goal to ensure that everyone feels safe within the city, this is particularly the case for children. In the past, we have had issues with Urban Street gangs, but a partnership approach has seen this issue subside and violence dramatically reduce from the levels seen in 2018/19. As a partnership, we aim to work with people from different areas of the community to understand why violence happens and to find ways of reducing it. In 2023 we conducted a strategic needs assessment around tackling serious violence and a number of recommendations and findings resulted. By working together as a partnership, we are committed to tackling the root causes of violence.  These issues are complex and all partners have different skills to contribute which increases our chances of success. For more information on how we are working as a partnership visit our webpages which are regularly updated: Serious Violence Duty – Coventry City Council

Ultimately we want to ensure that by 2030 there will be less violence than there was in 2020. We also want people to feel healthier and safer, trust the people who help them and reduce the harm caused by violence in the community.

The Coventry Serious Violence Prevention Partnership (CSVPP) work closely with the West Midlands VRP to ensure our work is aligned with and supportive of regional initiatives to reduce violence. The Police and Crime Commissioner has the ultimate responsibility to deliver the SVD in the West Midlands. Professionals from Coventry sit on a number of regional strategic meetings with regional colleagues to progress this work.

The CCSP recognises the impact that domestic abuse has on our communities and the links with the SVD. Coventry has been committed to tackling domestic abuse for many years and Coventry’s One Coventry Plan 2022-2030 highlights domestic abuse as a key area of focus. Domestic abuse is also recognised in Coventry’s Parenting Strategy 2024-2027. Coventry has a specific  Domestic Abuse Strategy 2018-2025 that is based on the 4 pillars of Prepare, Prevent, Protect and Pursue. The Strategy is monitored by the Domestic Abuse Local Partnership Board. This is a multi-agency statutory board which was set up to comply with the requirements of the Domestic Abuse Act 2021. The work of the Board and connected subgroups aligns with regional and national initiatives to tackle domestic abuse. Whilst independent, the board is aligned to the Coventry Community Safety Partnership to support them in their functions to reduce crime and disorder.

Reducing offending and reoffending

In 2010, the Policing and Crime Act (2009) amended Section 17 of the Crime and Disorder Act (1998) to make Community Safety Partnerships responsible for formulating and implementing a strategy to reduce reoffending by adult and young offenders.

Reducing offending, re-offending and tackling substance misuse is a key priority for the CCSP.

According to the 2020 Neighbourhood Crime IOM Strategy a total of 80% of all crime is created by those reoffending, a significant proportion of which is neighbourhood crime. Effective Integrated Offender Management is essential to have a driver to reduce crime and disorder.

Under the Coventry Community Safety Partnership, the Coventry Reducing Reoffending Board are responsible for co-ordinating the CCSP response to reducing reoffending. Offending and reoffending are focused on breaking the cycle of offending by focusing on the Government 7 pathways which are:    

• Accommodation
• Attitudes, thinking and behaviour
• Children and family
• Drugs and alcohol
• Education, training and employment
• Finance, benefit and debt
• Health

By tackling these root causes, the partnership is more likely to have a more sustained result in reducing, offending, reoffending and serious violence.

The work in achieving a reduction in offending and reoffending is supported by the Youth Justice Board through the Coventry Youth Justice Plan.

The misuse of drugs and alcohol are major factors contributing to both offending and reoffending. This is evidenced by the work of the Drugs and Alcohol Strategy group and the associated Drugs and Alcohol Strategy.

Reducing offending and reoffending (Key achievements)

• The CSVPP successfully implemented the Serious Violence Duty locally in accordance with legislation. 
• Creation of Serious Violence Prevention Operational Plans
• Successfully commissioned and delivered the school holiday outreach work which has significantly reduced robbery, ASB and knife crime in Coventry city centre.
• Continued commitment to fund “Step Together” an after-school chaperone service aimed at providing safe egress routes from schools in violence hotspot areas.
• Coventry has launched the “Our Tomorrow” campaign which is a regional-wide initiative which delivers a youth-led counter-narrative against violence.
• Successful delivery of the Community Initiative to Reduce Violence (CIRV) Programme which is designed to engage with those involved in violence and connect them to an exit pathway from gangs, violence and country lines.

Summary of the issues (information from Coventry’s Strategic Assessment (SA)

• Serious Youth Violence (SYV) decreased by 5.8% from last year. It accounted for 4.2% of TRC and 29% of serious violence offences.
• Violence with Injury offences were the most common offence (52.2% of TRC).
• Of the Violence with Injury offences 62.3% of the victims are male and of these 40.1% are 10-15 years old.
• Within Serious Youth Violence, robbery accounted for 24.6%. 88.7% of the victims were male. (37.9% were 16-20 years old. 31.2% were 10-15 years old.
• Knife crime accounted for 14.9%. The majority of victims were 86.2% male – 37.7% were 15-19 years)
• Gun crime accounts for 1.6%.
• Of the 8 homicides in Coventry 1 was linked to youth violence
• Domestic abuse accounts for 14.9% of TRC in 2023/24. Whilst this has decreased from last year, there has been an increase in referrals made to DA services.
• Sexual offences have increased by 6.8%. Rape accounted for 41.8% of Sexual Offences and 58.2% accounted for other sexual offences.
• Violence against Women and Girls (VAWG) has decreased by 8.0%.
• Stalking and Harassment was the top offence (48.5%) of which were DA related. 

What are residents telling us?

• Residents did not feel that youth violence and violent crime were significant issues in their area.
• Residents felt it should be a key consideration of the CCSP (rating it in the top two issues).
• Resident felt to reduce crime it was important to have youth services and outreach work within the city.

• There was some public support to invest in specialist services to reduce reoffending. 

How will we respond?

Even though residents may not see the immediate impacts of youth violence, the data and consultation with young people indicate that it is a significant problem for the city and therefore we will continue to progress preventative work in this area. A key way in which we prevent violence is to continue to build a support network for children by working with the Coventry Youth Partnership.