Serious Violence Duty - Print version

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Delivering the serious violence duty in Coventry

What is the serious violence duty?

A statutory duty launched in January 2024, requiring local agencies—such as Coventry City Council, West Midlands Police, health services, schools, and youth justice—to join forces to prevent serious violence. The emphasis is on protecting young people by addressing root causes and intervening early. For more detail on the Serious Violence Duty [https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/serious-violence-duty] visit the GOV.UK webpages.  

What is serious violence?

Serious Violence is defined in the legislation and includes offences such as homicide and violence resulting in serious injury. The use of weapons to threaten or cause injury are also classed as serious violence. Serious Violence is often connected with particular activities, for example, drug dealing and criminal exploitation (sometimes to referred to as County Lines).

Who are the partners?

  • Coventry City Council
  • The Youth Justice Service
  • The Probation Service
  • West Midlands Police
  • West Midlands Fire and Rescue Service
  • The Integrated Care Board (ICB)
  • Education (schools, colleges, extended learning centres and alternative provision providers)
  • Prisons and the secure estate

Alignment with other areas of work

Serious Violence is not a new problem. Nationally, there has been a steady rise in "knife crime" and this often involves people under 25 years of age. Coventry is not the only City affected by this issue. The Duty was introduced as a way of ensuring that partners work together to understand serious violence in their area and plan how to tackle it.

Tackling serious violence presents a complex challenge for agencies. The causes of violence are rarely straightforward. There is much academic research that suggests poverty and deprivation is linked to higher levels of violence. For communities living in areas of high deprivation, this means that they may experience higher levels of violence than people living in more affluent areas. For young people, violence is something they engage in for a period of their life which they "mature" out of. Violence is often connected to traumatic events in a persons life, which has not been addressed and leaves them with anger which may result in violence. In some communities, witnessing violence is commonplace and it becomes normalised, therefore, it goes unchallenged.

Mere deployment of additional police resources within an area does not address the underlying causes of violence; while it may offer short-term respite, the issues tend to resurface once policing resources shift focus. Coventry's partners strongly advocate for violence prevention as the optimal use of our collective resources. Partners, including the police, need to work together so that violence can be dealt when it happens, but, more importantly, before it happens. This is known as a preventative or "public health" approach. The public health approach to tackling violence has been in operation in Coventry since 2020 and over that time, the levels of most serious violence are decreasing.

Many of the underlying triggers for violence are already under scrutiny through ongoing initiatives within the city. The partners' approach to prevention involves working within our existing frameworks and implementing gradual, sustainable changes aimed at concentrating efforts for long-term impact on violence reduction.

Relevant strategies already in place are:

  • The Drug and Alcohol Strategy
  • The Early Help Strategy
  • The Youth Justice Plan
  • The Health and Wellbeing Plan
  • The Community Safety Plan
  • Schools Violence Reduction Plan
  • Attendance and Inclusion Policy (operated by individual schools)
  • Child Friendly Coventry Initiative
  • The Domestic Abuse Strategy
  • This area of work is also closely linked with the work of the Children and Adult Safeguarding partnership
  • Modern Slavery Protocol
  • Families First

What the data told us

At the start of 2023, the partnership analysed data as part of a needs assessment to figure out what the main problems were in the city and how to really deal with violence. The needs assessment pointed out a few important things:

  • Find out what things can help prevent violence in different parts of the city, depending on what's needed.
  • Focus on understanding 'hidden harms' that impact kids and families, like problems at home that affect their mental or physical health but nobody outside the family knows about, for example, domestic abuse.
  • Use information better across the partnership to spot people who need help early on, so things don’t get worse.
  • Understand why some people carry weapons in Coventry and try to address this to stop them from picking up weapons in the first place.
  • Team up more with health experts to notice problems early and share worries with other agencies so they can step in sooner.
  • Make good use of information about early help to decide what kinds of services the partners should offer and who they are most suitable for.

We refreshed the needs assessment again in April 2025. Between 2023 and the present day the Council and their statutory partners had a Joint Targeted Area Inspection (JTAI). The full report can be accessed here: Report - Coventry - serious youth violence (ofsted.gov.uk) [https://files.ofsted.gov.uk/v1/file/50247377]. In summary inspectors found that, "Children at risk of criminal exploitation and serious youth violence are safer as a result of the effective partnership work undertaken by both statutory services and the third sector to reduce risks in places and spaces as well as for individual young people in Coventry. Mature partnership arrangements are in place."

Purpose of the strategic needs assessment

The aim of the Strategic Needs Assessment (SNA) was to examine the levels of serious violence in Coventry, as well as some of the underlying causes and how to address them. The SNA mainly focuses on the impact of violence on young people under 25 years of age. The data indicates that this group tends to experience more violence than other age groups. All this information will be used by the West Midlands Violence Reduction Partnership (WMVRP [https://westmidlands-vrp.org/]) to produce a regional strategy for tackling serious violence in the West Midlands Police Force Area.

Read the regional strategy [http://www.westmidlands-pcc.gov.uk/tackling-violence/violence-reduction-unit/]. 

The methods and data sources used for collecting and analysing information

There are large amounts of publicly available data from a range of sources on the internet from policing, education, health as well as the office of national statistics. Some data, not in the public domain, but accessible to the community safety partnership through data sharing agreements, was also utilised.

As well collecting and analysing data (for example, police recorded crime), a range of engagement activities were also undertaken including:

  • Focus groups
  • Surveys
  • Interviews

The services that took part are:

  • Child and Adult Mental Health Services (CAMHS)
  • Community Initiative to Reduce Violence (CIRV)
  • Coventry Youth Justice Team
  • Education Service (Coventry City Council)
  • Guiding Young Minds (GYM)
  • Housing Services (Coventry City Council)
  • National Probation Service
  • NHS Safeguarding
  • Positive Youth Foundation
  • Public Health (Coventry City Council)
  • Sky Blues in the Community
  • St. Giles Trust
  • The Horizon Team (Coventry City Council, Children’s Services)
  • West Midlands Police, Coventry Local Policing Area
  • West Midlands, Violence Reduction Partnership

Data from the following sources was also used in the preparation of the needs assessment:

The full SNA is a large document, nearly 200 pages in length and therefore the following is designed to be an easily accessible public-facing document which gives the reader an overview of how the SNA was carried out, the primary areas of concern and recommendations for addressing the issues found.

Main findings and recommendations based on the data

The 2018 Government Serious Violence Strategy was published in response to the rise of certain types of public space violent crimes. The Serious Violence Strategy sets out specific crimes of particular concern, including:

  • Homicide
  • Violence against the person (including knife crime and gun crime)
  • Areas of criminality where serious violence or threat is inherent, such as county lines drug dealing.

The SNA has focussed on these areas. Violence could potentially include such a broad range of incidents, that the SNA had to be kept to three issues listed.

The demographics of Coventry and how this impacts levels of serious violence

According to the 2021 Census:

These figures highlight a diverse, young city, underscoring the need for culturally responsive, youth-oriented violence prevention efforts.

Key Findings from the April 2025 Needs Assessment Refresh

1. Serious Youth Violence 

  • Data Sharing: Strengthen data sharing agreements among partners to improve real-time access to relevant data. 

  • Targeted Interventions: Focus on high-risk areas and times, such as after school hours and city centres. 

  • Community Engagement: Increase community involvement in violence prevention strategies. 

2. Knife Crime 

  • Focused Deterrence: Implement strategies like cognitive behavioural therapy and trauma-specific therapies. 

  • Hot Spot Policing: Increase police presence in areas with high knife crime rates. 

  • Youth Programs: Develop after-school activities and mentoring programs to engage young people. 

3. Violence Against Women and Girls 

  • Support Services: Enhance support services for victims, including mental health and counselling. 

  • Public Awareness: Increase public awareness campaigns about VAWG and available resources. 

  • Data Analysis: Continue to monitor trends and patterns to inform policy and intervention strategies. 

4. Health 

  • Hospital Data Utilisation: Use hospital admission data to identify trends and inform interventions. 

  • Mental Health Services: Improve access to mental health services for victims of violence. 

  • Community Health Programs: Develop community-based health programs to address violence-related health issues. 

5. Youth Justice 

  • Early Intervention: Focus on early intervention programs for first-time offenders. 

  • Education and Training: Provide educational and vocational training to young offenders. 

  • Support Networks: Strengthen support networks for young people in the justice system. 

6. Exploitation 

  • Awareness Campaigns: Increase awareness about exploitation and its signs. 

  • Support Services: Enhance support services for victims of exploitation. 

  • Collaboration: Foster collaboration among agencies to tackle exploitation effectively. 

7. Community Insight 

  • Public Perception Surveys: Conduct regular surveys to gauge community feelings of safety and areas of concern. 

  • Youth Engagement: Involve young people in the development of violence prevention strategies. 

  • Faith Communities: Leverage faith communities to support violence reduction initiatives. 

8. Risk and Protective Factors 

  • Address Poverty: Implement programs to reduce poverty and deprivation, which are linked to higher rates of violence. 

  • Education Support: Provide support for neuro-diverse students to prevent school exclusions. 

  • Mental Health: Address mental health needs as part of violence prevention strategies. 

Relevant strategies and groups already in place in the city are:

  • The Drug and Alcohol Strategy
  • The Early Help Strategy
  • The Youth Justice Plan
  • The Health and Wellbeing Plan
  • The Community Safety Plan
  • Schools Violence Reduction Plan
  • Attendance and Inclusion Policy (used by individual schools)
  • Child Friendly Coventry Initiative
  • The Domestic Abuse Strategy
  • Coventry Family Valued Approach
  • Children and Adult Safeguarding partnership
  • Modern Slavery operating procedures

Next steps and follow-up actions

Context

The reasons for serious violence in Coventry are complex and multifaceted. There is a substantial body of academic research about why violence occurs, which helps professionals identify who may be more at risk of violence within the population. The diagram below sets out individual, family and societal factors that help protect people from experiencing violence. They are known as protective factors. As a city, including individuals that make up our local communities, we must all work together to increase these protective factors for all. Over the long term, this will decrease serious violence in the city.

Protective Factors

Peer and social factors

Peer and social factors

  • Possession of affective relationships with those at school
  • Commitment to school
  • Close relationships with non-deviant peers
  • Membership in peer groups that do not condone anti-social behaviour
  • Involvement in pro social activities
  • Exposure to school climates with positive characteristics

Family factors

  • Connectedness to family or other adults
  • Ability to discuss problems with parents
  • Perceived parental expectations about school performance
  • Family use of constructive strategies to cope with problems
  • Consistent presence of parent during key part of the day
  • Involvement in social activities
  • Frequent shared activities with parents

Individual factors

  • High educational aspirations
  • Positive social orientation
  • Popularity acknowledged by peers
  • Developed social skills
  • Skills for realistic planning
  • Religious beliefs
  • Intolerant attitude towards deviance
  • High IQ
  • Academic achievement

What we are already doing

The Partnership recognised and has been addressing serious violence since 2020, with city partners working in close collaboration. The introduction of the serious violence duty formalised existing local efforts. Initially, the focus was on combating violence impacting individuals under 25 years old, a demographic highlighted as particularly vulnerable to and affected by violence according to the needs assessment data. The partnership has broadened its focus and considers all ages affected by serious violence in its day-to-day work.

To tackle this, the City initiated the Horizon team, a multi-disciplinary group involving professionals from diverse backgrounds such as social work, youth work, children & family services, adolescent support, and law enforcement. This collaboration has notably improved risk management for at-risk children, resulting in fewer children entering the youth justice system. The Horizon team operates in close conjunction with Youth Justice and the Multi-agency safeguarding hub.

Additionally, the City has embraced Trauma-Informed Approaches and Contextual Safeguarding, enabling professionals to better comprehend how trauma influences behaviour and the risks individuals face beyond their homes, including the impact of peer associations. Although measuring the direct impact of this approach is challenging, data suggests a promising trend: a reduction in severe violence affecting individuals under 25. This is evidenced by fewer weapon-related injuries at A&E and a decline in custodial sentences since 2020.

What works to reduce serious violence?

The Youth Endowment Fund has produced a toolkit of what works based on the evidence "what works toolkit [http://youthendowmentfund.org.uk/toolkit/]". One intervention we have currently in Coventry (subject to funding) is navigators in Accident and Emergency Departments [https://youthendowmentfund.org.uk/toolkit/ae-navigators/].

We also tested CIRV which is a focused deterrence model [https://youthendowmentfund.org.uk/toolkit/focused-deterrence/]. There is robust evidence that this works and CIRV in Coventry is being independently evaluated by academics during the 24 months that the project is running. The funding was time limited and there is now a two year evaluation period. The outcome of the evaluation is expected to be published in 2027. CIRV is no longer running in Coventry, but, as a City, all the partners involved have learnt important lessons about delivering this type of work, they have also formed important connections which benefits young people in terms of finding the right partners to meet their needs. If the evaluation of CIRV is positive in terms of the model and YEF add it to the what work [https://youthendowmentfund.org.uk/toolkit/]s toolkit, then the City has good evidence to potentially seek funding to reintroduce this way of working. CIRV was featured in a BBC documentary fronted by Idris Elba [http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0027ffx/idris-elba-our-knife-crime-crisis].

How will we know if we are focused on the right things?

The partnership is confident that they understand the root causes of violence for individuals and communities in Coventry. They can broadly be categorised into four domains.

Four domain categories for violence

Individual factors

Familial factors

Peer and social factors

Community factors

Trauma/Violence

Neglect

Involvement in gangs

Community deprivation

Substance misuse

Parental substance misuse

Low commitment to school

High levels of transition within the community

Exposure to family violence

Criminality/Anti-social belief system

Social rejection by peers

Lack of community provision/activity

Poor emotional regulation

Low income/unemployment

Association with criminal peers

Living in a high-crime neighbourhood

Lack of educational attainment

Domestic Abuse

Lack of involvement with pro-social activity

Lack of aspiration/opportunity

To make a difference, the partnership needs to focus on all four areas. Using the table it is easy to see why tackling the issue is complex and needs the involvement of many partners, including the community and the individuals living in the community. Some factors are outside the direct control of the partners and could only be influenced by changes in national policy.

Coventry works closely with the West Midlands Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner and the Violence Reduction Partnership (VRP) [https://westmidlands-vrp.org/]. The VRP conducts its own needs assessment for the region.

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