In April 2022, the Government announced that 20 police force areas across the country would receive funding for Violence Reduction Units (VRU’s),
It was confirmed that the Police and Crime Commissioner for Cleveland would receive a £3.5m budget over the next three years. This is to establish a local VRU.
Locally, the VRU will be named Cleveland’s Unit for the Reduction of Violence (CURV).
A range of complementary partnership actions will support the work of CURV.
There will be £1.4m of investment in ‘Grip’ activity. This will support police to take additional enforcement activity in specific hotspot locations, which are most affected by serious violence.
Preventing, reducing and tackling serious violence is a key priority in the PCC’s Police and Crime Plan.
The VRU programme forms a key part of the Government’s plans to tackle serious, violent crime. This was set out in the Government’s Beating Crime Plan.
As a mandatory requirement, the Home Office has specified that Violence Reduction Units must conduct a local evaluation.
VRUs must evidence the action being taken to build on the Strategic Needs Assessment and Response Strategy to reduce serious violence. In addition, any information relating to local evaluations should form part of CURVs annual report.
CURV will embed the Research and Evaluation Partner into its work.
An open tender was carried out using EU Supply as the tender portal, advertising the contract in Contract Finder as per the Public Procurement Regulations 2015.
Details of the Procurement Process are included in the appended report.
Final Report for a Research and Evaluation Partner (application, 338kB)