Cleveland received notification of three years Violence Reduction Unit funding from the Home Office in April 2022.
In Cleveland, the Violence Reduction Partnership is called Curv.
Funding will enable the PCC to establish a team to develop a long-term, joined-up, preventative approach to tackling serious violence
The Commissioner’s office will take a leading role in bringing together organisations and agencies.
A statutory requirement of CURV funding is to support activity through prevention, early intervention, and tertiary interventions.
Aims of the serious violence fund
The Serious Violence Fund aims to prevent young people from becoming involved in serious and violent crime.
It aims to help by funding activities to fuel young people’s interests and ambitions across Cleveland. The fund aims to support reductions in the following:
- Serious violence offences
- Hospital admissions for assaults with a sharp object
- Homicides
The activities to be funded were linked with the Youth Endowment fund toolkit of interventions and especially those deemed ‘high impact’ in reduction of serious violence and should:
- Effectively engage with the Under-25s but not excluding adults
- Steer young people away from serious violence, crime, or potential harm.
Activities could include sports, arts, crafts and other activities. Performance against funding agreements would be monitored by CURV.
There were 47 final applications for funding, and the decision-making group, comprising of the PCC and North East Probation Service, OPCC and Voluntary sector representatives, met in September 2022. They approved more than 20 of the applications (reference: DRF 2022-0018.)
CURV have ensured that delivery of these interventions in line with grant agreements. They will continue to monitor future delivery. First performance reports have been submitted and relayed to the Home Office.
Upscaling interventions
A central requirement of funding was to evaluate the performance of interventions.
As a result, CURV identified a number of successful applicants where interventions could be upscaled. This would help to provide additional work.
After a process of questioning and analysis, costings were agreed. CURV made sure they aligned with the required outcomes in the original funding application.
In line with national initiatives, CURV has made available increased funding which is expected to work towards and evidence the reductions in serious violence as a result of the specified interventions. Upscaled applications will continue to be required to engage with CURV evaluation processes.
- Get Connected £10,000.00
- Billingham Boxing Club £5,000.00
- Barnardo’s Beyond the Blade £8,000.00
- Youth Focus NE £19,942.64
TOTAL £42,942.64
Details of Uplift
These supportive uplifts to agreed initial funding will include the following
- Additional community development to deliver community panels and community leads for focussed deterrence.
- Agreed supplementary sports classes at different agreed times to increase delivery numbers.
- Extra school bystander delivery group classes at schools linked to the CURV Serious Violence Strategic Needs analysis.
Additional ‘reachable moment’ work within hotspot schools situated within the SV hotspot areas.
Decision 2022/2023 – 0034: CURV Uplifting Interventions (application, 186kB)