In April 2022, the Government announced that 20 police force areas across the country would receive funding to support the Violence Reduction Units (VRU’s), where it was confirmed that the Police and Crime Commissioner for Cleveland would receive a budget of £3.5m over the next three years to establish a local VRU. Locally, the VRU was named Cleveland’s Unit for the Reduction of Violence (CURV). The work of CURV will be supported by a range of complementary partnership action, with £1.4m of investment in ‘Grip’ activity, which will support the police to take additional enforcement activity in specific hotspot locations most affected by serious violence.
In addition to CURV, the Government introduced the Serious Violence Duty through the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts (PCSC) Act 2022, which places a duty on specific organisations such as the police, the fire service, justice partners, health and local authorities to collaborate to prevent and tackle serious violence in their local area. The Duty intends to create the right conditions for authorities to collaborate and communicate regularly, using existing partnerships where possible, to share information and take effective coordinated action in local areas. Under the Duty, all statutory partners must work together to develop a strategic needs assessment of the unique causes of violence in their area and then publish a strategy on how they will tackle it.
CURV’s core membership, which exceeds that of the specified authorities, recognises the benefits of using CURV’s governance arrangements as the mechanism through which specified authorities will deliver their statutory obligations under the Serious Violence Duty. The funding allocated to Cleveland in the current year of Serious Violence Duty funding was:
Twenty-nine thousand, four hundred and nine pounds, ninety-three pence (£29,409.93) It was agreed at the CURV Governance Group through the specified authorities in their capacity as core members, that this amount would be divided into:
- Analytical spend
- Equipment spend
It was further agreed that the equipment cost will be used to supplement the already agreed
four local authority Night -Time Economy funding plans commissioned by CURV, which equates to each LA receiving £3,041.82.
Decision 2022/2023-0037: CURV Equipment Funding (application, 175kB)