Executive Summary
The Home Office told Cleveland in April 2022 that it was to receive funding over three years for a Violence Reduction Unit.
The funding allows Cleveland Unit for the Reduction of Violence (CURV) to develop partnerships to reduce serious violence across Cleveland.
CURV aims to do this via a more collaborative approach. This is in accordance with set objectives outlined in the Response Strategy.
Activities – or interventions – funded from CURV’s core budget must align with the Youth Endowment Fund Toolkit, This is especially true of interventions deemed to be ‘high impact.’
This is in order to contribute to the continued development of the local, regional and national evidence base. Evidence demonstrates ‘what works’ when addressing serious violence.
CURV commissioned a Strategic Needs Assessment (SNA) It provided an in-depth analysis of the causes and drivers of crime across Cleveland. The SNA allows CURV’s partners to refine and prioritise the cohorts and localities. This is to ensure.
- Reductions in Serious Violence Offences
- Reductions in hospital admissions for assaults with a sharp object
- Reductions in Homicides
The Home Office requires CURV to adopt a Public Health Approach to tackling serious violence as part of its funding agreement.
That means addressing the underlying causes of violence. There is an identified link between school exclusions and young people’s likelihood of entering the criminal justice system or becoming involved in serious violence. This aligns naturally to a pilot intervention being led by PROCLAIM.
Programme Summary
Providing Rich Opportunities for Children who are Looked After In Middlesbrough (PROCLAIM)
The PROCLAIM programme is an initiative and key cross sector project designed to address the needs of children and young people in the locality of Middlesbrough, which is the fifth most deprived Local Authority area in England, with increasing levels of deprivation.
Children in care and those with a social worker are disproportionately likely to have undergone traumatic experiences and/or have had difficulty building positive relationships with adults. The PROCLAIM project is developed to support systematic school-wide practice designed to improve these circumstances and support positive life outcomes.
PROCLAIM wants to support children in Middlesbrough to feel safe, seen and heard.
It does this by ensuring relationships are at the heart of its practice when supporting children, who have experienced trauma.
The project aims to drive down exclusion and increase school attendance. This is with the objective that all of children achieve their full potential.
PROCLAIM is working to introduce a universal language of attachment and trauma across the town.
It provides training and support in schools to drive excellent outcomes for all young people.
Proclaim has the goal of supporting all schools in Middlesbrough to be ‘attachment and trauma informed’ by 2025. This is so everyone can enjoy, achieve, and thrive in school.
PROCLAIM is currently supporting 30 settings to ensure children and young person’s needs are met, across the community in Middlesbrough.
Family communications officer
Funding will facilitate a PROCLAIM family communications officer. That person will support several joint aims of both CURV and PROCLAIM.
The PROCLAIM family communications officer will contribute to broader public communication and engagement.
He/she will support families to understand attachment and trauma in a holistic way. The officer will also upskill schools to support the wider family.
CURV’s contribution to PROCLAIM has been agreed as £15,000 for this financial year (2023/2024) and a further £30,000 for next year (2024/2025).
This was further approved and ratified by the Executive Assurance Group (EAG) at a meeting held on 9th November 2023, including partners from, Cleveland police, Probation, NHS, and the Local Authorities.
Measuring Success
PROCLAIM will measure, analyse, and communicate the impact of the programme.
It will do this via key Performance Indicators. These are proven to support good outcomes including; school attendance, suspensions, exclusions and pupil perceptions.:
Middlesbrough Local Authority/ education is the lead partner for PROCLAIM and CURV will contribute to this pilot by granting funds to the Council.
The formal grant agreement will outline the conditions for funding and expected performance framework.
Decision 2023/24 – 0032: PROCLAIM School's Interventions (application, 213kB)