In April 2022 Cleveland was informed that it was to receive Home Office funding over 3 years for a Violence Reduction Unit.
Titled the Cleveland Unit for the Reduction of Violence (CURV), the funding enabled a partnership to be developed that sought to reduce serious violence across the whole of Cleveland through a collaborative approach and in accordance with set objectives as outlined in its published Response Strategy.
Activities or interventions funded from CURV’s core budget are to align with the Youth Endowment Fund Toolkit, to demonstrate ‘what works’ when addressing serious violence. CURV commissioned a Strategic Needs Assessment (SNA) that provided an in-depth analysis of the causes and drivers of crime across Cleveland, which allowed CURV’s partners to refine the cohorts and localities it wished to prioritise. With weapons enabled violence in Cleveland above the national average, funding to support activities that directly contributed to the following were approved as a priority, these are the performance indicators defined by the Home Office:
- Reductions in Serious Violence Offences
- Reductions in hospital admissions for assaults with a sharp object
- Reductions in Homicides
Prevention, early intervention and tertiary interventions
A statutory requirement of CURV is to fund prevention, early intervention and tertiary interventions.
The SNA identified that the most common qualifiers recorded in Police data for serious violence offences were domestic abuse, weapons (including knives) and drugs and/or alcohol.
As part of CURV’s commitment to knife crime education, this match-funding will enable the Rotary Club to purchase a package from Round Midnight which includes the purchase of five Virtual Reality (VR) headsets, loaded with the programme ‘Virtual Decisions Knives’ and a licence to use the programme, together with the follow up material.
Delivered by Volunteers, including both Rotarians and Magistrates, the Virtual Decisions Knives package will be targeted towards 12-14 year olds in education and youth settings across the Cleveland area, with the potential to reach 40-50 young people per day.
The VR Package
The bespoke VR package will involve a real life scenario based VR experience, accompanied by a one-hour workshop, plus a series of six lectures, given by teaching staff or youth workers.
The intended outcome is that the young people will be made aware of the potential consequences of carrying knives and encouraged to make better decisions when under peer pressure.
To ensure the maximum reach of the VR programme across Cleveland, CURV will work in conjunction with Cleveland Police, Magistrates in the Community and Rotary Club to ensure a co-ordinated and targeted approach to:
- Deliver the programme in areas informed by CURV hotspot data
- Prioritise the programme to schools located within the catchment areas or wards identified with notification to CURV in advance of delivery.
- Measure positive impact of the delivery of the interventions for young people their families and the community.
Home Office Funding
From the Home Office Funding to deliver CURV, which includes a responsibility to commission and support a range of interventions, an anticipated underspend was identified by late December 2023 due to delays in recruiting staff and unanticipated delays in commissioning of agreed interventions.
To maximise the funding opportunity and increase the number of interventions aimed at reducing knife crime we proposed using the underspend to support activity that directly contributed to CURV’s mission of reducing serious violence, and so agreed to match fund this project for the financial year 2023/2024, with delivery of the programme to be continued into 2024/2025 without further funding from CURV.
This was subsequently briefed at the next available CURV Executive Assurance Group which was held on the 14th June 2024.
Decision: 2023/24 – 0047: Virtual Reality Headsets Intervention within Schools (application, 196kB)