In April 2022, the Government announced that 20 police force areas would get funding to support Violence Reduction Units (VRUs.)
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).
GRIP funding
The work of CURV will be supported by a range of complementary partnership action. This includes £1.4m of investment in ‘Grip’ activity.
Grip will support the police to take additional enforcement activity in specific hotspot locations most affected by serious violence.
Serious Violence Duty
In addition to CURV, the Government introduced the Serious Violence Duty through the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts (PCSC) Act 2022.
It 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 area.
The Duty aims to create the right conditions for authorities to collaborate and communicate regularly. It uses 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. Partners must then publish a strategy on how they will tackle it.
CURV’s core membership exceeds that of the specified authorities. Members recognise 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.
Serious Violence Duty Funding
Cleveland was allocated £29,409.93 in the current year for Serious Violence Duty funding.
It was agreed at the CURV Governance Group through the specified authorities in their capacity as core members, that this amount should be divided into:
- Analytical spend
- Equipment spend
Group members agreed that quipment costs will be used to supplement night time economy funding plans.
Plans cover the four local authorities already commissioned by CURV. Therefore, funding equates to £3,041.82 for each local authority.
Decision 2022/2023-0037: CURV Equipment Funding (application, 175kB)