Serious Violence Duty

The Serious Violence Duty came into force on the 31 January 2023 and covers the requirements set out in Chapter 1 of Part 2 of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 (the PCSC Act).

The duty requires specified authorities – namely Police, Justice (Probation/ Youth Offending); Fire & Rescue; Health (via Integrated Care arrangements) and local authorities – in a local government area to work together and plan to prevent and reduce serious violence, including identifying the kinds of serious violence that occur in the area, the causes of that violence (so far as it is possible to do so), and to prepare and implement a strategy for preventing, and reducing serious violence in the area. In addition to the specified authorities, there is an expectation to liaise fully with education, prison and youth custody authorities, as well as the local voluntary sector.

The Serious Violence Duty extols the public health approach to serious violence, with the aim on targeted, co-ordinated prevention but ensuring a consideration on the determinants and risk factors in people’s lives, rather than just focusing solely on the act of criminality. This is in keeping with Bury’s ‘Let’s Do It’ approach and public service reform intentions.

Bury’s LET’S principles are at the heart of our approach to tackling serious violence. In building a strategy, we will ensure that our strategy is distinctly local – driven by the latest performance and intelligence picture of the area. We will ensure that it is enterprising – allowing each citizen to thrive in their livelihoods by taking a life-course approach to prevention and early intervention. We will ensure that violence reduction is done together with the citizens of Bury, ensuring that our work is done ‘with’ – not ‘to’ the communities.

Finally, we will ensure that our strategy builds on Bury’s existing strengths – such as our strong partnership-working across sectors – so that that we tackle the root causes of violence from every angle through directing our efforts on existing assets and services with a proven track record to bring about positive change.

Bury partners have worked with the the Greater Manchester Violence Reduction Unit to support a regional Serious Violence Strategic Needs Assessment and Strategy – the GM Strategy is available here: Greater Than Violence Strategy (gmvru.co.uk). Bury partners have developed a local Strategic Needs Assessment and a local delivery plan which is available here.