Purpose

Cabinet is recommended to
approve the public-facing ‘Serious Violence Strategy’
which sets out the Council’s approach to tackling
weapons-based violence across the borough.

Content

Cabinet:

(1)         
noted the commitment and actions to tackle serious
violence, particularly knife crime, among our younger residents;
and

(2)         
agreed the draft ‘Serious Violence Strategy: A
partnership approach to keeping our young people safe from
violence’.

 

Options & Alternatives Considered

Our ambitions to address serious violence
were published earlier this year in accordance with the legal
requirements set out in the government’s Serious Violence
Duty. The report followed the duty template and serious violence
definition provided by MOPAC, detailing our
partnership approach, needs assessment, resident engagement and
activity already underway to prevent and reduce serious
violence.

We know that serious violence, and
particularly knife crime, is a key concern for our residents. And
while our SVD template met the statutory requirement of the Duty,
as a Council, we wanted to go further and design a more impactful
strategy for our residents, clearly setting out our shared
commitment to tackling serious violence, and the actions we are
taking to achieve it.