In 2022, the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act introduced the Serious Violence Duty. This legislation required local authorities and other public services to work together to prevent and reduce serious violence in their communities.
In 2023, like many other local authorities, the London Borough of Hounslow, (1) needed to develop and implement a serious violence strategy to align with this duty.
The Challenge
The London Violence Reduction Unit (2) had created a template model for local authorities in the capital to help them coordinate a consistent approach to defining serious violence. Hounslow was already rolling out a three-year Community Safety Strategy, which covered similar areas of work and had well-developed multi-agency partnerships around violence prevention.
However, while most partners were aware of the new Serious Violence Duty, it hadn’t yet been bedded in across the system and there was some confusion about roles for different agencies. Some statutory partners – particularly those in peripheral services – were unclear about their responsibilities under the new duty.
Our Approach
Leapwise worked with Hounslow and local partners across three phases:
- Analysis of existing strategic and work planning documents: Leapwise reviewed Hounslow’s existing strategies around community safety and serious violence, including the strategic needs assessment being developed with the local authority. This provided a foundation for further research and engagement work.
- Key stakeholder interviews: Following this, Leapwise engaged with partners directly to assess their understanding of the Serious Violence Duty and existing work around it, the implications for their organisation, and how well multi-agency collaboration was functioning.
- Collaborative engagement workshops: Leapwise hosted workshops with frontline workers and duty holders at the Community Safety Partnership Board to enhance partners’ understanding of the duty and their roles within it. These also helped build a common approach and stronger connections between partners responsible for putting the serious violence duty in place.
Results
Leapwise identified that Hounslow’s existing proactive approach was aligned with the Duty’s focus on prevention and multi-agency collaboration. We also found that partners across the borough were already working collaboratively to prevent and reduce crime. Relevant duty holders clearly had a growing understanding of what their role was in tackling serious violence.
On that basis, Leapwise supported Hounslow with integrating the Serious Violence Duty’s requirements into its well-established Community Safety Strategy (rather than creating a standalone violence strategy.) This avoided duplication, as the required elements of a serious violence strategy aligned closely with existing plans, in turn reducing ‘duty fatigue’ – where agencies feel overwhelmed by overlapping and burdensome demands.
Leapwise also helped Hounslow to determine the most appropriate forum for governance and coordination of the Serious Violence Duty. In this case, the Community Safety Partnership Board was chosen, with dedicated time set aside for oversight of actions supporting the Duty.
For public services navigating complex statutory duties, finding an approach that ensures simplicity, avoids duplication, and complies with new responsibilities can be daunting. Our work with Hounslow followed exemplified this mindset, enabling both the local authority and its partners to move forward with confidence in their efforts to prevent and reduce serious violence.
Contact our team to explore how we can support your organisation in delivering multi-agency work and adapting services to complex new legislative requirements.
