About the Serious Violence Duty

The Serious Violence Duty (the Duty) was introduced in January 2023, under the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act (2022).

The Duty:

• places a requirement on specified authorities to work together to reduce violence within local communities
• promotes and adopts a whole systems, multi-agency approach that is place-based and incorporates incorporates the World Health Organisation (WHO) public health approach to violence reduction

For more information:

View violence prevention approach on the WHO website

View taking a public health approach to tackling serious violent crime - case studies

Partnerships in Birmingham

The Community Safety Partnership (CSP)

The Community Safety Partnership (CSP) is Birmingham’s multi-agency group under the requirements of the Crime and Disorder Act (1998), with representation from the specified authorities who have a statutory duty to work together to formulate and implement strategies to:

• tackle crime, disorder and antisocial behaviour in their communities
• combat the misuse of drugs, alcohol and other substances
• reduce offending.

These specified authorities are:

• police
• probation service
• local authority
• health
• fire
• youth offending service

We will deliver our response across four priority boards:

• Building Stronger Neighbourhoods
• Protecting People from Harm
• Violence Reduction
• Reducing Offending

The Violence Reduction Board (VRB), on behalf of the Birmingham Community Safety Partnership (CSP), has led the response to the Serious Violence Duty, and will align with other strategic boards and partnerships.

The VRB has taken a broad partnership approach to our response that includes specified authorities, voluntary and private sector organisations and, importantly, our local communities.

Preventing and reducing serious violence continues to be a main priority for the Birmingham Community Safety Partnership. We are committed to continuing to work in partnership, with children, and communities to bring about a culture change that shows that violence is not inevitable, it is preventable.

Meaningful engagement with our communities will be an ongoing part of our work so we can continue to listen, and learn from those affected by violence. This is crucial if we are going to make a real difference tackling this complex issue, and make sure our response is tailored to the challenges in Birmingham.

This response is reflected in a range of strategies and policies, and delivered across a number of partnership boards.

The serious violence strategic needs assessment will support us as we work to understand the driving factors and inter-related root causes that can lead to violence.

Aligning with other local strategies, policies and boards

We know that our response cannot be delivered by a single agency. It is only as a partnership which includes our communities and children at the heart of our approach, that we will be best placed to use the city’s resources to:

• understand the root causes
• prevent the violence
• improve the lives of all our citizens

Work is already ongoing, and our approach will continue work across the partnership, through our existing frameworks, to make sure that we intervene early to prevent and tackle many of the underlying causes for violence.