Serious Violence Duty evaluation

Product Description

In 2022, the Serious Violence Duty (SVD), ‘the Duty’, was introduced as part of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act. Adopting a whole-systems approach (that is, a collaborative and multiagency approach to addressing the root causes of violence), the Duty provided a legal requirement for ‘specified authorities’ to work in partnership to prevent and reduce serious violence (SV). While the Duty guidance recognised the need to define violence according to local need and profiles, the Home Office Serious Violence Strategy defines SV as specific types of crime such as homicide, knife and gun crime, and areas of criminality where SV (or its threat) is inherent.

In 2022, Ecorys was commissioned to undertake a process evaluation of the SVD. The scope of the evaluation was to understand how the Duty was implemented, and its implications for how local areas tackled SV, and to explore whether the Duty enabled areas to adopt a whole-system approach to preventing SV.

Primary data was collected at 3 points:

• baseline (June to August 2023): interviews with a representative from each of the 43 LPBs
• midpoint (October to December 2023): case study research with up to 10 representatives from each of 12 areas, including 6 areas with a VRU and 6 without)
• endpoint (October to December 2024): repeat interviews across the 12 case study areas, and with a single representative from each of the remaining LPBs

Alongside the primary data collection, key programme documentation was reviewed, such as delivery plans and partnership monitoring returns, along with an assessment of Strategic Needs Assessments (SNA) and Response Strategies (RS) for all 43 partnership areas. Data collection and analysis were aligned to the key inputs, activities and outputs identified in a Theory of Change (ToC) for the Duty.