Who we are
The NSVPP
In 2023, the Northamptonshire Serious Violence Prevention Partnership (NSVPP) was created to reduce serious violence in Northamptonshire. Working in partnership our goal is to prevent the occurrence of serious violence because we know it is not inevitable but preventable.
Serious Violence Duty
Introduced by the Government as part of the Police, Crime and Sentencing Act 2022 (PCSC) the Serious Violence Duty was created in response to the rising levels of knife crime, gun crime and homicide in the UK.
In Northamptonshire the Serious Violence Duty is managed by the NSVPP it places responsibility on us to:
- Work together to consider what serious violence is in their locality
- Create a definition of serious violence
- Identify the risk factors relating to this serious violence
- Implement a delivery plan to reduce it
There are five specified areas responsible for the Serious Violence Duty:
- Justice: Youth Offending Service at Northamptonshire’s Children’s Trust and Northamptonshire Probation
- Health: Northamptonshire Integrated Care Board
- Local Authorities: North Northamptonshire Council and West Northamptonshire Council
- Fire: Northamptonshire Fire & Rescue
- Police: Northamptonshire Police
The Office of the Northamptonshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner used its convening powers to establish the NSVPP in the county.
Our strategy
Our Serious Violence Duty Strategy 2023-2025 outlines our plans to tackle crime and serious violence in Northamptonshire. It sets out how we will work together with children and young people and wider communities to prevent and reduce serious violence.
We aim to:
- Stabilise and reduce violence in the short-term
- Understand the underlying causes of violence in the county
- Co-ordinate Northamptonshire’s communities and public organisations to address those causes in the longer-term
We believe violence is preventable and will do everything we can to ensure that Northamptonshire’s communities feel safe and free from the threat of violence.
To deliver our strategy we will work as a multi-agency partnership across four key themes:
Leadership and Cultural Change
Lead and collaborate with partners to drive the change required to prevent serious violence
Data sharing and evidence and evaluation
Use multi-agency data, insights and evidence to improve our understanding of the causes and risk factors of serious violence in the country
Tackling vulnerabilities
Co-design, implement and evaluate evidence-informed interventions that address causes of serious violence and strengthen protective factors, whilst contributing to the local and national evidence base
Place Based
Only by working with our communities, in our communities, can we help deliver better outcomes for them
It is our mission is to work with and for communities, adopting Public Health England five C’s approach to have a lasting impact for the people of Northamptonshire.
To learn more about the Strategic Needs Assessment and the details of our strategic plans to prevent serious violence read our strategy.
Public Health England’s Five C’s
Community consensus
Our responses will be ‘with and for communities’ to build trust and confidence ensuring that all interventions are relevant and responsive
Collaboration
Preventing serious violence requires a system-wide approach collaborating with an array of groups, organisations, and sectors
Co-production
Interventions, and strategies will be co-produced with young people, their families and communities
Cooperation in data
We are committed to all organisations identifying, sharing and analysing all relevant data to help us greater understand serious violence in Northamptonshire
Counternarrative
Promoting hope rather than fear is key to tackling serious violence, we will establish a clear counter-narrative that is reflective of the realities of violence in our communities
In 2023 we completed Northamptonshire’s first Strategic Needs Assessment for serious violence which focuses on five years of data from all the specified authorities of from the 1/04/2018 to 31/03/2023.
We identified the key drivers of serious violence in Northamptonshire to better understand their root causes. By understanding these factors, we can ensure that our interventions are effectively designed to prevent serious violence in the long term.
Drivers of Serious Violence
Deprivation and poverty: there is a correlation between deprivation and serious violence – it increases the possibility of other risk factors, and children that live in poverty are more likely to be exploited.
Emotional and mental health: poor emotional and mental health is a risk factor and a consequence of being involved in serious violence. Those with unmanaged disorders are more vulnerable to violence and involvement in criminality.
Substance misuse: this increases the risk of a person being involved in serious violence as either a perpetrator or a victim.
Adverse childhood experiences: these are potentially traumatic events that occur in childhood or the teenage years. They can include: experiencing violence, abuse, or neglect; witnessing domestic violence; bereavement; substance use within the family; mental health problems within a household; parental separation; or having a family member in prison. Adverse childhood experiences can have a lasting effect on someone’s health and wellbeing. They can cause someone to be more vulnerable to youth violence, exploitation and substance use increasing the risk being involved in serious violence as either a perpetrator or a victim.