South Yorkshire Violence Reduction Unit
South Yorkshire Violence Reduction Unit (SYVRU)
What Is the South Yorkshire Violence Reduction Unit?
As part of the South Yorkshire Violence Reduction Unit (SYVRU) within Rotherham, we are taking a public health approach to preventing and reducing violence. This means that we are looking at the causes of violence and working in partnership to stop violence before it starts, to halt the progression of violence once it has already begun and provide ways out for people already entrenched in violent behaviour.
The South Yorkshire Violence Reduction Unit works in partnership with organisations and communities to try to prevent and reduce violence in South Yorkshire. The VRU draws together Community Safety Partnerships (CSPs) in Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham, and Sheffield. These CSPs bring together organisations, from local authorities to South Yorkshire Police and South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue, to develop a joined-up approach to tackling crime, violence, and anti-social behaviour. In Rotherham, the CSP is called the Safer Rotherham Partnership.
The South Yorkshire Violence Reduction Unit takes a public health approach to preventing and reducing violence, delivering a range of innovative initiatives with partners. The Safer Rotherham Partnership manages the Rotherham Violence Reduction Action Plan. Initiatives include the Plan B Custody Navigator scheme delivered by City Hearts where navigators visit detainees in Police custody suites, engaging and providing support to young adults to help them make the right choices and to step away from crime.
The public health approach to violence can support both long-term, medium-term, and short-term solutions.
The five elements of our public health approach to prevent and reduce violence include:
Primary prevention: We work to stop violence from happening before it starts. This is often the hardest level to show it has worked, because we can’t measure what hasn’t happened.
Secondary prevention: This is often called early intervention. We aim to provide support early, when violent behaviour (or some of the causes of it) starts, to stop it from becoming established.
Tertiary prevention: We look to provide ways out for people already wrapped up in violent crime.
Criminal Justice and Enforcement: Holding people to account for their actions.
Attitudinal Change: Aiming to shift cultural norms in society.