Home Office Violence Reduction Unit Evaluation

Last week the VRU (Violence Reduction Unit) national evaluation for 2021/22 was published. This is a report, commissioned by the Home Office, which looks at the impact of the 18 Violent Reduction Units in their first three years.

Violence Reduction Units, of which the Essex Violence and Vulnerability Unit is one, have been funded by the Home Office since 2019 to primarily provide leadership and strategic coordination of relevant agencies to support a “whole system” approach to tackling serious violence and its root causes.

Three key findings from the 2023 Evaluation were:

• VRUs’ contribution to the progress made towards a whole-systems approach is substantial. The report states that “whilst some progress may have been made in the absence of the VRU, it would have been over a longer period and/or reduced scale”
• For 2021/22, the programme’s third year, for every £1 invested, £4.10 in savings to society.
• Since funding began, an estimated 136,000 (or 243 per 100,000 persons) violence without injury offences had been prevented in funded areas.

You can read the report in full at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/violence-reduction-units-year-ending-march-2022-evaluation-report