Sharing best practice between VRUs

A member of the VVU visited Hampshire Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) this month. This is part of our learning exchange programme with the other VRUs across the country. This gave us an excellent opportunity to explore how Hampshire VRU are working and share across our two areas examples of our different interventions.

The visit provided a chance to understand Hampshire VRUs projects which have similarities with those we run in Essex, such as their Reset project which works with young people between the age of 18 – 25 years. This project engages with young people at the point of being received into Police custody to offer support and diversion from further offending behaviour.

We shared the successes, to date, of the Essex ReRoute programme and how we have implemented this working in partnership with key criminal justice stakeholders.

Through reachable moments – the goal of ReRoute is to reach those most at risk to themselves, or others, at the time when intervention is likely to have the most impact. ReRoute works with young people and young adults through pre-court routes, identified from police activity, where an individual is suspected of violence and / or possession of class A and / or B drugs with intent to supply. This includes young people and young adults who have been arrested in possession of a knife.

Contact is made with the young person by ReRoute within 24 hours of the referral, at a key reachable moment, providing a dedicated resource to support young people and adults who are most at risk of (re)offending, providing alternative routes to offending behaviour including positive activities and support to achieve positive outcomes.

The visit allowed key learning and best practices to be shared between the VRUs which in turn allowed local learning/evidence bases to inform a wider national understanding of serious violence.

We are looking forward to hosting colleagues from Hampshire VRU in the New Year allowing them the opportunity to meet the wider team and see first-hand the interventions and partnership working we have in place.