Tens of thousands of children and young people across Derbyshire and Derby City will continue to benefit from targeted educational activities, mentoring and interactive workshops to prevent their involvement in serious violence.
Derbyshire Police and Crime Commissioner Nicolle Ndiweni-Roberts has secured an additional £941,000 in Home Office funding to support the continuation of existing violence reduction services and initiatives.
The investment has been awarded as part of the Government’s Serious Violence Duty and supports collaborative work already underway to tackle serious violence.
The multi-agency Derby and Derbyshire Serious Violence Board, which works with the PCC to tackle some of the most serious types of harm including knife crime, possession of weapons and serious injuries and deaths caused by acts of violence, has approved grants for several providers across the City and County.
From immersive Virtual Reality (VR) education enabling young people to experience first-hand the harsh consequences of carrying knives through to intensive one-to-one mentoring for young people who have already committed a violent offence or are at high risk of doing so, the interventions target the underlying factors that drive violent behaviour including trauma and Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) before it escalates into tragedy or irreversible offending.
Part of the Home Office’s grant will support the county’s Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) to continue direct interventions to prevent serious violence while other funding will support the ongoing work of the City and County Young Futures Prevention Partnership Panels. These panels consist of youth justice experts, police and voluntary partners and aim to identify and support children and young people aged 10-17 who are at risk of being drawn into youth violence including violence against women and girls (VAWG), knife crime and ASB.
Welcoming the funding, Police and Crime Commissioner Nicolle Ndiweni-Roberts said: “This money will support the work already underway across the county to change lives.
“Across Derbyshire, parents, families, teachers, youth workers and residents are concerned about serious violence. They want tough action to challenge the glorification of violence and violent culture and its impact on impressionable young minds and to disrupt misguided beliefs that it is a solution to conflict. They also want to know that when children leave for school or college or go out for an evening with friends they will return home safely and will not be exploited or come to harm.
“There are no overnight successes in tackling serious violence. But by sustaining the work already going on in our communities at grassroots level and acting as early as possible when we identify the risks, we will prevent more lives being irrevocably lost and damaged through serious violence. We will also give more young people a better start.
“However, while I welcome this funding to continue delivering the impactful initiatives what we have in place, I am aware that there is more to do so I will continue to lobby the Government for additional support.”
Serious Violence including Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) is the highest of six key priorities in the PCC’s Police and Crime Plan.
The Plan sets out a series of commitments to prevent young people from being drawn into serious violence including developing joint approaches to crack down on knife crime throughout Derby and Derbyshire and proactively targeting activity based on need to deal with serious violence offending.
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NOTES TO EDITORS:
Through the new funding, Derby City Council will be commissioned to continue its Virtual Reality Violence Reduction Programme – an early intervention workshop scheme using VR headsets to help young people explore the dangers and emotional consequences of carrying knives without telling them what to do.
Up to 3,500 young people aged between 12-15 and 16-18 are set to benefit from the interactive sessions. Participants will also engage in a six-part anti-knife crime extended learning package as part of the project.
Restorative justice charity Remedi, meanwhile, has been commissioned to provide a one-to-one intensive, trauma-informed, mentoring project working with children and young people who have committed a violent offence or are at risk of becoming involved in violent behaviour.
The charity will work with at least 90 children and young people across the city and county throughout 2026/27 for 12 weeks or longer delivering a range of programmes.
Derbyshire Constabulary will receive funding for detached youth work through its Youth Bus, reaching up to 4,000 young people.
The Youth Bus delivers mentoring-led early intervention to children and young people in community settings, providing access to trained youth workers who build trusted, consistent relationships with participants with the primary purpose of reducing their risks of engaging in serious violence and ASB.
In supporting voluntary sector provision, Derby-based charity Safe and Sound has secured funding for the delivery of its ‘I Can I Will’ bystander training programme for young people aged 10-18. Workshops will be delivered within schools, alternative provisions and care homes, reaching up to 10,000 young people.
The Serious Violence Duty was introduced on 31st January 2023 and requires organisations to work together to reduce and prevent serious violence by focusing on the root causes of offending as part of a ‘prevention over cure’ strategy.
Projects supported through the Home Office funding will be delivered in 2026/27.