Pilot project to prevent offending gets national recognition

The Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Violence Reduction Network (VRN) is one of just five areas in the country to secure extra funding to work with the Home Office and the Youth Endowment Fund to test and evaluate how focused deterrence (FD) can keep young people and adults safe from involvement in serious violence.

FD has been used in America and led to a significant reduction in serious violence (approximately 33 per cent) but has not been robustly tested in the UK – until now.

The Minister of State for Policing, Fire and Crime Prevention, Dame Diana Johnson, has written to all 43 forces encouraging them to read the new national guidance, which includes the Phoenix Programme, to consider if FD could be a suitable intervention for their force.

Staff from the Phoenix Programme also featured in a series of videos talking about the challenges, learning and successes of setting up focussed deterrence in our area.

Young people and adults are selected to join the Phoenix Programme through data, insight and intelligence from a range of sources. They are then offered tailored support from a dedicated case worker, a ‘community navigator’ and a range of community partners, who provide hope, opportunity and connection, delivered through high quality relationships to tackle their offending behaviour.

Many of the community navigators have lived experience of violence and crime. It balances high levels of support from services and communities with swift and certain consequences, including enforcement, if offending behaviours persist.

VRN director Grace Strong, and community and young people manager Lisa Wilkinson, also recently presented at the national Youth Endowment Fund Conference, ‘Focused Deterrence: Evidence, Challenges and Opportunities’. They were part of a series of focused panels discussing the design and implementation of the Phoenix Programme, including the team’s approach to partnering with communities.

Ms Strong said: “This is one of the most complex programmes we have set up locally. It required months of co-design work with partners, our evaluators from the University of Hull and young people and adults with lived experience of violence.

“To be asked to share our learning nationally is an honour and a reflection of the Phoenix team’s unwavering commitment to make our local design a reality. We are looking forward to receiving the results of the evaluation in due course.”

You can read the national guidance here and watch the videos with the team from the VRN. https://youthendowmentfund.org.uk/reports/focused-deterrence-guidance/