GovWire

This report presents findings of an evaluation of VRUs in their fourth year of Home Office funding. VRUs have been funded in 18 Police Force Areas (PFAs) since the year 2019 to 2020, and in 2 additional PFAs since the year 2022 to 2023, primarily to provide leadership and strategic coordination of all relevant agencies to support a whole system approach to tackling serious violence and its root causes.

This evaluation judges whether VRUs had an impact on Serious Violence in their first 4 years, and assessed their progress in relation to the different elements of the whole systems approach. It then makes recommendations to the Home Office and VRUs themselves to maximise the programmes impact.