The Health and Social Care Information Centre, on behalf of the Standardisation Committee for Care Information, has published a new Standard on Information Sharing to Tackle Violence (ISTV). Under the Standard, major NHS A&E departments in England will collect and share non-confidential data about attendances involving violent crime with Community Safety Partnerships (CSPs), including:
- time and date of incident
- time and date of arrival to A&E
- specific location of incident
- primary means of assault i.e. weapon or body part used
CSPs are made up of representatives from the police, local authorities, fire and rescue authorities, probation service and health workers.
ISTV is part of the government’s commitment to reduce knife and gun crime. Encouraging A&Es to share non-confidential information about the location of violent crimes will allow the police to target crime hotspots with stop-and-search measures.
The Information Standard is being introduced following work by the Cardiff Violence Prevention Programme, which indicated that this approach could reduce the severity of injuries and A&E attendances resulting from violent incidents by approximately 35%.
ISTV has been developed with the National College of Policing, Association of Chief Police Officers, Public Health England, College of Emergency Medicine and NHS England. The Department of Health is overseeing and sponsoring the implementation of ISTV.