The borough’s Serious Violence Crime Strategy, which sets out how Ealing Council will work with partners to prevent serious violence and keep residents safe, was approved at the council’s cabinet meeting last Wednesday, 6 March.

The new strategy is the work of the Safer Ealing Partnership which sees the council, police, fire service, youth offending teams, probation services and the NHS coming together to prevent and address crime.

Stopping crime before it happens

The borough’s Serious Violence Strategy has been produced as part of the requirements of the Serious Violence Duty (SVD), introduced by the Police Crime Sentencing and Courts Act (2022).

After consulting with partners and undertaking a detailed study into serious violence trends in the borough, a coordinated approach has been developed to tackling serious violence that sets out more than 60 agreed actions covering 4 strategic objectives:

• prevention
• reducing reoffending
• supporting victims and those at risk
• minimising the impact of violence and increasing trust amongst our communities

This collaborative and consistent approach to reducing violence means that we’re getting ahead of serious violence. Through collaborating with our partners on data sharing, engagement and analysis of behaviours and local areas of activity, we can go further in preventing more serious crimes taking place and getting victims and offenders the right support that they need.

Council leader Peter Mason said: “As part of our ongoing efforts to keep residents across the borough safe, we’re committed to reducing serious violence.

“There is a real benefit in taking a partnership-led approach to reducing violence, particularly in a borough like Ealing which has the third largest population in London.

“Working as a partnership we want to know who, why and where serious violent crimes are committed and crucially what we can do together to prevent them before they happen.

“This involves a really joined up approach, from sorting out problematic public spaces in our local areas and providing early intervention for our children and young people to keep them on the right path, to our trading standards teams working with the police helping to reduce access to weapons in the borough.

Keeping young people safe

“Whilst we are dedicating resource to focusing on crimes committed by under 25s as the government tells us to, it’s also really important that we respond to what our data tells us, and our information shows us that very often young people are just as likely, or more likely, to be the victims of crime.

“For example, 57% of victims of sexual violence are under 30, while 64% of suspects are over 30 years old, and over 50% of those suspects were either a former partner, friend, or family member.

“We have to make sure that as a whole community and partnership we are continually working hard together to keep everyone safe.”