Preventing Violence with a focus on protecting children

In April 2023 PCC Donna Jones established a Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) based in her office with a clear mandate to reduce serious violence and knife crime in our communities with a focus on young people who get drawn into violent crime. Too often children are being exploited by organised criminal gangs. These children often have not thrived in schools and have experienced trauma or violence in their early lives.

This page focuses on the work the VRU is doing in partnership to prevent children being exploited into violence.

The VRU estimates the annual cost of serious violence for children under the age of 18 in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight is conservatively £18.4 million. When accounting for crimes not reported to the police, the actual cost may be around £29.4 million. For young people under the age of 25, the cost rises to £32 million but is likely to be around £51.3 million when accounting for crimes not reported.*

*These figures do not include possession of weapon offences, therefore are likely to underestimate the true cost of serious violence crimes.  

The VRU works in partnership to take a long term public health approach to violence prevention. No one agency can prevent violence so the VRU works in partnership to develop a whole system response across the Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.

The VRU publishes an annual report of how agencies work together and how funding is used to prevent serious violence. Useful Documents – Hampshire Police and Crime Commissioner

The Child First approach is supported by evidence and is actively promoted by the UK Government. The Child First principle is made up of four tenets that set out an ‘ABCD’ approach and can be seen below:

As Children

Recognise how children are developmentally different from adults and require different support.

Building pro-social identity

Promote children’s individual strengths and capacities to develop a pro-social identity, focusing on positive child outcomes rather than just trying to manage offending.

Collaborating with Children

Involve children meaningfully to encourage their investment, engagement, and social inclusion.

Diverting from stigma

Promote supportive diversion from the criminal justice system where possible, or minimising stigma within it, as we know that stigma causes further offending.

Reflecting current evidence in our revised case management guidance is an important step towards to achieving a Child First youth justice system that enables children to make a constructive contribution to society. This will prevent offending and create safer communities with fewer victims.

This is the approach the VRU is actively advocating for and incorporating into its practices and commissioning of interventions.

It can appear to be expensive to support vulnerable children but the cost of prevention is outweighed by the savings that can be achieved.

This is supported by the fact there are encouraging signs in that Office of National Statistics (ONS) Data indicates that knife crime has fallen 27.6% over the last two years (2023-2025) across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.

A toolkit explaining the practicalities of Child First can be found HERE.

Below are three VRU- involved programmes that adopt the Child First approach:

‘Future Directions’ Programme

The VRU has worked in partnership with Southampton’s Youth Justice and Children’s Services to develop the ‘Future Directions’ programme, bringing together a joint team of police and Children’s Services practitioners. The team works from a Child First and Contextual Safeguarding approach, recognising that children’s choices and behaviours are shaped by their home, school, peer and community environments. They focus on addressing the influences that drive harm or offending whilst helping children build a strong sense of safety, belonging, aspiration and positive identity.

Each child receives a bespoke offer of support with access to additional tutoring, Speech and Language Therapy, sports-based activities, and consistent relationship-based support from a dedicated professional. The police role is focused on building trust and understanding between the young people and police, whilst supporting them to recognise the consequences of their actions on themselves and others. Police investigations are prioritised and the impact of prosecution is explained clearly to children who continue to offend.

Alongside this, the team works collaboratively to identify and disrupt those who may be harming or exploiting children, while strengthening the protective networks around them. Importantly the programme allows partners the space to understand who is influencing and exploiting children in the community. This programme started in July 2025 and will be evaluated by the VRU with support from academic partners. The project is funded by £200k from the OPCC and match funded with £100k from Southampton Children’s Services and police.

The Violence Reduction Partnership (VRP) takes an evidence led approach leaning into national and international studies of ‘what works’ to reduce violence and then put interventions into practice monitoring impact and outcomes. The evidence base in this area is growing internationally and the Youth Endowment Fund (YEF) collate and publish summaries of successful work which the VRU refer to. The VRP share data and information to much better understand what is happening in our communities to drive violence.

‘Pathway to Construction’ Programme

The VRU have also worked in partnership with Youth Justice Colleagues and the King’s Trust to develop a ‘Pathway to Construction’ programme which has been delivered in Southampton and Portsmouth. This programme supports children to gain qualifications to work in construction who are considered at risk of being involved in violence.

The programme offers bespoke support and onward mentoring. The VRU will also assess the impact of this programme. This project is funded by £80k from the OPCC but is supported extensively by police and the Youth Justice Service. In 2026 the programme will be extended in the Havant area.

Young Futures Prevention Panels

As part of the government’s Young Futures Programme the VRU have worked with Hampshire, Portsmouth, Southampton and Isle of Wight Youth Justice Services to establish ‘ Young Futures Prevention Panels’. These panels bring professionals from police, children’s services, Fire and Rescue, Education and the VCSE Sector. The panels use data and professional knowledge to identify children who may be at increased risk but are currently not being supported in a way that their needs are met.

Children will be supported and signposted into community based schemes to provide appropriate support. The VRU will work with the Home Office to evaluate the impact of the panels.

The panels were established in October 2025 and collectively access £440k to identify and support children who may be slipping unsupported through the gaps in the system.