New Strategy published to protect and support victims of crime in York and North Yorkshire

Violent crime has seen an overall reduction across our region, dropping by 10% from April-September 2024 compared to the same six-month period in 2023. However, possession of weapon offences has increased in line with national trends. Whilst the figures show that rape and domestic abuse offences have seen a reduction, violence against women and girls also continues to be a key issue. Nationally, half of all women suspected of being victims choose not to report. 

Partners from across York and North Yorkshire convened to refresh the Serious Violence Response Strategy (SVRS), which assesses the current state of serious violence across our region and assigns key priorities to help combat it. 

The Serious Violence Duty (SVD) was introduced by the Home Office in January 2023 and requires Mayoral Authorities, Deputy Mayors and Police and Crime Commissioners to work with local Responsible Authorities to prevent and reduce serious violence in their area and implement a strategy to address it.   

The Government have also committed to halving serious violence, including knife crime. New measures to tackle it nationally were announced in the Crime and Policing Bill at the end of February 2025.  

Throughout 2024, North Yorkshire Police (NYP), North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue (NYFRS), North Yorkshire Council (NYC), City of York Council (CYC), Probation Service Yorkshire and the Humber (PSYH), and the NHS Humber and North Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (ICB), worked with the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority (YNYCA) to produce a refreshed Strategic Needs Assessments and Strategy for York and North Yorkshire. 

The partnership also engaged with residents of York and North Yorkshire through their Serious Violence survey, which will run again in 2025, as a combined survey encompassing the specific priority of Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG). 

The new strategy retains the 5 over-arching priorities to address serious violence across York and North Yorkshire, taking a preventative public health approach and with a particular focus on York and Scarborough: 

• Awareness Raising and Public Perception 
• Children and Young people  
• Possession and Use of Weapons 
• Alcohol, Violence and Night-time Economy 
• Violence Against Women and Girls 

To address these priorities the Partnership continued to support eleven prevention and early intervention-oriented projects, through the Serious Violence Duty Prevention and Early Intervention Fund. 

The Prevention and Early Intervention approach and commitment to supporting local community safety projects is further enhanced through the Community Safety Serious Violence Fund. 

The fund is currently accepting applications for projects that can support our strategic priorities and focused areas of York and Scarborough, particularly: 

• Raising awareness of our preventative approach to reducing serious violence and support services available. 
• Preventing and diverting children and young people from becoming involved in serious violence, as victims or perpetrators: 
• The Department of Education (2023) reported 80% of children who were cautioned or sentenced for an offence had been persistently absent from school; this figure increases when looking at those cautioned or sentenced for a serious violence offence. 
• Reducing possession and use of weapons. 
• Reducing alcohol-related violence in the night-time economy. 
• Reducing violence against women and girls. 

Over £95,000 of funding has been awarded in 2024/25 for community safety projects, via the Community Safety Serious Violence Fund 

 

York and North Yorkshire Deputy Mayor for Policing, Fire and Crime Jo Coles said: 

Everyone has the right to feel safe. Serious violence devastates victims’ lives. Although our levels of serious violence in York and North Yorkshire are relatively low, each case causes huge damage to our communities.  

“The new Government has committed to half serious violence, including knife crime. In York and North Yorkshire, using this new strategy, we will continue to work closely with partners including the local authorities and North Yorkshire Police to ensure we all do everything we can to get violence off our streets.

 

Executive Member for Safer Communities at City of York Council Cllr Michael Pavlovic said: 

Given the devastation that serious violence inflicts on communities, this strategy is welcome and reflects our priority areas. Our joint work with the Combined Authority’s Policing, Fire and Crime Team, North Yorkshire Council, Police and other strategic partners implements initiatives developed as a result of the strategy.  

These support Safer York Partnership’s priority to reduce serious violence and the significant impact it causes and continues to ensure that York becomes even safer.

  

Executive Member for Community Safety at North Yorkshire Council Cllr Heather Phillips, said:   

We have seen the positive effect that working together can have and it’s important that we continue to do so. By listening to each other and learning from experience, we can work towards combating serious violence where it occurs.  

While not as acute an issue as in some other areas of the country, complacency is not an option and by refreshing the Serious Violence Response Strategy we ensure we are at the forefront of efforts to tackle problems when they arise.  

I look forward to continued collaboration with partners as we strive to maintain North Yorkshire’s enviable reputation as one of the safest places to live and work.

 

Superintendent Ed Haywood-Noble, Chair of Safer York Partnership and Chief Superintendent Fiona Willey, Chair of North Yorkshire Community Safety Partnership said: 

Serious violence has a devastating impact on victims, families, and communities across the country and whilst we know that overall North Yorkshire is one of the safest places to live, we can’t be naïve in thinking serious violence doesn’t happen here – we know it does – and people across our county need to feel safe and be kept safe. 

As a partnership of committed public sector agencies, North Yorkshire Community Safety Partnership and Safer York Partnership are proud to publish the refreshed North Yorkshire and York Response Strategy in line with the Government’s Serious Violence Duty. 

The Strategic Needs Assessment has effectively identified the areas in North Yorkshire and York where Serious Violence is the most prominent and where we most need to focus efforts to tackle it

This continues to inform our Response Strategy to tackle Serious Violence across our county and help keep our communities safe and feeling safe.

 

Projects supported by the fund include: 

Knife Drop Bins – delivered by Community Safety Partnerships in York and North Yorkshire
Following a successful trial in Harrogate, the Knife Bins Project is a project currently being rolled out across the county and the City of York, delivered by Community Safety Partnerships following a £15,000 grant. 

The project aims to serve as a method of primary prevention, by allowing members of the public to properly dispose of knives, bladed articles, or sharp tools in a safe and anonymous way. 

1,700 blades have been put in Harrogate’s bins and the town has seen a decrease in the number of weapon possession offences, demonstrating the positive impact a project such as this can achieve.  

  

Inspire Youth Yorkshire
Inspire Youth Yorkshire received grants to support the provision of a range of diversionary activities in York and Harrogate, supporting young people in priority areas. 

Projects are aimed at both secondary and primary school-aged pupils, including a mobile youth base and rolling group session on the topic of serious violence. 

Across the two areas and range of interventions, over 2,800 young people aged 24 and under have been reached to date.   

  

Operation Reach
Operation Reach, supported by a £40,000 grant and delivered by North Yorkshire Police, is designed to address a lack of high visibility police presence in the Night-Time Economy (NTE) in York.  

Officers provide a holistic approach to early intervention and prevention in the NTE addressing Violence Against Women and Girls/Serious Assaults/Drug Misuse and engaging with the public by ensuring a visible presence in hotspot areas.

This complements wider work being undertaken by City of York Council in relation to their alcohol behaviour-change initiative, and the use of ‘micro-hotspots’ will also complement the planned environmental improvements. Over 70 different licensed premises have been engaged with as of January 2025. 

Operation Reach has helped to prevent and reduce serious violence and VAWG offences linked to alcohol and substance misuse in the NTE, with increased reporting directly to officers in relation to suspicious and criminal behaviour. 

  

Halo Project, Behind Closed Doors
Following a £29,000 grant, the project scoped, wrote, produced, and launched a professional film featuring black and minority ethnic (BAME) victims of cultural harms. The project was co-produced with local BAME women survivors aged up to 25 years who have faced cultural violence and abuse.

The Halo Project worked in partnership with the North Yorkshire and York Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) group to ensure the project aligns with the VAWG strategic approach and supports community engagement in priority areas.

This has led to increased confidence from victims to report VAWG offences, in order to change attitudes and beliefs for future generations to break the cycle of abuse.
 

The full updated Strategic Needs Assessment and Response Strategy, which contains further detail about the nature of serious violence in North Yorkshire and the steps being taken by key partners to tackle it, including a full list of the supported projects, can be found online. 

 

Read the York and North Yorkshire Serious Violence Strategy