ABOUT
THE VRP
#stopviolence
Purpose and Vision
The Violence Reduction Partnership (VRP) is a partnership that brings together specialists from Local Government, Health Education, Policing and Criminal Justice to work with communities and the third sector to reduce serious violence and tackle its underlying causes. We are determined to have a positive and lasting impact, and invite all sections of the community to join the big conversation about reducing violence together. We believe that intervening early to prevent issues emerging is the best way to ensure children, young people, families and communities in Nottingham City and Nottinghamshire County thrive. Our work is underpinned by evidence of what works, and by working system wide as a partnership we plan to expand that evidence base, and well as create new evidence bases where none currently exist.
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The VRP takes a public health approach to reducing violent crime, focusing on what will make a difference to whole populations, communities and groups. In practice this means we are looking beyond the statistics about incidents of crime and its causes to
research and evidence that explains why people behave in certain ways and what contributes to this behaviour. As the saying goes, ‘prevention is better than cure’, and the public heath approach means intervening through education and policy change before violence has chance to take hold, much in the same way as other population level health issues.
These interventions are aimed at building community resilience to violent crime and changing social norms, using the local intelligence to interrupt the transmission of violence by analysing where it may occur and intervening with those at higher risk.
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The VRP is an outward-facing partnership, and we are engaging with all groups and individuals, be they public, private, or third sector who want to help reduce violence in Nottingham.
We encourage you to follow us on social media or our Latest News page to keep up to date with events and see how we can help your community.
The Strategic Violence Reduction Board
Caroline Henry (Chair)
Police and Crime Commissioner
Caroline Henry was elected Nottinghamshire Police & Crime Commissioner in May 2021.
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After spending her life living, working and breathing Nottinghamshire, Caroline is determined to get tough on crime and ensure victims are always heard.
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Having commissioned a wide range of services in many roles for both the private and public sectors and for charities, in a career spanning more than 30 years, Caroline takes a hands-on approach to the Commissioner role. She brings fresh energy and ideas to get things done.
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She brings to the role an enormous amount of business experience in order to oversee an important budget, always ensuring value-for-money for the taxpayer and that maximum investment goes to front-line policing.
Putting more police officers on the streets and investing in policing presence in towns across Nottinghamshire are two of Caroline’s big priorities during her term in office.
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ADAM BROOKES (Vice Chair)
Major Trauma Surgeon
Adam Brookes is the Pathway Lead for Major Trauma at Nottingham University Hospitals and Clinical Lead for Emergency Surgery.
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Adam is responsbile to the regionalisation of Major Trauma Services across the East Midlands, the development of Queen's Medical Centre into the East Midlands regional Major Trauma Centre and for the modernisation of treatment pathways for patients with emergency surgical conditions across Nottingham.
CATHERINE UNDERWOOD
Corporate Director of Children'and Families, Nottingham City Council
Sponsor for the VRP's Trauma Informed Practice, Personal Resilience and Contextual Safeguarding work stream
Catherine is Corporate Director of People at Nottingham City Council. She started her career in Nottinghamshire, qualifying as a social worker at Nottingham Trent University.
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She has worked in a wide range of roles across local authorities and the NHS, focussing initially on mental health and subsequently moving into leadership and transformation roles at director level.
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Catherine is the statutory director for children's services and adult social services.
RICHARD HENDERSON
Chief Executive, East Midlands Ambulance Service
Richard joined the Ambulance Service in 1996. He is a qualified paramedic and has extensive experience having held clinical and operational senior managerial roles including as a Divisional manager for EMAS' Lincolnshire Division and Director of Operations for EMAS.
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In March 2016, Richard became the EMAS Acting Chief Executive and the Chief Executive in October 2017.
DR ANDY NEWTON
Associate Professor in Policing & Criminology, Nottingham Trent
Sponsor for the VRP's Data, Intelligence and Evidence work stream
Dr Andy Newton is an Associate Professor in Policing and Criminology at Nottingham Trent University, Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice - which he joined in November 2019.
Previously he has worked at the Universities of Liverpool, Huddersfield and Leicester. He has 20 years’ experience in crime prevention and community safety – with particular expertise in crime analysis, policy monitoring and evidence-based evaluations, problem solving, and mixed methods research.
He is widely published and known internationally for his work on violence and the Night-Time Economy, Crime and Place Analysis, and Crime and Transport. He has worked collaboratively with a range of organisations including: Community Safety Partners (Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds and Kirklees); Police Forces (West Yorkshire, Merseyside, Greater Manchester, Derbyshire, South Yorkshire, PSNI and BTP); and his research has been funded by Transport for London, Merseytravel, Metroline, Alcohol Concern, CrossRail, the Home Office, the Department for Transport, the College of Policing, and the EU Commission.
Kate Meynell
Chief Constable, Nottinghamshire Police
Chief Constable Kate Meynell took the reins at Nottinghamshire Police in December 2022. Previously the Deputy Chief Constable at Derbyshire Constabulary, she has returned to the force where she began and spent most of her career.
JONATHAN GRIBBIN
Director of Public Health, Nottinghamshire County Council
Sponsor for the VRP's Data, Intelligence and Evidence work stream
Jonathan has worked in public health in Nottinghamshire since 2009, taking up the role of Director of Public Health for Nottinghamshire County Council in 2018.
When he took office his first Director of Public Health Annual Report was on Violence Prevention which was integral to improving health and wellbeing so that all residents can develop and fulfil their aspirations.
Alongside this overarching aim, important goals for Jonathan and his team are that no one in Nottinghamshire should grow, live or work in an environment which is harmful to their health, and that everyone should have access to support to make choices which lead to good health and wellbeing.
COLIN PETTIGREW
Corporate Director, Children's, Families and Cultural Services, Nottinghamshire County Council
Sponsor for the VRP's Trauma Informed Practice, Personal Resilience and Contextual Safeguarding work stream
Colin joined Nottinghamshire County Council in October 2015 as Corporate Director for Children and Families, leading one of the largest departments delivering children, families and cultural services in the Country, serving over 110,000 children in Nottinghamshire.
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He had previously been in post as Director of Children's Services at Sefton Metropolitan Borough council in Merseyside.
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As a qualified and registered Social Worker, Colin has worked in children's services for a number of local authorities and charities over the last 30 years. He also spent nearly two years working for the Department for Children, Schools and Families, leading on improvements under the Every Child Matters agenda and new policies on child poverty and children with disabilities.
ANDREW CROPLEY
Principal and Chief Executive, Vision
West Nottinghamshire College
Sponsor for the VRP's Mentoring, Education and Training work stream
As the principal of West Nottinghamshire College in Mansfield, Andrew is passionate about further education and the wellbeing of the nation’s young people.
He is a strong advocate of the new opportunities and experiences that education can provide; helping to transform the lives of individuals and encouraging communities to thrive.
Andrew has held senior posts in further education over the past ten years, and also has a wealth of experience from a variety of military roles. He has great empathy for the challenges facing today’s young people, and sees his role as enabling everyone in the college to do their absolute best for the benefit of college students and the communities of Mansfield and Ashfield.
ASAD FAZIL
Founder/Director of Al Hurraya
Community Ambassador
Al-Hurraya was founded in 2014 by Asad Fazil after he recognised that there was an emerging need of a service which works directly with Minority communities. He wanted to offer services where he could use his specialism, empower people and engage with them.
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Asad has over ten years of experience working in the voluntary, statutory sector. Having overcome many challenges of his own he identified the need for a culturally specific organisation which would improve service provision for Black, Asian, Minority, Ethnic, Refugees and New Emerging communities. He developed the first UK based Islamic 12 step program.
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Asad’s vision for Al-Hurraya is for it to become a leading BAME specialist service providing solutions and support for all its beneficiaries.