Damian Dallimore, Director of Greater Manchester’s Violence Reduction Unit, and Anthony Benedict, Executive Head Teacher of Tameside Pupil Referral Units, set out some of the ways Greater Manchester’s VRU is approaching violence prevention.
In 2019 when Greater Manchester launched its Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) alongside 17 other areas across England and Wales, all eyes were on Scotland as the ‘birthplace’ of a public health approach to preventing and tackling violence, particularly where that violence affected children and young people. Scotland broke new ground when its leaders recognised that when it comes to violence, much like health, focusing on prevention is preferable to constantly looking for a cure and that true partnership required public and voluntary sector services investing in universal, secondary and tertiary interventions.
The results spoke for themselves with Glasgow in particular seeing phenomenal reductions in homicides and serious violence.
In the five eventful years since launch, in Greater Manchester we have very much developed our own unique identity as a VRU. After all, we ‘do things differently here’.
