Investing in awareness, education & intervention

Our continued commitment and passion for delivering our shared vision for the county, The Future of Essex, was truly evident by the breadth of partners that came together at the Essex Assembly earlier this month.

“The conversations that took place between public, private and voluntary sector colleagues demonstrated our collective progress in delivering the best possible services for our citizens through our shared ambitions for the county.

Together we shared our experiences, celebrated our successes, challenged our thinking and set new ambitions to collaborate in designing our communities and services to provide our increasing population with the same excellent quality of life as they live and grow old in Essex.

“Leaders across Essex recognise the importance of joining forces to create new opportunities to tackle complex issues such as demographic changes, the changing nature of work, different and new types of crime, and are initiating a number of partnership programmes to deliver more for our communities – especially around violence and vulnerability.

“Our Violence and Vulnerability Framework is leading the way in tackling the complex issues of serious violence, youth exploitation and drug gangs by investing in awareness, education and intervention projects.

“We have been given £664,000 of Government funding to help tackle this, following a successful bid to the Home Office’s Early Intervention Youth Fund. Essex County Council also agreed to contribute £500,000 to fund a partnership approach to county lines.

“The money is being used to establish a Violence and Vulnerability Unit. The unit will see officers from Essex Police, the Youth Offending Service and other agencies come together to undertake joint operations, interventions, and ensure sharing of relevant data and intelligence led by a project manager.

“There will also be increased investment in awareness and education programmes as well as new, evidence-based preventative interventions to prevent young people from being exploited by criminal gangs.

“The only way we can combat violence and vulnerability and keep our communities safe is by working together. By harnessing our passion to deliver our shared ambition for Essex we can make this happen and improve the futures of our young people.”

Pippa Brent-Isherwood

Chief Executive and Monitoring Officer

Office of the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner for Essex