How we Use the Public Health Approach
Building on the Home Office’s guidance, our public health approach is:
Focused on a Defined Population
We work across the Humberside Police area, which covers the four authorities of East Riding of Yorkshire, Hull, North East Lincolnshire and North Lincolnshire. Some of what we do is universal, meaning everyone (or everyone with particular characteristics, such as certain age groups) may access or benefit from it. Other work is more targeted, for example with the people we have identified as being most at risk of being drawn into violence.
Working With and for Communities
Our work is informed and co-produced by local communities and people with lived experience of violence and its causes. We recognise that we do not have all the answers and a successful approach to preventing violence depends on people and communities getting behind it as much as statutory organisations. Therefore, we take a strengths-based approach, one that avoids labelling, blaming, stigmatising or judging, and seeks to help people and communities to build on their strengths rather than focus on their perceived deficits. We are also trauma aware in what we do and how we communicate - recognising that trauma can have lasting adverse effects on people and communities and that we have a responsibility to prevent re-traumatisation. Our longer-term aim is to be fully trauma-informed across the system.
Not Constrained by Organisational or Professional Boundaries
We are taking a “whole-system” approach, recognising that a great number of organisations – and teams within organisations – can contribute to preventing violence, but none of them can solve the problem on their own. How well the relationships and interactions between different parts of the system work is as important as how well each part works individually.
Focused on Generating Long-term and Short-term Solutions
Our work is inherently long term. Working on the root causes and determinants of violence means we may not see some of the outcomes for several years, but by drawing on the evidence base and developing a clear theory of change we can be confident of the value of primary prevention. However, we also know that there are things we can do now with people who may be on the cusp of violence to prevent them being drawn in – which in turn may prevent others being drawn in later. We therefore seek to balance our work across the long term and short term.
Based on Data and Intelligence
We pool data across organisations to create new insights and a more complete understanding of the drivers of serious violence in our area. Where appropriate, we use data and intelligence to focus our attention and investment on the cohorts of people with the greatest need.
Informed Evidence of What Works
There is growing evidence about what works to prevent serious violence. Drawing on this helps us focus our resources on the things that are most likely to work and to learn from the experiences of others. However, we do not solely do things that have been tried before. We welcome new ideas, try our own local approaches and (wherever possible) evaluate them to find out whether they work. By doing this, we can contribute to the collective understanding of how to prevent violence, as well as learn from it.
