Key findings from the 2025 Home Office VRU evaluation – a public health approach to addressing violence

We would like to share some key findings and strategic insights from the latest VRU (Violence Reduction Unit) evaluation. The latest national evaluation report was published by the Home Office this summer and marks year 5 of VRUs nationally. Essex predates this, with the Violence and Vulnerability framework put in place in 2018 and establishing the Essex Violence Reduction Unit, known as the ‘Violence and Vulnerability Unit’ (VVU) in early 2019.

The Essex VVU has contributed to the national evaluation, which shows positive results for VRU areas and evidences the value of a public health approach to reducing violence. There have been statistically significant reductions in hospital admissions for both assaults by sharp objects and any violence, among under-25s, which is double the impact seen in the general population. These are strong indicators that VRUs, including Essex, are effectively reducing violence among young people, which is a key target group of the VRU programme.

This independent evaluation also evidences the significant impact of the local VRU partnerships, 80% of partners strongly agreeing that VRUs have impacted positively on the join up of systems locally.

National Evidence

National evidence shows that the local VRU partnerships are able to apply national knowledge to local settings, utilising a public health approach, and using the expertise within the partnerships to make decisions on best practice and deliver meaningful interventions.

In Essex we use national findings to ensure we are doing the right thing in Essex. We consistently use evidence to make sure that we are working with, and supporting, the right people in the right places. Strong insight and intelligence make this possible.

The national evaluation concludes VRUs are showing good practice, and we can illustrate this in Essex where we partner with only evidence-led interventions, primarily those evaluated by the Youth Endowment Fund as having a high impact on violent crime or having a high impact on protective factors that are evidenced as reducing and preventing violent crime.

Further new research

A new report “Reducing crime and violence through health interventions: a UK perspective” was also released this week, it supports the work we are doing here in Essex, work evidenced as working, from our own research and from the national evaluation of VRUs.

The report concludes that preventing crime and violence begins long before an offence is committed, it begins in the first years of life and if we take a coordinated health, education, and community approach, we are able to build a society where children flourish, and crime recedes.

This report recognises the work that VRUs are doing across the UK and reinforces the main points from the VRU national evaluation and our work here in Essex. For further information about the national VRU evaluation visit here and for the report, “Reducing crime and violence through health interventions” visit here.