Warwickshire Serious Violence Community Consultation 

The Task 

The Serious Violence Duty was introduced by the Government in January 2023. The Duty is a key part of the Government’s programme of work to collaborate and plan to prevent and reduce serious violence: taking a multi-agency approach to understand the causes and consequences of serious violence, focusing on prevention and early intervention, informed by the evidence. 

The Duty requires specified authorities for a local government area to work together and plan to prevent and reduce serious violence, by preparing and implementing a strategy for preventing, and reducing serious violence in the area. 

As required by the Duty, Warwickshire County Council have conducted a Strategic Needs Assessment and subsequently developed a Serious Violence Prevention Strategy. To support the implementation of this, Warwickshire County Council commissioned TONIC to undertake a community consultation, targeted at specified lower layer super output areas (LSOAs) within each of the five districts and boroughs across Warwickshire, with the following aims:  

• Mapping: to identify key stakeholders within LSOAs who could support the consultation. 

• Insights: through engagement with local communities to understand their experiences of serious violence and what the impacts are. 

• Co-Production: with local communities to develop potential solutions to the issues identified as contributing to serious violence within the LSOAs. 

The aim of this community consultation was to gather detailed qualitative data from the local community, to supplement the quantitative data analysis within the Warwickshire Serious Violence Strategic Needs Assessment.   

TONIC’s Approach 

Mapping: TONIC conducted a stakeholder mapping exercise with Warwickshire County Council to identify individuals and organisations with relevant expertise to support with the research process and facilitate access to the local community in each LSOA. Some of the key stakeholders formed Task and Finish Groups for the project to provide guidance and oversight of the work. 

Insights: TONIC gathered the views of local communities through in-person semi-structured interviews and focus groups. In addition, TONIC gathered the views of young people, through the facilitation of body mapping workshops. Body mapping is a creative research method that is used to collect qualitative data from participants about their subjective experiences. The method involves tracing around a person’s body to create a life-sized outline (or using a smaller pre-drawn body outline, as was the case for this project). This outline is then drawn, painted, and written upon in a contemplative and creative process that assists the maker in reflecting upon, and expressing, their personal and embodied life experiences. 

During the insights phase, TONIC engaged 82 individuals, including young people and adults, ranging in age from 11 – 65 years old. To analyse the data, TONIC researchers used Braun and Clarke’s (2006) six-step method of Thematic Analysis. 

TONIC produced a dedicated highlights report for each of the five LSOAs detailing the findings from this phase of the project. Within this, some ‘areas for consideration’ were identified to explore via co-production workshops. These reports were shared with Warwickshire County Council and local stakeholders in the Task and Finish groups. 

After triangulating data from fieldwork in each of the LSOAs, TONIC were able to identify a range of themes that emerged from the insights phase, as well as area specific similarities and differences. A series of six insight cards were created that summarised the themes and detailed areas for consideration to be explored in co-production. These included:  

• Experiences of Crime and Violence and Feelings of Safety  

• Sense of Community and Belonging  

• Social Media  

• Lack of Opportunities for Young People  

• Culture and Diversity  

• Importance of Rural and Green Spaces 

Co-Production: TONIC facilitated a series of in-person co-production workshops with young people and adults in each LSOA. TONIC researchers used the six insight cards to guide discussions and prompt participants to brainstorm potential solutions to some of the issues raised in the insights phase. TONIC engaged 74 individuals in co-production activities. 

Outcome 

TONIC produced a final report that summarised findings from both phases of fieldwork, structured by insights, and included corresponding recommendations and local residents’ proposed solutions. Some of these recommendations are summarised below: 

• Experiences of Crime and Violence and Feelings of Safety: Explore ways to prevent incidents of crime occurring amongst young people, by considering ways to utilise schools and youth organisations to support and educate young people on how to stay safe and the consequences of being involved in crime.   

• Sense of Community and Belonging: Create spaces that the community is proud of and want to spend time in, this could be done by regenerating derelict areas into community cafes. 

• Social Media: Introduce a more active social media strategy that keeps the public informed of local and regional decision making, to help improve relationships with the local community. 

• Lack of Opportunities for Young People: Prevent young people from becoming involved in crime and violence by increasing the provision of positive diversionary activities available via places such as youth clubs. 

• Culture and Diversity: Facilitate proactive outreach to underrepresented groups to encourage communication and relationships to build between cultures and ensure minority groups are represented within community organisations. 

• Importance of Rural and Green Spaces: Empower the community to protect and maintain rural areas by consulting ‘friends of’ groups and giving them responsibility for preserving the local area, for example by planting wildlife and hosting litter picking events.  

  You can read more about our experience of using body mapping as a research method here: https://www.tonic.org.uk/danielle-teamtakeover