Background

The SVRU was created in 2005 to take steps to reduce violence across Scotland; taking a preventative approach to do so and treating violence as a public health issue for the first time in Scotland’s history.

Over the last 19 years, by working in close partnership with those in health, education, social care, the third sector, academia and more, the SVRU has played a key role to deliver a significant and sustained reduction in violence and homicides across Scotland.

The SVRU is funded from a separate Scottish Government grant letter to that of Police Scotland, with its own business plan and set of objectives, but is hosted by Police Scotland.

The SVRU is funded at £1.1m per year and is one of several organisations working to deliver the Violence Prevention Framework in Scotland; a plan which coordinates action across a number of partners (including YouthLink and Medics Against Violence) working collectively to deliver a reduction in violence across Scotland.

In the year 2023/24, the SVRU delivered notable successes including delivering training to professionals all over Scotland, completing research and evaluations to build our ‘what works’ resources, delivering projects with partners such as the Navigator initiative, incepting new projects (like Violence Anonymous and the Care Navigator work) and creating new projects in areas which are well known for violence.

In September 2023, a new Head of the SVRU was appointed and outlined his vision for the unit, consisting of five focus areas: children and young people, repeat victims of violence, thought leadership, place-based approaches and lived experience at the heart of the SVRU’s work.

Previously, a group oversaw the work of the SVRU in the form of a Governance Board, alongside academic colleagues and other relevant partner organisations. In May 2024, it was agreed that this group would split into two; an Operational Governance Group (looking at progress against the business plan, as well as risk and finance considerations) and a Strategic Governance Group (looking at the longer-term vision for the SVRU).

A business plan was written and signed off by the Scottish Government and the SPA in August 2024 agreeing with the above five priorities and clear deliverables.

The SVRU was founded in 2005 when Scotland was seen as the ‘murder capital of the developed world’. The traditional approach of dealing with our violence (i.e. policing the issue) did not work, and it was agreed that a new approach was needed which involved other agencies: education, social care, early years, families, medics and more.

The SVRU committed to take a public health approach to address these issues and joined the World Health Organisation’s Violence Prevention Alliance – the first police organisation to do so – and shared a message that change is possible, and we all have a role to play.

This new approach embraced violence reduction activity across primary prevention (investing in the early years and strengthening families), secondary prevention (supporting those at risk of becoming involved in violence) and tertiary prevention (supporting offenders to ensure they do not commit more violence in the future).

Throughout the last 19 years, the SVRU has built a “growing chorus” of belief and action on violence reduction across Scotland. As a result, violence and homicide has reduced significantly (60% reduction in homicide across Glasgow and 52% across Scotland) – and the greatest reduction taking place in the younger age group (under 35s).

The SVRU works to deliver the Violence Prevention Framework, a framework which coordinates action across a number of partners to continue to reduce violence across Scotland. For the year 2024-25, the grant letter was for a flat cash budget from the previous year at £1.1m.