Public Health Institute reports

Since 2019, Merseyside Violence Reduction Partnership (MVRP) have funded the piloting of a Navigator Service delivered by Merseyside Youth Association at Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust (AHFT) and Liverpool University Foundation Hospital Trust (LUFHT) to prevent youth violence. Navigators are embedded within each acute hospital trust to offer support to young people (10-24 years) who have been affected by violence or identified as at risk of violence. Attendance at acute healthcare settings is viewed as a ‘teachable moment’ when young people may be more likely to consider their life circumstances and engage with support. The programme has three core components (crisis and safety support; stabilisation support; maintenance support) and takes a personalised approach to provide support to young people and refer them into wider support in the community. In July 2021, the MVRP commissioned LJMU to conduct a service evaluation of the early development and implementation of Merseyside Navigator programme. This report presents an update on the programme in year three, following on from the yearly reports published in year one and two.

Time Matters is a Merseyside based support service which uses a combination of school-based mentoring, group support, family social activities and advocacy work to support children who have a parent in prison. In 2022, Merseyside Violence Reduction Partnership (MVRP) commissioned the Public Health Institute at Liverpool John Moores University to complete a two-year evaluation of Time Matters as part of its evaluation and research work programme. This report presents a process and outcome evaluation which explored how Time Matters is implemented (including their delivery model and reach) and explored the experiences and impacts of Time Matters from the perspective of children, young people, parents/carers and professional stakeholders. The evaluation combined quantitative referral, contact and outcome data from the two-year period with interviews and focus groups with stakeholders (n=11), children and young people (n=18) and parents/carers (n=9) to understand the implementation of Time Matters, barriers and facilitators and the impacts on young people, parents/carers and the community.

The aim of Criminal Justice Intervention Teams (CJITs) is to identify and engage with adult offenders in the criminal justice system who use drugs and/or alcohol, and encourage them to engage with appropriate treatment services in order to reduce acquisitive crime. This CJIT Activity report for Knowsley shows trends over a six-year period up to the year ending March 2023 for clients accessing the CJIT.

The aim of Criminal Justice Intervention Teams (CJITs) is to identify and engage with adult offenders in the criminal justice system who use drugs and/or alcohol, and encourage them to engage with appropriate treatment services in order to reduce acquisitive crime. This CJIT Activity report for Liverpool shows trends over a six-year period up to the year ending March 2023 for clients accessing the CJIT.

Existing evidence suggests prison-based parenting programmes are promising in improving parenting skills and relationships between parents in prison and their children, but there remains uncertainty on how these interventions can be effectively implemented. In light of this, Merseyside Violence Reduction Partnership (VRP) asked the Public Health Institute at Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) to evaluate The Nurturing Programme, a parenting intervention at HMP Altcourse, a Category B prison in Liverpool (North West England). The Nurturing Programme is a 10-session parenting programme created by Family Links which aims to help parents and children live emotionally healthy lives, focusing on four main constructs: self-awareness, appropriate expectations, empathy, and positive discipline. During 2022, a family link worker delivered the course six times at HMP Altcourse Family Intervention Unit. Each course ran over a five-week period (two sessions per week) for up to 12 men per course. The mixed methods evaluation used interviews with stakeholders (n=3), pre (n=30) and post (n=26) surveys with fathers, interviews with fathers who had completed the programme (n=25) and analysis of secondary data in order to better understand: 1) the implementation of The Nurturing Programme (including barriers and facilitators, fidelity, and reach); 2) participating fathers’ experiences and perceptions of The Nurturing Programme; and, 3) the intended and actual impacts of The Nurturing Programme on fathers, children, and their families.

Merseyside is one of several areas allocated funding by the Home Office since 2019 to establish a multi-agency violence reduction unit. Merseyside Violence Reduction Partnership (MVRP) aims to take a whole system public health approach to prevention that complements existing multi-agency partnerships and brings together partners to develop a coordinated approach to tackle the root causes of violence. Since 2019, the MVRP has commissioned Liverpool John Moores University and its partners to evaluate the MVRP as a whole and selected work programmes. This report is the fourth annual whole system evaluation of MVRP and aims to examine their implementation, embedding, and sustainability of a public health approach to violence prevention. The primary objectives were 1) To assess the progress that the MVRP has made in implementing different components of a public health approach to violence prevention across the region 2) To review the sustainability of the public health approach to violence prevention across the region. 3) To identify key areas for further transformation, considering progress to date, and the requirements of the UK Serious Violence Duty. Methods: The methodological framework was informed by the whole system approach to public health evaluation (Egan et al, 2019), combining qualitative interviews with members of the MVRP team (n=15) and Steering Group (n=14), five mixed methods case studies of place-based interventions undertaken in each Local Authority area (using qualitative methods and secondary data analysis), and a survey with delivery partners (n=27) to update the MVRP logic model and theory of change.

Injuries and violence are a major public health problem and this project aimed to estimate the costs of injuries and violence to the health care systems across the WHO European Region. An estimated 78.4 million people suffered injury or violence that required medical care in 2019 with associated hospital costs of USD PPP 39.4 billion arising from emergency department visits and inpatient hospital stays. Injuries and violence are preventable, and increased spending on evidence-based prevention interventions is warranted to prevent the realisation of the cost burden to the health system.