Violence Prevention and Reduction Unit

What is the VPRU?

Launched in December 2025, the South Wales Violence Prevention and Reduction Unit (VPRU) works collaboratively with stakeholders across Police, Health, Public Health, Local Authorities, local and central Governments and non-government organisations to achieve shared goals of:

• reducing crime and violence
• reducing number of children and young people entering the criminal justice system
• increasing trust and confidence in Policing, working together for a Safe, Just and Inclusive South Wales.

The South Wales VPRU is the region’s strategic vehicle to deliver on the Serious Violence Duty and UK Government’s Violence Reduction Unit grant; to work collaboratively to achieve the ambitions laid out in the Wales Without Violence Framework at a local level.

What does the VPRU do?

Violence is a preventable issue, not an inevitable one, and every act of violence is one too many. The VPRU supports delivery of all five priorities of the Police, Crime and Justice Plan, with a particular focus on Priority 2: Crime Prevention and Violence Reduction, by using a whole-system, trauma-informed, and place-based approach:

• commissioning, coordinating and evaluating place-based interventions
• strategic engagement in Local Violence Boards
• convening specified authorities through a South Wales Violence Prevention and Reduction Strategic Board
• hosting a regional Data and Insight function to support evidence-led commissioning and learning
• working in partnership with Public Health Wales to maintain pan-Wales knowledge exchange and learning infrastructure
• collaboratively embed and promote preventative policing through education, safeguarding, enforcement and diversion