New 10-year strategy launched to prevent and reduce violence across Greater Manchester

The Greater than Violence Strategy aims to work to improve lives by preventing violence, supporting victims, families and communities affected, and providing positive opportunities to those at risk of becoming victims, witnesses, or perpetrators, including education programmes, community sports, targeted mentoring, opportunities to develop new skills and therapeutic support.

The strategy was launched at an event in Trafford by the Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham, along with others including the Deputy Mayor Kate Green, and Greater Manchester Police Assistant Chief Constable Colin McFarlane, and attended by representatives from the services, organisations and communities involved in the development of the strategy.

Mr Burnham said: “Violence and the fear of violence is an inhibitor to realising Greater Manchester’s ambition to be a place where everyone can live a good life, growing up, getting on and growing old in a greener, fairer more prosperous city-region.

“In Greater Manchester we have already seen reductions in knife crime – between the year ending June 2022 and the year ending June 2023, knife crime decreased by 12.5% across all ages, and 13.5% for victims under age 25. However, there is obviously more work to do.

“The Greater than Violence Strategy is the next phase of our journey to tackle violence and improve lives. Partners from across Greater Manchester – led by the Violence Reduction Unit – will work together with communities to reduce violence and provide positive opportunities for young people and families across the city-region.”

Founded on two pillars – preventing violence from happening and responding swiftly and appropriately when it occurs – the strategy recognises that to truly tackle violence effectively, it needs to be prevented from happening in the first place, and in instances where violence does occur, there needs to be a swift and effective policing, health, and criminal justice response to apprehend those responsible and protect victims and communities.

Assistant Chief Constable Colin McFarlane of Greater Manchester Police, said: "We are clear that we want to reduce violence across Greater Manchester, so that the region feels safer for everyone.

“Our communities are telling us they are concerned about issues like knife crime, violence and robberies, and I’d like to provide reassurance that we already have dedicated teams and operations to tackle these issues in place, also now with reinforced neighbourhood policing teams and multi-agency prevention hubs in every district.”