From Duty to Action: Assessing the Serious Violence Duty Response in Durham and Darlington

This research follows and builds upon ‘A Vision for Lasting Change: Shaping Durham and Darlington’s Support for Young People’ (Soppitt et al., 2025) – a project which aimed to map and better understand the services provided by statutory and third-sector organisations in response to youth anti-social behaviour (ASB) and serious youth violence (SYV). Working in close partnership with the County Durham and Darlington Serious Violence Duty Strategic Partnership (SVDSP) and the Durham and Darlington Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner (OPCC), criminologists from Northumbria University (Professor Sarah Soppitt, Dr Samantha Walker, Dr Charlotte Nisbet, and Dr Rebecca Oswald) conducted research from November 2025 to February 2026 to undertake a focused review of provision delivered under the Serious Violence Duty (SVD) across the Durham and Darlington area.

This research is timely because Durham and Darlington have now had several years (since January 2023) to implement the SVD, providing enough time for structures, processes and interventions to become established. Reviewing the system at this point allows us to take stock of what has been achieved, understand how the Duty is operating in practice, and highlight areas where further strengthening or greater consistency across partners would add value. It is an appropriate moment to assess progress, ensure that current arrangements remain fit for purpose, and identify where adjustments may be needed as the local context, risks and demands continue to evolve. The aims of this research therefore were to:

-Develop a clear picture of the activities implemented since the Duty’s introduction.
-Assess the governance and oversight structures supporting delivery – specifically how these have enabled a shared understanding of the Duty and ensured provisions are effectively implemented and monitored.
-Evaluate the impact of these interventions on reducing serious violence and mitigating associated risks.
-Identify good practice, provision gaps, and unintended consequences.
-Inform strategic planning by helping shape a set of guiding principles and priority areas for the PCC's future work to prevent and reduce serious violence.

To achieve these aims, the research team focused on addressing the following research questions:

1: Has there been a measurable change in overall serious violence rates since the Duty was implemented?
2: What strategies and interventions have been introduced under the Duty, and how are they targeted across different demographics?
3: How effective is multi-agency partnership working in tackling serious violence?
4: What are the perceptions of key stakeholders regarding the Duty’s outcomes?
5: What lessons can be learned to strengthen future implementation?

Consistent with our previous evaluation work – and in recognition that pathways into crime, violence, harm and risk-taking behaviour are often rooted in multiple, interconnected areas of vulnerability and unmet need – we used the Pathways to Resettlement Framework as a tool for evaluating whether support implemented under the SVD is sufficiently holistic. The key areas under this framework include:

1: Accommodation
2: Attitudes, thinking, and behaviour
3: Children and family
4: Drugs and alcohol
5: Education, training and employment
6: Finance, benefit and debt
7: Health

By evaluating provision through these lenses, we aimed to understand not only the effectiveness of the SVD but also how well it addresses the underlying drivers of serious violence and contributes to long-term prevention.