A pioneering new blueprint has been unveiled setting out how key safety partners across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland will work together to prevent crime and harm.
The Prevention Strategy 2025-29 has been formally agreed by Police and Crime Commissioner Rupert Matthews and Leicestershire Police.
It fulfils one of the core ambitions of the PCC’s new Police and Crime Plan 2024-29 and endorses a holistic approach to policing focused on identifying and tackling the root causes of crime, anti-social behaviour (ASB) and vulnerability.
It is the first time in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland that a joint Prevention Strategy has been developed with designated resources to focus on evidence-based, partnership driven projects that make a tangible difference to people’s lives.
The strategy empowers communities to play a pivotal role in the PCC’s mission to build safer, healthier and more prosperous neighbourhoods, and vows to provide them with the tools needed to identify and deliver localised solutions to help people thrive.
Both the OPCC and the Force have focused on prevention for several years, a strength that was recognised by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services’ (HMICFRS) 2023-25 PEEL inspections.
HMICFRS praised the launch of the force’s pioneering Prevention Directorate which it said delivered an ‘impressive range of activity, projects and functions’.
The strategy aims to build on this success with even greater emphasis on collaboration.
Mr Matthews said: “Prevention is the golden thread running throughout my new Police and Crime Plan. The holistic approach set out in this strategy pulls together all the action necessary for achieving my mission to build safer and more prosperous communities.
“Without a strong emphasis on prevention, policing becomes a cycle of reacting to incidents without ever addressing the underlying issues. This is simply not feasible in a world where policing budgets are seriously overstretched, and services are buckling under demand.
“By effectively stopping crime before it happens, we protect victims from trauma and reduce the risk of issues spiralling and ruining lives. We also ease pressure on our overworked public services while helping to improve the quality of life in our communities.
“I want to commission the most effective services from those best places to provide them. This means tapping into the assets, knowledge and experience that about abounds in our communities – and equipping them with even more - to implement proven interventions that meet the needs of our communities and do exactly what they promise.
“Building safer and more prosperous communities must be a team effort in which we must all play a positive and dynamic role and together we will make a difference.”
T/Chief Constable David Sandall said; “Leicestershire Police has invested in prevention for several years including a wide range of ground-breaking projects and programmes, and more recently the establishment of our Prevention Directorate, which has attracted national recognition and praise. Collaboration is key to success in prevention and our joint working with the PCC/OPCC will assist in embedding our progress to date and further advancing our efforts to prevent crime and harm in our communities.”
Ends
Editor Information:
The strategy aims to restore prevention as a core policing function. Pivotal to the new approach will be:
-
Use of data and insights from a wide range of sources to understand problems and their causes.
-
Empowerment of communities to play their role in prevention through resources and co-producing solutions.
-
Drawing on existing research and evidence to design effective responses that are more likely to have an impact.
-
Identification and reduction of inequalities
-
Collaboration with other organisations to building purposeful and capable partnerships
-
Monitoring and evaluation of work to support continuous improvement.
Responsibility for delivering the strategy will be shared by leaders from both organisations, with oversight provided by the Joint Prevention and Partnerships Board.
Prevention activity will be delivered via a three-tier model comprising:
-
Primary Prevention (Preventing offending and harm in the first place through education, designing out crime and/or tackling the root causes including awareness campaigning, community-led crime prevention and volunteering)
-
Secondary Prevention (Preventing escalation of offending and harm through targeted crime prevention, diversion and earlier intervention including mental health support and substance misuse diversion)
-
Tertiary Prevention (Preventing or reducing reoccurring offending and harm through specialist strategies/interventions including Restorative Justice, Offender Management and Hotspot Management).
The Prevention and Problem-Solving Hub within the force’s Prevention Directorate will provide a service to both the force and the PCC, as well prevention-focussed organisations such as the Violence Reduction Network (VRN), to support the development of data and evidence, and the delivery of evaluation and problem-solving activities to achieve the strategy’s objectives.
Media Enquiries:
Sallie Blair
Better Times
Telephone 01283 821012
Mobile 07702 541401
Posted on Friday 29th August 2025