Enfield Council's Cabinet has formally adopted a comprehensive 10-year strategy aimed at preventing and tackling serious violence across the borough.
The Enfield Safer Stronger Communities Board Serious Violence Strategy 2026-35
, approved at a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, September 9, 2026, outlines a public health approach to address violence and its underlying causes. The strategy is designed to Prevent violence before it occurs
by addressing its root drivers through prevention and early help, recognising that factors such as socio-economic deprivation, poor housing, unemployment, and mental health issues contribute significantly to violent crime.
The strategy identifies five local priorities: serious violence affecting under-25s, violence connected to organised criminality, weapon-enabled violence, domestic abuse, and sexual violence. It is based on a public health model with three tiers: primary prevention, secondary response to immediate risk, and tertiary long-term support.
Under the primary prevention tier, Enfield Council plans to establish Youth and Family Hubs to consolidate services for children and families. The strategy will also involve working with educational settings to enhance pupil safety and reduce suspensions, aligning with the Enfield Inclusion Charter. Furthermore, it aims to leverage learnings from Young Futures Prevention Panels to refine intervention offers and collaborate with community safety partners and voluntary organisations to deliver a robust Youth Offer
that builds confidence, resilience, and safety among young people. An improved Early Help Directory for All
will provide comprehensive service information, and knife crime interviews will be conducted in schools to gather young people's perspectives. The strategy also emphasises contextual safeguarding, ensuring multi-agency structures are in place to identify those at risk of serious violence, and will act on recommendations from local, regional, and national reviews to enhance risk assessment and management. A key focus is increasing life chances for young people to reduce the risk of exploitation and violent conflict, ensuring those at risk of extra-familial harm have access to tailored youth support. The strategy will also embed identity considerations into risk assessment processes and promote positive life choices and role models to counter negative narratives.
Key principles guiding the strategy include recognising and challenging inequalities and disproportionality, adopting a safeguarding approach that assesses risks beyond the home, responding to the most prevalent serious violence issues, and utilising tools and powers effectively. The strategy acknowledges that identity, status, and respect within peer groups are significant causal factors for young people involved in serious violent conflict, and that identity is shaped by cultural, social, and environmental experiences, including intergenerational trauma. It also highlights the importance of education, employment, and training as protective factors against youth violence and supports social mobility.
The strategy aligns with the Council Plan's priorities for Strong, Healthy, and Safe Communities
and Thriving Children and Young People
. Funding for the strategy is secured through the London Crime and Prevention Fund (LCPF) until 2028/29. The Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) grant totals £1,964,660, and the Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) grant amounts to £600,000 over three years, concluding in 2027/28. The report does not specify how this funding is allocated across the strategy's tiers or priorities.
Cabinet Member for Environment, Maria Alexandrou, was among those present at the meeting. The strategy was developed following extensive consultation with partner agencies, community organisations, and educational leads. The strategy will be refreshed every three years, supported by an annual analytical review of serious violence data, to ensure it reflects legislative and national policy changes and key indicators of serious crime within the community. The Serious Violence Strategic Group will oversee the strategy and its delivery plan, reporting annually to the Safer Stronger Communities Board on progress and impact.
Meaningful and lasting change requires community support, and the strategy aims to create opportunities for residents and organisations to play an active role. It employs a public health model that includes collaboration, co-production, co-operative data use, counter-narrative, and community consensus. For the priority of tackling serious violence and its causes, including extra-familial harm and criminal exploitation related to young people under 25, the strategy includes co-production of a Youth Strategy for Enfield and work with the community safety partnership and voluntary sector organisations to deliver an effective youth offer. For violence connected to organised criminality, there will be improved engagement with residents, use of enforcement powers, a focus on prevention and young people, and regeneration projects. The Enfield Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) strategy, which includes a focus on child sexual abuse and support for women exploited through street sex work, will work through existing governance structures to ensure interventions are co-produced.
Further details on the strategy can be found in the Public reports pack from the Cabinet meeting.
