The Bedfordshire Serious Violence and Exploitation Strategy 2025-2027 was published in May 2025, marking a significant step forward in tackling violence and exploitation.
Alongside the publication of the strategy, the Bedfordshire Violence and Exploitation Reduction Unit (VERU) officially become the Violence and Exploitation Prevention Partnership (VEPP).
The change to VEPP represents more than a new name. It is a strategic realignment that seeks to:
- Better communicate our purpose and priorities – moving from a unit to a collaborative partnership model.
- Emphasise prevention as a central pillar in tackling the root cause of violence and exploitation.
- Reinforce our role in coordinating partnership activity, enabling a consistent and integrated approach across agencies.
Over the past year, this strategy has been developed through close collaboration with our partners, including workshops, interviews, and joint planning.
VEPP coordinates three core workstreams:
- Serious Violence Duty (SVD): Supporting partners to meet statutory requirements.
- Prevention Partnerships: A newly formed government initiative, focused on targeted early intervention, being piloted via VRU areas.
- Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) Programme: Continuing to deliver the VRU within Bedfordshire embedding a public health approach to serious violence and exploitation.
Five years ago, in August 2019, the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner for Bedfordshire (OPCC) was awarded funding by the Home Office to set up a Violence Reduction Unit (VRU).
Since our launch in 2020, the Bedfordshire Violence and Exploitation Prevention Partnership (VEPP) has been working with partner agencies to prevent and reduce violence and exploitation across Bedfordshire by taking a whole systems multi-agency approach to issue. Alongside our partners, we aim to gain a deeper understanding of the drivers of violence and exploitation and how it can be prevented.
