Clever use of data to prevent serious violence

Greater Manchester residents are set to benefit from a UK-leading initiative by the conurbation’s hospitals, local authorities and police to harness better data from accident and emergency (A&E) units to help prevent violence at home and on the streets.

This will improve the poor rates seen across the conurbation and the country where just a quarter of incidents where patients are treated in hospital for injuries relating to violent assaults are accessibly recorded.

All on an anonymous basis, hospitals already collect a large amount of information about people present at A&E departments, and properly used, together with other Greater Manchester data streams already collected (for example of fires and criminal activity), this intelligence supports informing and directing preventative policy and activity.

Difficulties are experienced up and down the country in actually accessing and using this intelligence, but Greater Manchester is using its best-in-class data sharing experience to put in place an effective system to share this information, involving NHS Greater Manchester, Greater Manchester Police and the ten local authorities.

This information, gleaned from all Greater Manchester A&E departments, will play a vital role in helping those public agencies build and act on a more complete picture of violent crime and its impact on communities.

This new “clever data preventing serious violence” arrangement, led by New Economy, is establishing a robust information-exchange system between Greater Manchester’s NHS hospital trusts and its various community safety partners, vastly improving the volume and accuracy of data recorded and shared and analysing and disseminating it in a much more useful and sophisticated way.

The initiative, which is strongly supported by central government, should be completed by December 2013, when an appropriate platform will be in place to interpret and distribute data, prevent crime and protect victims from harm.

Chief Constable, Sir Peter Fahy, said: “Greater Manchester Police do not get a complete picture of violence in our communities from the 999 calls made by the public. As research has consistently shown, information from health partners is vital to a more rounded picture, and if this project succeeds it will help make us much better-equipped to target our resources in neighbourhoods with the greatest need, and work better with other agencies to protect the most vulnerable people in our communities.”

Mike Burrows, chief executive of NHS Greater Manchester, said: “Hospitals have an important role to play in sharing anonymised information to support violence prevention in the community. We therefore welcome this project, which – using no more data than is already collected - will help the NHS support a range of national and local priorities, not least in relation to reducing the number of knife wound and gunshot attendances we see across Greater Manchester’s Emergency Departments.”

Steven Pleasant, chief executive of Tameside Council and Greater Manchester’s lead Chief Executive on Health, said: “This is a timely and valuable project that directly supports local authority-led work to improve the health and well-being of Greater Manchester’s residents. This is about how we better integrate evidence on shared public health priorities, like reducing domestic abuse, safeguarding children and tackling the harm caused by binge drinking.”