DD2457 ‘Information Sharing to Tackle Violence’ programme

The ‘Information Sharing to Tackle Violence’ (ISTV) project brings together and provides access to anonymised data on violent incidents reported to London’s 28 hospital emergency departments.

The project aims to reduce violence by providing intelligence on a greater proportion of violent incidents than those that are reported to the police. It has been shown to be effective in Cardiff and elsewhere in reducing violence. These data are governed by NHS Digital data standard ISB1594.

Since 2015, the GLA have received funding from MOPAC which it has used to cover the cost of processing, harmonisation and hosting of hospital data and to make this available securely to authorised users as part of their Safestats crime data platform. Previous decision forms MD2181 and DD2387 referred to the provision, receipt and use of this funding.

In 2020/21, MOPAC wishes to commission the GLA to run the whole ISTV service including the project management, hospital liaison, and analyst training, to improve data governance and increase use of the intelligence in regular decision-making.

This decision seeks approval to receive and spend grant funding from MOPAC of £105,000 for the 2020/21 financial year.

The ‘Information Sharing to Tackle Violence’ project aims to reduce violence by improving data sharing on violent incidents not reported to the police.

This project supports the Mayor’s priorities around violence reduction, crime and public safety, health and the economy including keeping children and young people safe, tackling violence among women and girls, cracking down on knife crime, Thrive London: Improving mental health, Building a 24 hour London, and Regeneration: Improving London’s public spaces and High Streets.

The ISTV programme aims to provide ongoing access to data on violent incidents reported to hospital Emergency Departments to support operational and tactical crime reduction as well as provide an expanded range of data for strategic analysis.

The use of the Safestats data platform to host the data, provides access to these data in the same place as a wide range of other multi-agency crime and safety data provided by the London Ambulance Service, British Transport Police, London Fire Brigade as well as the Metropolitan Police Service.

Specific objectives of this year’s ISTV programme are to increase the use of data by a wider range of analysts and work with hospitals to improve data governance in line with the revised NHS data standard ISB 1594.

The £105,000 will be allocated as follows:

• Project management and hospital liaison (£21,000). A part-time project manager supports the operational delivery of the programme, and is responsible for continued relationships with the 28 hospitals and NHS Digital.

• Community Analyst (£46,000). The Community Analyst undertakes pan-London analysis of ISTV data and promotes its use by Boroughs, MPS and others, and coordinates feedback to Community Safety Partnerships and hospitals. The Community Analyst will create an ISTV hub on the London Datastore so analysts can benefit from case studies of impact in the use of ISTV data, and create a series of monitoring outputs for use by MOPAC, and the Violence Reduction Unit.

• Data processing, data governance and hosting (£38,000). The Safestats data team process and clean and geocode monthly data from the 28 hospitals to create a harmonised pan-London dataset uploaded to the Safestats data platform. This provides data that the police and CSPs can use for crime mapping and intelligence analysis in line with the National Intelligence Model and SARA methodology (Scanning, Analysis, Response and Assessment) to prevent crime and reduce the impact. This pan-London approach is critical to the success of the project, as victims do not always present at their nearest hospital and more localised data sharing between individual hospitals and local Community Safety Partnerships does not provide complete intelligence.

The GLA must have due regard to the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation as well as to the need to advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between people who share a relevant protected characteristic and those who do not, under section 149 of the Equality Act 2010. This involves having due regard to the need to remove or minimise any disadvantage suffered by those who share a relevant protected characteristic that is connected to that characteristic, taking steps to meet the different needs of such people; and encouraging them to participate in public life or in any other activity where their participation is disproportionately low.

While there are no direct equality impacts of the ISTV programme itself, analyses conducted using the data contained in the GLA Safestats data system are used to inform the Mayor on areas of London which are affected by a range of crimes (including those not reported to the police), and vulnerable people who are victims of crime. The driving force of analysis conducted by organisations accessing Safestats data is to improve equality of opportunity for Londoners by creating an improved understanding of victims of crime, identifying the vulnerable, and assisting in the enforcement of those who seek to harm. Many victims of crime are disproportionately those with protected characteristics such as ethnic group, religion and sexual orientation.

Key risks and issues to the programme in 2020/21 include data governance and data use. In 2019 the NHS Information Standard ISB1594 was revised. In response to this we need to work with hospitals to ensure clarity about the exact data which can be shared and how this relates to other Emergency Department datasharing with NHS Digital such as the Emergency Care Dataset (ECDS). The data are classified by the NHS as anonymised and there are therefore no GDPR considerations to note.

In light of regular staff turnover of MPS and Borough analysts, further work is needed to ensure the ongoing use of data, in particular the creation of an information hub of case studies of analysis and impact.

Executive Director’s approval is sought for the receipt and expenditure of £105,000 of revenue grant funding from MOPAC for 2020/21 to deliver the Information Sharing to Tackle Violence service as detailed in paragraph 2.6 above. MOPAC are expected to pay the GLA quarterly in arrears for ISTV services.

The foregoing sections of this report indicate that the decision requested of the Executive Director falls within the statutory powers of the GLA to promote and/or to do anything which is facilitative of or conducive or incidental to the promotion of social development in Greater London and in formulating the proposals in respect of which a decision is sought officers have set out above how they have complied with the Authority’s related statutory duties to:

a) pay due regard to the principle that there should be equality of opportunity for all people;
b) consider how the proposals will promote the improvement of health of persons, health inequalities between persons and to contribute towards the achievement of sustainable development in the United Kingdom; and
c) consult with appropriate bodies.

Section 31(1) of the Greater London Authority Act 1999 (the “GLA Act”) prohibits the GLA from incurring expenditure on activity which may be undertaken by functional bodies. Section 31(6) of the GLA Act however, permits such expenditure where it relates to the cooperation with or the facilitation or coordination of activity of such bodies. Officers have indicated at section 1 (above) of this report that the expenditure proposed concerns such cooperation and is facilitative of the coordination or activity.

In taking the decisions requested, the Executive Director must have due regard to the Public Sector Equality Duty; namely the need to eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct prohibited by the Equality Act 2010 and to advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic (race, disability, gender, age, sexual orientation, religion or belief, pregnancy and maternity and gender reassignment) and persons who do not share it (section 149 of the Equality Act 2010). To this end, the Executive Director should have particular regard to section 3 (above) of this report.

With the consent of the Mayor, functional bodies may provide revenue grants to the GLA (section 121 of the GLA Act). The GLA’s “Mayoral Decision Making in the Greater London Authority” document (the “Scheme of Delegation”) specifies only however, that the granting of such consent is reserved to the Mayor where the value of a grant is equal to or exceeds £150,000.00. Accordingly, the Executive Director, acting pursuant to the Scheme of Delegation, may approve the making by MOPAC of the revenue grant proposed and the GLA’s receipt of the same. Officers are reminded that, in accordance with section 121 of the GLA Act, no conditions may be imposed upon the GLA’s use of the funds other than that the funds must not be used for capital expenditure.

Officers must ensure that the expenditure proposed is administered in accordance with the requirements of the GLA’s Contracts and Funding Code.