Analytical Capability

VKPP recognises the vital role that data and analysis plays in understanding and developing policing’s response to vulnerability. The  National Vulnerability and Public Protection Strategy sets out data as a key enabler to deliver against the principles which form the strategy.

The VKPP Analytical Team strives to work in partnership with key stakeholders across and outside of policing to support national workstreams such as Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG), Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation (CSAE) and wider public protection. Our analysis is used to drive improvements to the policing response to high harm threats.

This work is critical to other aspects of VKPP business, including our work to support the embedding of local child safeguarding arrangements. In the future, the VKPP analytical function will support and inform the work of the National Centre for VAWG and Public Protection – include relevant link here to NCVPP announcement. VKPP is continuing to engage with partner agencies to utilise multi agency datasets to improve our understanding of harm and how policing can work with partners to improve the collective response to vulnerability.

Analytical Capability Workstream

VKPP’s Analytical Capability workstream encapsulates a range of activity designed to support continued improvements in the use of vulnerability-focused analytical resources in policing. Priorities for this workstream were established from a VKPP assessment of current practice and gaps nationally.

For details on the Workstream Design

As well as enabling the sharing of key learning through National Vulnerability and Public Protection Strategy  related activity, Regional Learning Events and providing analytical support to other core VKPP activity, the team works very closely with a number of other nationally focused working groups and projects to support the development of new approaches. 

The team’s current focus includes projects relating to the development of a bespoke vulnerability data quality dashboard for policing and developing potential solutions to increase the standardisation of evidence-informed violence/vulnerability indicators for national use.

Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Analyst Network

Child sexual abuse and exploitation (CSAE) remains a significant threat across England and Wales. Since 2015, a national analyst, supported by a team of analysts based in the Regional Organised Crime Units (ROCUs), have worked together to improve law enforcement’s understanding of the scale and nature of CSAE.

Having previously worked alongside regional child sexual exploitation (CSE) coordinators, the analyst network continues to work closely with The Children’s Society Prevention Programme and is now part of the VKPP’s broader work to address vulnerability. Our new partnership allows collaboration between the regional analyst network and our bespoke analytical capability workstream.

The CSAE analyst network currently deliver several products aimed at supporting the national conversation on how to tackle CSAE with the most up-to-date and accurate data and analysis from policing. The products include a quarterly report on the totality of police recorded CSAE crime and regular input to the NPCC’s Online Child Abuse Activist Groups working group.