The Cardiff Model for Violence Prevention

Thank you to everyone who attended our session with Professor Jonathan Shepherd (founder of the Cardiff Model and Professor Emeritus at Cardiff University) and Dr Adrian Boyle (Consultant Emergency Physician and former President of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine).

Key learnings / summary from the webinar

• Data Collection: Emergency department receptionists or triage nurses record simple information – date/time, precise location, weapon type, number of assailants, and relationship to victim. This is anonymised and shared with Community Safety Partnerships.

• Violence Prevention Boards: Multi-agency groups (police, local authorities, NHS, licencing officers, voluntary sector) meet quarterly to review combined ED and police data, then implement targeted interventions.

Evidence of Impact

• Cardiff saw violence drop from 80-85 incidents per week (2000) to 30-35 per week, sustained over time
• Homicides in Cardiff decreased whilst they increased in comparison cities (Edinburgh, Leeds, London, Birmingham)
• Home Office estimates implementing in just 5% of local authority areas would save £858 million over 10 years (£2.7 million per local authority per annum)
• Royal College of Emergency Medicine endorses this as good practice

• Targeted policing and CCTV at hotspots
• Focused deterrence (championed by Glasgow’s Violence Reduction Unit)
• Licencing interventions for problematic venues
• Environmental design (improved lighting, removing hiding spots in parks)
• Reducing alcohol availability

• Data must flow to operational teams, not just annual reports
• IT governance concerns can be addressed (Information Commissioner’s Office confirmed this is lawful intelligence sharing for crime prevention)
• Receptionist engagement is crucial – recognition and feedback on how data is used helps maintain commitment
• Continuity of leadership and relationships is essential for sustainability

• Royal College of Emergency Medicine guidance
• Youth Endowment Fund Toolkit (evidence on what works)
• College of Policing’s Centre for Crime Reduction Toolkit
• Using Ambulance Data to Understand Violent Crime
• Are ED-based violence intervention programmes effective in reducing revictimisation and perpetration in victims of violence? A systematic review
• Presentation slides: Email info@scsn.org.uk to request for the presentation slides

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About the Cardiff Model

The Cardiff Model for Violence Prevention was initiated and developed following the discovery that only a quarter of violent offences in England and Wales which resulted in emergency hospital treatment were known to police. This finding has since been replicated in every country where police and hospital emergency department (ED (A&E)) records of violence have been compared. This discovery prompted, first in Cardiff, the recording in EDs and sharing of a new unique, anonymised dataset designed to drive violence prevention, and a pioneering partnership of police, local authority, health and education executives whose task continues to be the use of these and police data for practical prevention. This was a prototype community safety partnership and continues as the violence prevention board at the centre of the Cardiff Model.

These two innovations – the sharing of specific data and a local authority area violence prevention board in which interagency accountability for violence prevention develops – are the unique active ingredients of the Model. This strategy has been found in published, controlled evaluations to be effective, cost effective and practical in the UK, Australia, the USA and elsewhere.

The UK government’s 2019 impact assessment estimated that if the Model is implemented in just 5% of local authority areas, the savings over 10 years would be £858 million. The Model has been adopted by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention which funded its Cardiff Model toolkit and national US network; and by the WHO where it is a WHO INSPIRE strategy for preventing violence against children.

Tuesday 2 December 2025
12:00pm – 1:00pm GMT
Online via MS Teams

We’re delighted to welcome:
Professor Jonathan Shepherd – Founder of the Cardiff Model
Dr Adrian Boyle – Emergency medicine consultant and former President of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine

This webinar is perfect for community safety partnerships, health professionals, police, local authorities, and anyone interested in evidence-based violence prevention.

 [Registration Closed]

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About the speakers

Professor Jonathan Shepherd

Jonathan Shepherd CBE FMedSci is professor emeritus of oral and maxillofacial surgery at Cardiff University. Prompted by his discoveries and clinical practice he led the development of a prototype community safety partnership which he chaired for two decades, and which was replicated across Great Britain following the 1998 Crime and Disorder Act. Together with a specific, brief dataset first published by NHS Digital in 2014, this is a foundation of the Cardiff Model for Violence Prevention which he initiated and developed with partner agencies, and which has been widely implemented in Wales, England and overseas. He initiated and developed the pioneering Universities’ Police Science Institute in Wales and, with a psychiatrist colleague, a comprehensive care pathway for people harmed by violence published by the Royal College of Psychiatrists. His 2008 proposal for an independent professional body for policing was taken up by the UK government and the new College of Policing was launched in 2013 underpinned by primary legislation.

He was also instrumental in the formation of the Probation Institute, the independent professional body for probation. His field experiments and advocacy on glass injury resulted in a switch to toughened glassware and plasticware in the UK licensed trade. His research prompted the historic first National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) technology appraisal and guidance in 2000. He won the international 2008 Stockholm Criminology Prize and the international 2024 Prince Mahidol Award in Public Health, is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists reflecting his contributions to alcohol and traumatic stress treatment services; of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine; and of the Faculty of Public Health at the Royal College of Physicians. He has served as an elected council member and trustee of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, and as vice chair of the national charity Victim Support. He convened the 2013 summit on evidence-informed practice and the 2022 Balliol Symposium on evidence and guidance, both chaired by Lord O’Donnell. He has served full terms on the Cabinet Office What Works Council and the Home Office Science Advisory Council.

Dr Adrian Boyle

Dr Adrian Boyle is a Consultant Emergency Physician at Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge. He has previously served as the President of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine. He has a long-standing interest in violence prevention in healthcare settings.