In June and July, the Wales Violence Prevention Unit (VPU) facilitated two Roundtables with professionals across Wales which explored how to build a Wales without violence. The Roundtable series focused on how we could use behavioural science to understand and implement a public health approach to violence prevention, and were delivered in partnership with the Public Health Wales’ Behavioural Science Unit (BSU).
The first session began with a refresh of the Wales Without Violence Framework, and an introduction on how behavioural science can be used to understand the different barriers and facilitors to adopting the behaviours needed to implement a public health approach. Participants also shared how they’ve used the Framework in their work. In breakout sessions facilitated by the VPU and BSU, participants then used the Framework’s nine violence prevention principles to identify the core behaviours or practices needed for a public health approach. These included behaviours like ‘engaging with data sharing networks’ and ‘using culturally competent engagement methods’.
In the second session, the participants were supported to identify the barriers and facilitators to adopting the core behaviours. These barriers and facilitators could be related to knowledge, for example not knowing how to contact a service, or systems, such as not being able to share information, or even confidence, for example not having much practice in collecting certain data types. Having a better understanding of the barriers faced by professionals will enable the VPU to develop our support offer in line with the needs of people working to prevent violence in Wales.
The Roundtable sessions provided insightful findings on the barriers and facilitators to behaviours necessary for the implementation of the Framework. Following these sessions, the VPU will utilise these findings and build it into our Wales Without Violence Implementation Plan. This plan will detail the support VPU will offer partners over the next year, to support a public health approach to violence prevention in Wales.
If you’re interested in knowing more about the Roundtable Series, click here to read the report / a report detailing the findings of the sessions will be available soon, please contact us for more information.
“I understand the approach better and I feel more confident implementing it. I enjoyed the discussions and has given me lots of food for thought"
Participant