Over a third of hospitals in London are still failing to take part in a scheme which has been proven to dramatically reduce knife crime. The admission that many hospitals are still not sharing anonymous data collected from knife victims was made this week by Stephen Greenhalgh, the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime.
The admission is despite the fact that the full adoption of the ‘Cardiff Model’ was a specific manifesto commitment of the Mayor which he made to Londoners before his election in 2012. The publication of the information was only made following long standing inquires being made by Liberal Democrat London Assembly Member Caroline Pidgeon.
The ‘Cardiff Model’ is a proven mechanism of sharing and using anonymous data collected from violence related A&E admissions to help support effective policing, such as tackling crime hotspots. In areas where it has been implemented it has led to a 42% reduction in A&E admissions as a result of violent crime.
Caroline Pidgeon has a long record in supporting the full adoption of the Cardiff Model and last year the Mayor admitted to her that it was “disappointing that at the moment only 30% of the data about crimes from A&Es and walk-in centres is actually shared with the police.”
Commenting on the slow adoption of the Cardiff Model across London, Caroline Pidgeon said:
“The Cardiff Model should have been implemented in every corner of London many years ago.”
“The Mayor likes to talk tough about knife crime, but when it comes to tackling knife crime only actions matter. A clear pledge he made to Londoners to tackle this issue has sadly not been met."
Caroline Pidgeon raised the issue of the adoption of the Cardiff Model and other policies to tackle knife crime at Mayor’s Question Time this week. In responding to Caroline’s questions the Mayor admitted that he would have to get some hospital Chief Executives into City Hall to discuss the lack of implementation of the Cardiff Model. He also accepted the need for better education within schools on knife crime and that he would now consider further funding for organisations that provide dedicated youth workers in A&E departments.
Read more at Get West London.
And read Inside Croydon's post, focusing on the Mayday, Purley and St Helier hospitals, which have all failed to sign up to the model.