Nottinghamshire’s Police and Crime Panel heard from Nottinghamshire Police that the number of young people admitted to hospital with stab wounds in Nottinghamshire dropped by a third last year
The number of young people admitted to hospital with stab wounds in Nottinghamshire dropped by a third last year, figures show.
Nottinghamshire’s Police and Crime Panel met on Monday (March 24) to discuss the performance of Notts Police and other organisations in reducing offending.
Members discussed a spate of violent crimes including three city centre incidents last month – but data in reports only covered incidents in 2024.
Speaking in the meeting, Natalie Baker-Napier, Head of the Violence Reduction Partnership, said: “I want to reassure the panel that those incidences don’t indicate a pattern of increasing serious violence.”
Hospital admissions for those aged under 25 with a knife or sharp object wound dropped by a third – 33 per cent – from 30 admissions between January 2019 to December 2019 to 20 admissions in the rolling 12 months up to September 2024.
This figure for all ages has dropped by seven per cent overall, from 70 admissions in the 2019 period to 65 in the rolling 12 months up to September 2024.
Meeting papers also show violent knife crime offences have also reduced by 8.1 per cent from 826 the end of the 2023/2024 financial year previous year to 802 in December 2024.
Ms Baker-Napier told the panel there had been changes in hospitals in England and Wales regarding data sharing in relation to admissions.
She said: “Individuals going into hospitals now have to give their consent for that aggregated data to be shared- not all individuals will do so, so it’s not a reliable record.”
Nottinghamshire County Councillor, John Wilmott asked: “[With the lesser serious crimes numbers] I wonder what you think that could be? Because under-reporting at the present time is unbelievable.”
Ms Baker-Napier responded: “When we look at police data on its own, that could be a factor, but in terms of hospital admissions that is a more reliable source- also we look at ambulance data.
“I have confidence that when you triangulate those three data sets together it gives you a very good idea of the trend.”
Nottingham City Councillor, Linda Woodings said: “How incredibly disappointing it is that the data on hospital attendances can’t be shared with a public body that’s been given funding specifically to stop hospital attendances for knife crime.”
She highlighted the anonymised data sharing that happens between the Nottinghamshire Integrated Care Board and public bodies.
Ms Baker-Napier said: “It’s not that we can’t access it, it’s just not reliable because people going into hospital have to [give consent].”
Nottingham City Councillor, Coral Jenkins, highlighted that public perceptions and fears of knife crime are still real and “potentially concerning for our visitors”.
Rushcliffe Borough Councillor, Rob Inglis asked: “The work going on in the background, how does that manifest itself to the public- how do we get that across?”
Ms Baker-Napier responded: “The joint communications strategy to make sure we get the reassuring stories out there as quickly as possible.
“What we have reinstated since the three [knife] incidents in the city, myself and the knife crime lead will have quarterly meetings that community groups can access.
“We have community ambassadors, who are voluntarily appointed- those are our voices in communities.”
The panel also heard public confidence in the police, tracked by the Nottinghamshire Police and Crime Survey, had dropped from 52 per cent in March 2024 to 50 per cent in December 2024.
