Last Friday, Napo were invited to attend a Round the Table Event with the Grimsby MP, local community leaders, and Jess Philips, the Minister for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG). Whilst it was good to hear some of the local initiatives, it is clear there is still a very long way to go, despite ending violence against women and girls having been on the agenda for so long.
In her address, Jess Philips rightly stated that if we only consider domestic abuse and VAWG as “just a criminal justice issue”, it will never be addressed and it is crucial all agencies work together to tackle it. In the next couple of weeks, Labour shall be publishing a properly targeted document with a clear outcome strategy for the government to achieve to move away from “talking shops” and build in accountability.
On average, every five days a woman is killed by her partner, and domestic abuse is the biggest cause of homelessness for women in the UK. The government’s main push will be on prevention as a means to reduce the number of incidents in future generations, no country has invested in stopping it before it happens. Worryingly, there is a significant increase in the number of younger people who are both victims of domestic abuse and engaging in those harmful behaviours at the age of just 14 years.
So what else is being done to tackle the problem and to achieve the aims of the Istanbul Treaty, which England and wales is signed up to? Call centres are now employing specialist workers to assess how domestic abuse cases are prioritised there are pilots in London and Manchester in respect of the issuing of Domestic Abuse Protection Orders to provide flexible, longer term protection for the victims, longer term funding needed to enable organisations outside of probation to deliver programmes to men not convicted but where there are concerns, there is a real recognition of the need for these programmes to change hostile attitudes, they are looking at how schools and the education system can help to foster healthy attitudes, and also looking at what regulative and legislative things are needed to address online abuse.
Jess Philips was really clear that this has to be a multi agency and holistic approach, to ensure young people develop healthy attitudes, support for the victims, and looking at What Works for repeat offenders.
At this point, Jess asked for any questions, and Napo raised members’ concerns in relation to the removal of the specialist domestic abuse and sexual offending programmes and teams, and replacing with a generic programme. As she was unaware of these changes, she made a point of writing it down and is taking it away to find out more information. (Napo have also been invited to a meeting with the Humber Police and Crime Commissioner to discuss members concerns).
Before we end this report it is important to record there was a shout out by Jess Philips in regards to the Probation Staff who work with women in the women’s centres and described them to the meeting as “legendary” and also stated there is a great need to “rectify the years of degradation of the probation service”
Napo will e following this up and will be in touch shortly, but in the meantime, please do feel free to contact Noosh (avalent@napo.org.uk) and Carole Doherty (cdoherty@napo.org.uk)
