Violence against women and girls - Q&A

The below is a summary of the questions that were submitted before or during the virtual Q&A, along with relevant answers. This FAQ will be developed throughout the commission

The Commission

How will the work in this commission fit with existing work happening so as not to devalue the effort put in so far?

The commission will be briefed on all the work that is already taking place to ensure there is no duplication and will work towards adding value to existing efforts where it can.

Has there or will there be any consultation with girls and young women in regards to how Plymouth’s public and urban spaces and sense of safety within the city to inform relevant measures as part of the commission?

A full engagement plan will be put in place for this programme of work, to ensure that the commission can hear from as many voices as possible. This engagement will help inform the work of the commission and provide further evidence for the development of recommendations. Initially, a survey will be launched - however there will also be further opportunities over the weeks and months ahead.

How can the work of the youth participation team and potential UK Youth Parliament campaigns link with the new commission?

We will be liaising across council services to identify where further involvement would be beneficial to the work of the commission.

How inclusive will the commission be, in terms of the diversity of the panel? Ensuring there is input from communities and individuals with expertise and honour based violence and what expertise there is including the agencies represented?

There will be a broad range of expertise on the panel and the commission will meet in early January to scope the requirements to ensure a full range of voices are represented.

Are there representatives from Plymouth primary schools in the commission?

Both primary and secondary schools will be represented on the commission.

As well as the LGBT+ community will the commission take into account sexual and domestic abuse concerning the disabled?

The commission will meet in early January to scope the requirements to ensure a full range of voices are represented. A comprehensive engagement plan will be developed to also ensure the commission is reaching a wide range of individuals and communities who have lived experience and organisations who work with and represent victims.

Can we learn from any work in other cities / communities? Are there any outstanding examples of how these communities have improved safety and reassurance that Plymouth can learn from?

Yes. This work will be carried out as part of the evidence gathering for the commission.

Does the commission have links with academics specialising in this area, such as the Centre for Gender and Violence Research at Bristol University, in terms of using their evidence base?

There will be a broad representation of expertise on the panel and research and evidence gathering will be carried out to support the work of the commission.

How are you going to engage the below communities in the work of the commission? BAME and diverse groups, Children and young people, Local people, LGBTQ+ communities, Homeless women and those with drug addictions

How will the commission align with the work of local groups and organisations that already work in this field?

The commission will be briefed on all the work that is already taking place to ensure there is no duplication and will work towards adding value to existing efforts where it can by talking to organisations and representatives in this area.

General safety

Are there any free self-defence classes for women or community events specifically for women to attend to encourage a sense of community?

Whilst we support any activity that promotes an increase in wellbeing it is important to understand the trauma response when we are under stress or find ourselves in a dangerous situation. For most women our stress response will be more likely to be to 'Freeze' or 'Flop' this is because our brain has already learnt our best survival options - it is unlikely we would be able to fight back or out run. It’s important that this activity does not result in any shaming or not 'defending ourselves' or 'fighting back'.

Can safe spaces be introduced in public areas where security guards/community police are present to give someone trying to flee a violent relationship the opportunity to receive help? If not - where can women and girls go when they are out?

There is a national Safe spaces and ask for ANI scheme it is run by UK SAYS NO MORE and supported by central Government. There are a number of spaces, mainly pharmacies and supermarkets, that have signed up and details can be found on the UK SAYS NO MORE website. We would encourage others to sign up and continue to share and promote the scheme.

Is there any opportunity to implement something similar to Strut Safe (Scotland based organisation) in Plymouth

Strut Safe in Scotland is a great community initiative instigated by Edinburgh University students. Through Safer Streets 3 funding the University of Plymouth will implement Student Safety in Public Spaces Project and student watch. This will start in January 2022. Any community groups wanting to set up new schemes could access support and guidance from the Plymouth Octopus Project.

I would like Plymouth city to become a White Ribbon city and actively promote the education of men and boys on preventing themselves and calling out others who participate in violence against women and girls?

Plymouth City Council are exploring white ribbon accreditation as an organisation and would welcome others to do the same.

What aftercare and trauma informed services available to support victims?

There are a number of organisations in the city that can provide support to victims. One of the most comprehensive places to seek support is via the Victim Care Network which has details of multiple services. We are currently reviewing the Plymouth Online Directory to set up a VAWG page.

"Us Too" can help with area of sexual abuse towards people with disabilities. Can that be considered?

The "Us Too" project by ARC is fantastic and they are part of the Plymouth partnership domestic abuse and sexual violence group and ran a webinar during our 16 days of action. We will make sure we include them with our partnership work.

Aside from Clare’s Law, there are informal networks through Facebook where women will warn each other against men whose behaviour is abusive. Is there any scope for making this formal? Publishing the sex offenders list?

It is important to protect our communities. Police, along with partner agencies, assess the risk of those on the registered sex offenders list as part of the Multi-Agency Public Protection process. It would currently be unlawful for any agency to publish that list, but rest assured, management of risk to our communities from those who have an offending past is critical. We assess police and partnership intelligence and will make proactive disclosures where necessary, using our common law powers to ensure the public are kept safe.

Can you create safe walking routes (night buses and taxis will be expensive for students and minimum wage workers) through the main arteries, which are ‘policed’ or ‘scrutinised/observed’ to points, where people can be met by friends or family, close to home?

As per row 4 plus - Safer Streets 3 funding will provide additional CCTV in key evening and night time high footfall areas. It will also provide 12 help points - Well lit and locally signed Help provisions will be situated in close proximity to new and existing CCTV installations permitting additional surveillance for potential victims, increase of targeted white light upon call, automatically change in CCTV monitoring to increase area surveillance and immediate response to ‘Help’ demand by 24hr CCTV control room resource whilst summoning response from the permitting the co-ordination from the appropriate emergency services.

Our colleagues and partners across the city are learning from other areas and exploring this opportunity to complement our Purple Flag Status. Purple Flag is an accreditation scheme that recognises excellence in the management of town and city centres at night - entertainment areas that achieve the standard will benefit from an improved night time environment and a reputation that offers 'a better night out' to visitors.

Effervescent (the charity I work for) has funding in place to make a campaign that could be something like the Police Scotland “Don’t Be That Guy” campaign. (Or whatever is most needed in Plymouth - just using that as a speedy reference point) We’re eager to collaborate with partners. www.eff.org.uk

Yes - the commission will want to hear from any organisation that would like to collaborate and we will encourage them to get in touch.

How do you plan to push the need for online safety or internet safety for our young people especially about pornography and its access?

Nationally, the Online Safety Bill intends to provide legislation to tackle harmful online content and we continue to monitor its progress through Parliament. Locally, our Safer Plymouth partnership has recognised the need to better understand online harm and has established a group to specifically focus on cybercrime. Our colleagues at the NSPCC and the Together for Childhood partnership continue to promote and we collectively are sharing best practice and knowledge around access to pornography. Earlier this year over 1000 people attended a week of workshops focused on preventing harmful sexual behaviour including leading experts on pornography such as Maree Crabbe. Via our Together for Childhood partnership we will continue to promote resources, advice and best practice.

How can we all access the Bystander training, and will it move on from and out of just Plymouth's workforce and become embedded into communities?

Our next Bystander 2 hour workshops are on the following dates:

11 February 10am--12pm
17 February 2pm - 4pm
18 February10am-12pm
7 March 10am-12pm

More information about Graham can be found on his website.
In addition, we have the opportunity to train 24 people in the city to be able to facilitate the training themselves. This will enable us to sustain this approach in the long-term across the city.
Please email: plymouth.servicecentre@nspcc.org.uk to find out more and to book your place.

Is there scope for a "street pastors" style scheme specifically aimed towards the safety of women in the night-time economy? I took part in a similar scheme which was run by Drinkaware in Plymouth Student Union - it was a really successful scheme and something that could be affective on a larger scale in our city centre.

Through Safer Streets 3 funding the University of Plymouth will implement Student Safety in Public Spaces Project and student watch. This will start in January 2022.We are instigating bystander training for a wide range of organisations including a focus on staff and workers in the evening and night time economy and the taxi trade to have the courage and know what action to take when they see worrying behaviour.
Street pastors are out and about – mainly on Saturday nights to help people feel safer and get home safely. Pastors will predominantly operate on Saturday nights but have additional capacity to work on identified high demand nights where required. Funding secured will permit six months deployment of pastors with initial increased coverage focusing on the cities fresher’s week and Christmas.
More CCTV and improved lighting is planned as well as help points in some of the locations where people are more likely to be at night. SS3 - street pastor funding and student watch (Alice Ludgate) and safe bus, taxi marshals.

Referring to the NSPCC, First Light and SARC to support primary aged children who have disclosed sexual abuse and there was nothing currently available due to the age of the children and capacity of services - can this change?

Plymouth City Council commissions First Light to provide therapeutic support to adults and young people who have experienced sexual violence and abuse. We recognise that for younger children, generally under 11, a different approach is required and we are working with First Light to secure funding to provide a service for this age group. We hope that this will change in the new year.

CCTV / Lights / buses and taxis

Bearing in mind the cost involved in the public purse is there any other reason why our residential streets do not have full CCTV coverage that can be accessed if/when needed?

The use of CCTV across our city is strictly governed under the Protection Of Freedom Act, this means that there has to be a fair and justifiable reason to install CCTV in any public location; a full privacy impact assessment has to be undertaken for any installations to ensure that residents and visitors to our city have their privacy maintained. CCTV can only be installed where data shows that there is a significant level of crime of a nature that the presence of CCTV may positively impact the third measure is the determination of whether the cost of a camera is equitable to level and type of crime being experienced.

Why don't we have more street lighting? There are huge parts of the city with no lighting, and where there is, the lighting is very dim.

The Lighting LED upgrade that was delivered from 2014, replaced the Sodium Lighting technology on existing lighting positions and was not a redesign activity due to cost. Some existing stock was based on original Gas Lantern locations. Some of these areas benefited from subsequent lighting upgrades as seen fit by previous administrations over a number of years. More recent housing estates have seen lighting installed to comply with the Lighting Standards applicable at the time of build.
New road development works are designed to comply with BS5489
There are many locations that have lighting arrangements that could be improved and we look to address these when funding becomes available but there cost considerations upon installation and an eye to the impact of ever increasing lighting arrangements have on our Carbon Emissions and energy costs that place a burden on our Revenue Budget.

There are hundreds of broken street lights - why are they not being repaired?

Our present count of all outstanding repairs, total = 158 units out (this includes additional lanterns identified as ‘out’ from last night’s patrol and 45 units on our main roads that we group together, to make best use of expensive traffic management arrangements)

This represents approx. 0.5% of our lighting stock across the City – please note that this is count of all reported units notified via Firmstep or reports of lights identified as ‘out’ by our night patrol team

SWH have sufficient stock of lanterns and replacement photo cells to carry out these repairs. Each repair team achieve approx. 15 repairs per day, at present we have 2 teams working on the issue
The present number of outages requiring attention translates to approx. 4.1 day work. The teams will be working up to Christmas Day and be back on the road 5th January (excepting emergencies where we ensure a 24hr cover) A small number of lighting positions are affected by cable faults that are passed to Western Power Distribution for repair, there are approx. 15 in number at the present time and these are monitored by our Street Lighting Engineer.

We need the taxis and buses situation reviewed for the city - there isn't enough, particularly at night. Those that we have, are not reliable. They don't turn up.

We are currently carrying out a consultation on taxis in Plymouth which includes asking all taxi drivers to accept card payments.

What is being done to look at safety in our car parks?

All Plymouth City Council city centre multi storey car parks have CCTV and investment in upgrading lighting to LCDs including in stairwells. Surface level parking have lamp posts. All have risk assessments carried out and reviewed twice a year. Officers based in customer service lodge in theatre royal carpark until late also go and monitor other multi storey car parks.

Taxi drivers all want cash in hand past midnight? I hear this lots… all taxi drivers want cash in hand in the morning so women can’t get taxis home. Who is overseeing this? Who over sees taxi licensing?

Taxi Licensing is overseen by Plymouth City Council. We are currently carrying out a consultation on taxis in Plymouth which includes asking all taxi drivers to accept card payments.

Culture and education

What is done in schools to increase self-confidence of females (and the confidence of males as human beings and not just alpha-males)?

Our work with schools includes emotional health and wellbeing and is delivered by the Zone. The programme Progeny is now in its fourth year and supports the whole school community. Our Bystander training early next year will include train the trainer so that we can roll out offers to schools. All our secondary schools have been offered the opportunity to receive training and support to become a trauma informed schools (TIS UK).

Can you describe how you intend to engage boys and men in a conversation about male violence and their role in challenging the attitudes that underpin it?

As part of our Safer Streets 3 programme the Bystander training offer provides a safe platform to begin these conversations. Our next Bystander 2 hour workshops are on the following dates:

11 February 10am-12pm
17 February 2pm-4pm
18 February 10am-12pm
7 March 10am-12pm or 6pm-8pm

More information about Graham Goulden can be found on his website.
In addition, we have the opportunity to train 24 people in the city to be able to facilitate the training themselves. This will enable us to sustain this approach in the long-term across the city.
Please email plymouth.servicecentre@nspcc.org.uk to find out more and to book your place.
We are also exploring white ribbon accreditation.

Can you describe what action you intend to take to challenge the rhetoric around VAWG which centres women's responsibility to keep themselves safe at the exclusion of examining men's responsibility to tackle their peers?

As part of our Safer Streets 3 programme the Bystander training offer provides a safe platform to begin these conversations. Our next Bystander 2 hour workshops are on the following dates:

11 February 10am-12pm
17 February 2pm-4pm
18 February 10am-12pm
7 March 10am-12pm or 6pm-8pm

What early work is being at primary school level to develop girl’s wellbeing and community?

Primary schools follow government statutory guidance to provide Relationship Education, view the guidance. In Plymouth our Together for Childhood partnership led by NSPCC actively promotes the use of the following resources for primary aged children: Speak Out Stay Safe. PANTS

How can we raise awareness of what constitutes health and unhealthy relationships amongst young people before they get involved?

All schools now have to provide Relationship and Sex Education under the statutory government guidelines.

In Plymouth, our Together For Childhood partnership includes a Healthy Relationships element and as part of our Safer Streets 3 funding we are working with the NSPCC to support schools to set up Empower groups (student led groups to support the delivery of healthy relationships education).

The issue of access to pornography is a challenge and requires a national and international response. We continue to monitor the Online Safety Bill as it progresses through Parliament and notice that the NSPCC is one of many charities calling for stronger measures connected to pornography and age verification checks. This site also provides guidance for parents on measures that can be taken such as use of parental controls on devises. It also highlights the importance of age appropriate open and honest conversations with our young people. Plymouth City Council has provided workforce development opportunities around the issue of access to pornography and the impact of violent pornography.

What support is being offer to children in schools? Specifically SEN students?

The new statutory guidance to provide RSE in schools includes SEN. Locally, our Together for Childhood Healthy Relationships work also includes work with schools specifically for SEND students.

Will we look at the healthy relationships and sex education programs in schools? To see if it actually teaches healthy relationships and consent.

All schools now have to provide Relationship and Sex Education under the statutory government guidelines. As this is now part of the curriculum this will be included in Ofsted inspection regimes. At Plymouth City Council our education team do bring together school leads for RSE to share knowledge and good practice. Our Children's Safeguarding Partnership also has an education reference group which considers these issues. In Plymouth, our Together For Childhood partnership includes a Healthy Relationships element and as part of our Safer Streets 3 funding we are working with the NSPCC to support schools to set up Empower groups (student led groups to support the delivery of healthy relationships education).

Can we offer training programmes for teachers and people who work and support young people so they can better identify triggers with these young people who may be suffering abuse, or be witnessing abuse at home so they can intervene earlier?

We would strongly advise schools to ensure staff are accessing regular training and updates from our Children’s Safeguarding Partnership who offer a range of training options connected to identifying abuse and appropriate interventions. More information can be found here. This will also be included as part of the offer to all secondary schools in Plymouth to receive training and support to become a trauma informed school (TIS UK).

Pubs and venues

What are the pubs, clubs and premises doing about ensuring their staff are safe at work but also safe getting home?

Licensed premises work with schemes such as Pubwatch and Best Bar None. Plymouth was awarded the accolade as the Best Bar None scheme. Best Bar None has just supported the recent trial over the weekend of 17/18 December of Night Buses in Plymouth to support people getting home at night.

How will night clubs improve the safety of women, and their response to women’s concerns during a night out?

Night clubs in Plymouth support the work of Best Bar None, schemes such as Ask for Angela for people who feel unsafe during a night out and work with licensing around drink spiking to help keep women safe on a night out. We will continue to work with them to further respond to concerns.

Is there a role for Plymouth Argyle to play here, in helping to encourage and facilitate young men to talk about male violence and how they can be part of the solution?

As part of the work moving forward we will be looking for male leadership as we start to talk to men and boys about male violence and the culture around violence against women and girls. There is a role for any organisation that wants to get involved. We would welcome working with Plymouth Argyle on this subject.

Policing (answers provided by Devon and Cornwall Police)

What is being done to tackle repeat offenders?

Repeat offenders are identified and feature in regular tasking meetings where we will have specific plans to manage them depending on the threat they pose. Depending on the intelligence and risk level we can advise them they are 'targets' and will be subject to additional monitoring and focus by Police, we use intelligence to understand the risk and we work with partners to address offending behaviour sometimes through local problem solving plans and other times through multi agency public protection meeting or multi agency risk assessment conferences. A dedicated team of vulnerability lawyers and paralegals work across the Force to proactively identify where applications for civil orders can be utilised to prevent harm.

The Domestic Abuse Behaviour Change programme works with partners to provide a whole system approach to early intervention for perpetrators, working in Plymouth with AHIMSA. Work is done on a one to one basis with perpetrators to address offending behaviours. Improved IT solutions assist in monitoring registered sex offenders and the identification of public spaces and addresses which may be a focus for them to enable for a more targeted approach. Devon and Cornwall Police have nominated themselves as a pilot Force for the introduction of the new Domestic Abuse Protection Notices/ Orders served on perpetrators. A joint Police and CPS task group has been set up to focus on improving criminal outcomes and evidential review officers are being piloted to improve the quality of evidential submissions.

Does Devon and Cornwall Police strategy for VAWG make specific provision for honour based violence and other issues that are specific to Black, Asian and minority communities?

The Force have recently created a small team to support the development and delivery of our VAWG action plan which sits alongside our strategy and our equality objectives covering minority communities. The Police have passed this query to them to ensure this is covered within our plans which sit alongside equality objectives. Our plans are being refined all the time and we continue to listen and learn about how violence affects difference people in different ways. The Police are aware of at least one honour based violence incident that has been dealt with in recent weeks, so we know that this will require a very specific response. The Police will also link in with a range of community leaders who will help advise us on this.

Can we have more police presence in Central Park?

We are growing patrol numbers in the city and they will deployed in any areas where we feel there is an increased need, so yes, there can be an increased police presence if people tell us that is where they are needed.

What more can be done to combat drink spiking?

We work closely with Licensees and the local authority to educate people. This includes staff in the clubs and bars so they know what to look out for. We also have some options such as 'bottle toppers' which are a way of preventing spiking for a practical point of view. Our Intel Directorate is standardising data collection for each sector to understand the prevalence and risk and provide a targeted approach to any issues. Increased patrols linked to our night time economy provide visibility and support to both the public and staff working in venues. Public Health messages will be used to encourage women and girls engage with Police on this matter. The test kits are commented on below.

What patrols are in place around NTE venues to ensure women are not being followed/picked up?

A specific NTE patrol is in place at the key times where officers will be seen outside premises, at taxi queues etc. Our plans also involve using plain clothed officers to spot offenders early. We are linked into CCTV across the City, Street Pastors and SIA trained door staff.

Test kits are available to all bars and who keep themselves topped up in supplies. In addition our staff have kits available to them, so they are widely available and know about by those who work in the NTE.

How do the police investigate coercive control and stalking in the city?

Every report that we become aware of is recorded and taken very seriously. We know the risks that sit within this crime type. On a daily basis the Detective Inspector reviews all such crimes from the previous 24 hrs and reports into a meeting chaired by the duty senior leader. This ensures that all possible enquires and safeguarding is being explored at the earliest opportunity.

How do we find out the statistics around actual crime in the city?

Statstics are available on the Police website.

What is being done to better improve the conviction rates of rape and sexual assault?

We absolutely need to improve these. No doubt about it. We are examining where we can improve from start to finish. This includes how we get the best possible evidence at the earliest point. We'd like victims to give their details and accounts fewer times to encourage people to engage with us. There is also a growing amount of 'Bystander' training available in the city which should encourage people to be unaccepting of this behaviour and engage with police where necessary to keep people safe and convict offenders. As mentioned earlier a joint Police and CPS task group has been set up to focus on improving criminal outcomes and evidential review officers are being piloted to improve the quality of evidential submissions.

A number of measures have been developed with CPS to improve service delivery and promote victim engagement including post trial feedback processes, focused training sessions for investigators, no further action scrutiny panels to identify learning and improvement opportunities, monthly dip sampling of our response to these cases with multi agency representatives, improved protocols with CPS to obtain early advice on cases and senior manager oversight on cases which are over 3 months old. Utilising national best practice work is ongoing in Force to shift focus from complainant credibility to defendant behaviour and suspect focus.

Additional Independent Domestic and Sexual Violence Advisor (ISVA/ IDVA) posts have been funded by the OPCC to provide support for individuals who have experienced sexual abuse trauma or violence as they journey through the Criminal Justice System. Significant work has been undertaken to improve communication and our working relationships with the IDVA/ ISVA teams.

What is being done to check on sexist attitudes within the police and educate police officers in gender issues?

A priority pillar of the VAWG action plan is to ensure positive workplace cultures leading to higher professional standards. Through the use of open forums and briefings conversations have been started about standards and behaviours. We have re-published methods via which staff can contact the counter corruption team and re-launched the 'Bad Apple' initiative which encourages officers to call out inappropriate behaviours. This has seen an increase in referrals.

We are not looking at how we make it easier for the public to report these concerns directly to our Professional Standards Dept. We use our Ethical Dilemma forum in Force where scenarios or case studies are presented to encourage officers or staff to think about situations they might face and what to do when faced with them. The Ethics Committee meets regularly and includes members of our Independent Advisory Group as a cross representation from the community. The programmes for student officers are constantly being updated and adjusted including the subjects in this question. In addition with have extensively rolled out Unconscious Bias training to make officers and staff more aware the biases that exist within their own thinking.

The Force has run a pilot of bespoke internal bystander intervention training which brings attention to problematic behaviours and provides individuals with a sense of responsibility to act and will and the skills to intervene confidently in ways that create lasting change. The pilot was fully booked and is now being evaluated whilst further roll out is considered. The Leadership Wellbeing and Inclusion Programme will promote and support positive work environments free from sexual harassment through awareness raising, communication and positive leadership. Internal campaigns, focus groups and forums are planned to encourage male upstanders to have the confidence to raise their voices on this issue. Devon and Cornwall are recruiting record numbers of officers of which 41% have been female and some of our new entry routes being 60% female. Our positive action programmes are a part of how we ensure we are representative of our communities and support those seeking progression.

What measures can we put in place to help victims feel more comfortable with forensic testing? One of the most common refrains in survivor stories of rape and sexual violence is the feeling of retraumatisation during forensic examination. What can we do in the healthcare sector to try to accommodate victim focused ideas and help them feel more confident coming forward if it means a forensic examination will take place?

This question illustrates the importance of everyone recognising this as a city response. There are things that can be done in many areas of work, by different agencies that will make a difference. Retraumatisation is a real risk and I think this question needs more work before it can get an answer that will take us forward. This is precisely the reason for a commission and it will be raised within it.

Will the court system be looked at? Higher sentences?

Whole processes need to be looked at, from the moment a crime occurs right through to the outcome and so yes, the court system needs to be considered. It's not possible to say at this time what the outcome of that will be and whether it is likely to influence sentencing.

I know many young women don't report, so how confident are you that you have a good handle on the scale of crime against women in the City please?

We do know that not everyone will report and whilst we are working on ways to improve that, we also consider other ways of try to understand how wide the issues area. We use anonymous information such as the StreetSafe App and crime stoppers. We also have good relationships with independent advisor groups and our partners in the city such as health, social care and youth workers. All of these people can help us understand what the challenges are and how we might keep people safe, even when a person doesn't feel able to give specific details of offenders.

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