Agenda item

The Board received a report and the Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) draft strategy as part of the agenda pack at pages 45 and 51 respectively. The strategy was out for public consultation and the Board were asked to give its views with a particular focus on the impact of VAWG on children and young people.

The report was introduced by Fiona Dwyer, the Strategic Lead for Violence Against Women and Girls. The Board also received a presentation from the Strategic Lead for Violence Against Women and Girls with additional input received from Emily Sayer from the Highgate Woods Young Feminist Group. Ms Sayer outlined the role of the organisation and their experience of engaging schools around VAWG. Sean Thrasher and Celina Guler, two young people who had undergone training through the council-funded VAWG prevention project called Protect Our Women, also spoke to the Board as part of the presentation.

Ms Sayer advised the Board that she had recently taken over responsibility for the Highgate Woods Young Feminist Group and that the group was established to provide a space for the girls at the school to discuss issues that were affecting them and to also make them aware that the issues involved affected society as a whole. Ms Sayer commented that discussions during meetings were often quite advanced and that examples of topics ranged from the school’s uniform policy to casual sexism and cat-calling in the street. The students who attended the meetings ranged from years 7-13 and Ms Sayer considered that the students’ awareness of, and ability to engage around, those issues was clearly beneficial. However, it was also worrying that students at such a young age were so affected by these issues and this demonstrated the need for a group of this type.  The group was in the process of arranging for a workshop session with the Strategic Lead for Violence Against Women to come to the school and speak to pupils.

The Deputy Chief Executive asked what the impact was on the children of being able to have these discussions. Ms Sayer responded that the Head Teacher had spoken to staff on the first day of term around the way in which the uniform policy was enforced and that this was a tangible demonstration that the discussions had had an effect. Less tangible impacts were around offering them advice on how to deal with particular situations and creating a sense of community; reassuring them that other people were feeling the same way as them.

The Cabinet Member for Children and Families asked whether boys were able to and encouraged to join the group. Cllr Weston elaborated that part of the proposed strategy around VAWG was to focus on perpetrators and that in the instance of cat-calling most perpetrators would be boys and young men. Ms Sayer responded that some of their sessions were targeted at particular groups and that some of these sessions were open to both boys and girls but that it was a case of seeing what the students felt most comfortable with.

The Strategic Lead for Violence Against Women and Girls introduced Sean Thrasher and Celina Guler and advised that the Protect our Women programme was a 12 week programme funded by Public Health looking at the whole spectrum of VAWG and supporting young people to become champions around prevention work, which was one of the four key priorities contained in the VAWG Strategy. The Board was advised that whilst undertaking the programme, Mr Thrasher realised how much he was unaware of the issues surrounding VAWG. The first lesson incorporated a TED talk on domestic abuse by an author named Lesley Steiner and it was noted that what was striking was that despite being very intelligent and successful she was completely oblivious to the fact that she was a victim of domestic abuse. Complete ignorance about the subject was typical of the experience of most people living with domestic abuse. As well as introducing the young people to a variety of topics that they may not have otherwise had exposure to, the programme also offered practical advice about what to do and where to go if the students suffered from domestic violence or abuse.

Ms Guler reiterated that undertaking the programme had helped her to come in to contact with and explore a number of issues, such as FGM and forced marriage that she had previously known nothing about. The topics discussed were very important and the programme offered a forum to engage with these issues in an environment that the young people were comfortable with. In response to a question, the Board was advised that the course was a voluntary course based after school with around 10-20 people in each group. Approximately 200 young people in Haringey had been through the programme; across a number of schools and sixth form, and the take up was around 55% girls and 45% boys.

The Director of Public Health asked whether the POW programme had had an effect on challenging or changing behaviour. The Board were advised that there had been a noticeable impact on students and that the course had allowed the students to learn significant life skills. In addition, it was noted that although 200 students had undertaken the programme, they were also discussing it with their wider social groups and that the cumulative impact would be much greater than just those who attended the programme. In response to a question about whether there would be an appetite for groups targeted specifically at males, the Board was advised that this would be useful in certain topics but that maintaining the overall format of mixed groups was preferred.

The Lay Member Haringey CCG, asked whether during discussions, the students had identified areas where there wasn’t enough being done, especially in terms of some of the agencies who were present at the Board. Mr Thrasher responded that he was unaware of any specific areas but suggested that there was always scope to do more. 

The Director of Public Health drew the Boards’ attention to Appendix 2 of the report which set out the health impacts of violence on young people and the scale involved. The Director of Public Health emphasised that this was a key link for the Health and Wellbeing board to consider. The Board noted that the consultation on the strategy was due to run from 1^st August to 30^th September 2016.

The Chair, Healthwatch Haringey asked whether the consultation period could be extended; particularly given that it was due to take place over the summer holidays and the need to fully engage with the voluntary and community sector.  The Board was advised that this consultation was a top level strategic approach to VAWG and that there would be subsequent opportunities to engage with a variety of groups around implementation and delivery plans. Future engagement exercises would be done on a community level basis. It was planned that there would be seven survivor focus groups based around each of the key areas of VAWG, as well as working closely with children’s centres and community engagement teams to access smaller groups that council services may not necessarily come into contact with.

The Chair requested that the Clerk circulated the VAWG Strategy consultation plan to the Board, including details of the different survivor focus groups proposed. The Board to consider whether there were any other groups that should specifically be targeted as part of the consultation process. (Action: Clerk/Board)

The Chief Officer, Haringey CCG enquired how the consultation would fit in with the Community Safety Partnership and what their engagement with the process was. The Director of Public Health responded that the Community Safety Partnership had ownership of the strategy and the VAWG strategic group fed into the Community Safety Partnership.

The Director of Children’s Services advised that an independent diagnostic evaluation was undertaken in July with police, health, social care, early help and other strategic leads. The Board considered that the lines of enquiry included: how services responded to domestic abuse, what the quality and impact of assessment and decision making was, whether there was effective leadership and management across partners, and a number of cases were also reviewed. There were ongoing challenges identified around the need for better joining up of services and the need to strengthen the strategic focus on domestic abuse, as well as the need to put in place an alternative service model to undertake first response. The Board considered that there was significant amounts of work being done on an operational as well as strategic level, and the need to join up the two levels.

The Cabinet Member for Finance and Health commended the strategy and suggested that the strategy would be developed further, with further engagement undertaken on delivery of the overarching principles and an action plan. The Cabinet Member for Finance and Health advised that the strategy seemed to omit faith groups from the consultation progress. The Chair acknowledged that the Cabinet Member for Communities had already picked up on this point and that faith groups would be included in the consultation.

RESOLVED:

I). To note the VAWG Strategy, and how the Board could contribute to the delivery of the Strategy.