Agenda item

[Report of the Director for Public Health. To be introduced by the Cabinet Member for Communities.]The Violence Against Women and Girls 2016-2026 Strategy outlines Haringey's approach to addressing and preventing violence against women and girls in the next ten years.

The Cabinet Member for Communities introduced the report which sought agreement to a 10 year Violence against Women and Girls Strategy (2016-2026).

The Strategy set out, in detail, the borough’s strategic approach to not just improving the health, safety and wellbeing of women and girls in the borough but also ensuring  that they can have fulfilling lives. It had been completed alongside community organisations and voluntary sector in the borough and advocated a co-ordinated community response whilst also emphasising the importance of holding perpetrators to account.

The Council drew up the draft strategy with the community and launched a  10 week consultation on the strategy which had elicited over 300 responses. It was important to note that  90% of the young people responding to the consultation were under the age of 18 which helped taking forward the early preventative nature of this work.

In response to Councillor Engert’s questions the following information was noted:

• This was an overarching strategy which included all forms of violence against women and girls. A lot of the forms of violence were interconnected and the strategy considered similar causes and how to develop a co-ordinated community response. In terms of FGM , there was a  need to  consider a co-ordinated response  and not have different forms of violence dealt with in different ways.

• Councillor Ayisi clarified that when considering and extrapolating London data, on the forms of violence against women and girls, then there could be 3500 cases of FGM in the borough but this was not an actual factual figure but an estimated assessment. However the strategy did encourage more reporting of all forms of violence which was a positive way forward.

• The Leader advised that the issue of FGM had also been discussed at Health and Wellbeing Board and assured Cllr Engert that dealing with this in a co-ordinated partner approach was a priority that would not be lost sight of.

RESOLVED

1.    To consider and take into account the feedback from the consultation and the equalities impact assessment;

2.    To approve the Violence against Women and Girls Strategy (2016-2026) and to support the future development of action plans that underpin the  work of the Strategy.

Reasons for decision

The Strategy sets out our 10 year ambitions (2016-2026) for addressing and preventing violence against women and girls in Haringey.

The Strategy covers four key priorities: developing a coordinated community response; prevention; support for victim/survivors and holding perpetrators accountable.

The Strategy has been developed in partnership with a wide range of statutory, voluntary and community organisations from across Haringey. We have utilised existing evidence around ‘what works’ in addressing and preventing violence against women and girls. We will ensure that we co-produce all of our action plans with communities and survivors to ensure that we deliver meaningful change.

We have consulted widely with partners and local residents over a 10 week period to ensure that we have ensured that our approach will work with all stakeholders across the borough (see 6.3).

There is an international, national and regional basis for working towards preventing and addressing violence against women and girls as well as working towards the local priority of ‘a clean and safe borough’ (see 6.1-6.2).

Violence against women and girls is a serious issue for this borough. Haringey has one of the highest rates of reported domestic abuse across London. In the rolling year to June 2016, there were 5,840 domestic incidents with 2,919 domestic abuse offences reported to the police, representing an 18% increase on the previous year. Haringey also has the second joint highest incident rate per 1000 population (22 per 1000) with Tower Hamlets and Lewisham; Barking and Dagenham has the highest with 27 per 1000. In the same period, 592 sexual offences were recorded which represents a nearly 10% increase in sexual offences from the previous 12 month period.

Violence against women and girls is estimated to cost the borough £27.6 million a year, which does not include the human and emotional costs of £47.6 million. Physical and mental health care are estimated to cost £8.3 million; Social Services £1.4 million, refuges and housing at £0.9 million and lost economic output as £9.2 million. Improving our response to addressing violence against women and girls through a strategic approach will improve women and girls lives and also reduce costs to Haringey.

Alternative options considered

We have considered two alternative options – (1) do not have violence against women and girls strategy and (2) have a strategy but with different strategic objectives. These are set out below.

Alternative Option 1: Do not have a strategy.

We have considered the alternative approach of not having violence against women and girls strategy. However, we believe that there are significant financial and social benefits to enhancing our partnership approach to ending violence against women and girls including:

-           Reduction in duplication across directorates

-           Reduction in costs to statutory services

-           Adherence to statutory safeguarding legislation

-           Increased potential for women and girls in Haringey

Although many of these benefits are currently unquantifiable, violence against women and girls is a key issue for Haringey services and having a strategic approach to ending violence against women and girls will have a positive financial and social implications.

Not having a violence against women and girls strategy will mean fragmented services for victim/survivors; duplication of effort across statutory services and voluntary sector partners; inefficiencies in use of resources and a lack of adherence to national and regional approaches will could impact significantly on our ability to attract external funding.

In addition, having a coordinated partnership strategy allows Haringey to comply with safeguarding duties including those set out in the Pan-London Adult Safeguarding policies and procedures as well as the Care Act 2014. It also ensures that we comply with the Pan-London Child Protection procedures as well as the provisions on safeguarding contained within the Children Act 1989 and 2004.

Alternative Option 2: Have a strategy but with different strategic objectives

We have considered having a strategy with different strategic objectives but believe that this would not be in the best interests of Haringey residents and professionals. This strategy has been widely consulted on, both during the development of the strategy and an official 10 week consultation on the draft strategy. None of the data collected during these two processes highlighted that the priorities were not the appropriate priorities; there was broad support for the 4 key strategic objectives.  Our proposed approach of having a strategy with the 4 priorities outlined above also fits with national and regional priorities set out in the Government’s Violence against Women and Girls Strategy 2016-2019 and also the Mayor of London’s 2013-2017 Strategy.