The Mayor’s Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy 2022-25
The Mayor has published his refreshed Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy for London. The Strategy - published after extensive consultation with Londoners, victims of crime, partner agencies and community and voluntary groups - champions a public health approach and encourages everyone in London to play their part in ending the epidemic of violence against women and girls by:
- Placing a stronger emphasis on partnership working, prevention and education across a wide range of services in London.
- Targeting the behaviour and actions of perpetrators of abuse and violence and making sure they are the focus for change.
- Investing an additional £17.7m for support services– including a specialised response to support all victims.
- Recognising that violence starts with words, and we all have a responsibility to challenge the behaviour that can lead to violence and making women feel unsafe.
- Taking action to rebuild confidence and trust in the police and criminal justice system to ensure victims are supported and empowered to get the justice they deserve.
A safer city for every woman and girl
The refreshed VAWG Strategy sets out Sadiq's long-term ambition to eradicate VAWG in London, and for every woman and girl to be able to participate fully in life in our city without experiencing or fearing harassment, abuse or violence from men.
The Strategy builds on the successes of the Mayor's previous VAWG Strategy, and the approach used by his Violence Reduction Unit, by adopting a public health approach to VAWG. It puts prevention at the centre of everything we do and includes a greater focus on education and enhanced partnership working, not least with London’s excellent VAWG sector.
The Strategy sets out four priority areas for action:
- Preventing and reducing VAWG.
- Supporting all victims and survivors.
- Holding perpetrators to account.
- Building trust and confidence.
Schools Toolkit
The Mayor has invested £1million in a new education toolkit - available to every secondary school in London - to help them recognise and tackle sexist and misogynistic behaviour.
The innovative resource forms part of the Mayor’s public health approach to tackling violence against women and girls (VAWG) and builds on the success of his #HaveAWord campaign which urges men and boys in particular to play their part.
VAWG Prevention Principles
The Mayor has worked with partners across the capital to develop the first ever pan-London VAWG Prevention Principles.
These are a set of guiding statements that help to inform decisions and actions, providing core grounding for the development of a long-term plan. It does not describe specific interventions but creates a framework that can be applied across practice, across sectors, and across stakeholders and partners.
The Principles had strategic input from the VAWG Prevention Principles Steering Group, with representatives from MOPAC, the Violence Reduction Unit (VRU), Met police, End Violence Against Women, TfL, London Borough of Greenwich, Galop, GLA, IMKAAN, NHS, and London Probation.
Twenty organisations and groups, including representatives from Rape Crisis, Our Streets Now, NHS London, and London Metropolitan University’s Women and Child Abuse Studies Unit participated in co-design workshops to inform the strategic priorities for preventing VAWG in London.
This work was a key commitment in the Mayor’s refreshed VAWG Strategy 2022-25.
VAWG Prevention Principles
Listening to Londoners
The development of the refreshed VAWG Strategy has run in parallel with the development of the Police and Crime Plan for London 2022-25.
- Consultation was undertaken through Talk London and YouGov surveys for the Police and Crime Plan and VAWG Strategy, along with extensive public and stakeholder meetings.
- A series of thematic stakeholder workshops on complex issues were undertaken.
- Claire Waxman, London's Independent Victims' Commissioner, led a survivor consultation focusing on key groups of survivors who are often underrepresented and where the issues aren’t as well known.
- Throughout the development of the VAWG Strategy partners and stakeholders have been included in consultation and views and feedback incorporated into the strategy.
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