Police centre to tackle violence against women and girls

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The National Centre for VAWG (violence against women and girls) and Public Protection, run by the National Police Chiefs’ Council and the College of Policing, will be based in Ryton and bring together around 100 officers and staff to prioritise tackling violence against women and children across England and Wales.

For too long, crimes disproportionately impacting women and girls, such as domestic abuse and grooming gangs, have not been met with the specialist response they require.

Police efforts to tackle these crimes will now benefit from a national coordinating function – a specialist capability usually reserved for counterterrorism and serious and organised crime – making sure victims get a consistent level of support regardless of where they are in the country.

The government has been clear it will prioritise protecting women and children from these harms as part of our commitment to halve violence against women and girls in a decade through our Plan for Change. This new policing centre will ensure that standards in tackling them are driven up across the country.

This funding builds on measures set out before Christmas to introduce Raneem’s Law and embed domestic abuse specialists in 999 control rooms, action to tackle spiking and stalking, as well as new measures to tackle the scourge of child sexual abuse, including mandatory reporting and increased funding for the Child Sexual Exploitation Police Taskforce.

Launching in April, the centre will build on existing areas of work to:

• roll out new quality training for police officers across the country in tackling violence against women and girls and child sexual abuse, implementing a manifesto commitment
• professionalise public protection work within policing so that future police leaders will all be expected to have built up experience and training in public protection roles
• deploy intelligence-led tactics used to target other serious offenders to pursue domestic abusers, rapists and stalkers
• work with the National Crime Agency to ensure that all forces are supported to respond to online child sexual abuse
• drive up investigative and operational standards across all 43 police forces in England and Wales in tackling these crimes
• train more police officers in the skills necessary to tackle violence against women and girls and child sexual abuse
• ensure the latest academic research informs investigative practices

This announcement aims to build confidence in victims to come forward to report crimes to the police, knowing they will receive the service they deserve.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: "Women and girls experience violence and abuse each year, yet for far too long it just hasn’t been taken seriously enough by policing, the criminal justice system or the government.

"Warm words are not enough. We need to drive up standards and start treating the epidemic of violence against women and children with the seriousness it deserves.

"We have national specialist standards and leadership on serious and organised crime, terrorism and public order, but not on public protection – even though it needs proper specialist skills and training to go after dangerous perpetrators and keep victims and survivors safe. That is why we are setting up the first policing national centre for public protection to drive up standards and tackle these terrible crimes."

To ensure there is a cohesive and effective response across all 43 forces in England and Wales, the centre will work closely with the Home Office to deliver the government’s manifesto commitment to set out consistent and standard practices for responding to these crimes, including through improved training for officers. This will mean officers have the right skills and training to respond appropriately to victims of VAWG and child sexual abuse.

This will include developing and rolling out high-quality training for frontline, specialist and leadership roles and for critical functions such as rape and sexual offences teams where educated, and specialist support is vital to build victim confidence.

T/CC Maggie Blyth, National Police Chief’s Council lead for Violence Against Women and Girls said: "We welcome the official announcement and the financial support from government to implement a national centre to further protect victims and enhance our specialist capability to target perpetrators.

"The centre will build on existing police work and progress made in tackling violence against women and girls, allowing us to mandate nationwide improvements to support forces and frontline officers to carry out their jobs effectively.

"Our officers work tirelessly every day to bring offenders to justice and keep people safe, but we need to do more and that starts with equipping our officers with the right training and support to be able to investigate effectively, in the same way as we would provide specialist training to firearms or public order officers. We also need to better support victims through the criminal justice process and alongside partners, we will drive improvements for swifter justice and a quicker more robust response when people seek our help."

The centre will unify three existing victim-orientated policing programs – Operation Soteria, the national VAWG Taskforce and the Vulnerability Knowledge and Practice Programme, which focus on protecting vulnerable people including victims of child sexual abuse. Building on programs like Operation Soteria, the centre will work with academics to ensure an evidence-based approach, transforming the way policing looks at and responds to these crimes.

Assistant Chief Constable Tom Harding, the College of Policing’s Director of Operational Standards, said: "Policing is dedicated to protecting women and girls by targeting those who seek to harm them; and ensuring victims have the confidence to come forward, that they are listened to, treated compassionately and receive the best possible service.

"We’ll place victims at the heart of the new centre and work across law enforcement, government and both the public and voluntary sectors to boost the training we give to officers. The College of Policing will support forces to achieve the highest possible standards and improve the response to violence against women and girls."

This investment is a core part of the government’s mission to halve violence against women and girls in a decade and treat it as a national emergency as part of the wider Safer Streets Mission.