Have your say on making Southampton safer for women and girls experiencing domestic abuse
For the first time in Southampton, a joint domestic abuse strategy has been developed to tackle gender-based violence and make the city a safer place for women and girls
The Southampton Domestic Abuse and Violence Against Women and Girls Partnership – a partnership including health providers, local support services, the probation service, Hampshire Constabulary and Southampton City Council – is inviting feedback on the collective actions they will take to prevent violence against women and girls and provide support for victims in Southampton over the next five years.
The draft strategy is informed the voices of survivors, specialist providers and NHS and Public Health staff. The strategy aims to understand the root causes of all forms of violence and abuse. However, when abuse happens, women and girls are usually the victims and men are usually the perpetrators, meaning there is a need to focus on making women and girls safer.
Gender-based violence can affect women and girls of any age and from all walks of life. It is a national issue, with the Crime Survey for England and Wales estimating in 2019 that 25% of women aged 18 to 74 years had experienced some form of abuse before the age of 16. 35.5% of all violent crimes in Southampton were identified as ‘domestic’ in 2020/21. Domestic crime accounted for 17% of all recorded crimes in Southampton during 2020/21, a rise of 14.5% since 2019/20.
The actions in the strategy reflect the partnership’s four joint priorities:
1. Prioritise prevention
Provide better education for everyone about how domestic abuse and violence against women and girls happen in everyday life so behaviours, including patterns of non-violent harmful behaviour, are more frequently identified, and challenged.
2. Deliver support for women and girls affected by domestic abuse
Ensure specialist support is available to all adults and children and everyone knows where to go to find help and advice in Southampton.
3. Build an accountable community by changing perpetrator behaviour
Change the focus of professionals, and the community, to addressing root causes and improving the behaviour of the person causing harm.
4. Develop a stronger coordinated response
Improve connections between services to ensure support is available in the right place and at the right time. Improve the collection and analysis of service performance data so money is spent most effectively on new service provision.
The draft strategy can be viewed online where stakeholders, including members of the public, agencies, businesses, and community organisations, are invited to submit their feedback between now and Wednesday 12 October 2022.
Councillor Matt Renyard, Cabinet Member for Safer City, Southampton City Council, said: “The work of the Southampton Domestic Abuse and Violence against Women and Girls Partnership in developing this strategy is a hugely positive move to making women and girls safer in our city. Like other parts of the UK, Southampton sadly has a high rate of domestic abuse cases, but by working together, we can take the necessary steps to improve services so that support is available in the right place and at the right time. I encourage all stakeholders to have their say on the draft strategy during this public consultation period.”
