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Open Letter – Partners Call to Action to Public Sector Leaders to reduce Violence Against Women

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Dorset Women CIC Joins Partners to demand a Call to Action from Public Sector Leaders to reduce Violence Against Women

To:        

Mike Short Chair Police and Crime Panel

David Sidwick Dorset Police and Crime Commissioner

Amanda Pearson Dorset Police Chief Constable

Matt Prosser CEO Dorset County Council

Graham Farrant CEO BCP Council

Call for Immediate Prioritisation of the Safety of Women and Girls in Dorset

Across both council areas of Dorset, and Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP), Violent Crime and Sexual Violence are the highest reported crimes and numbers are rising.

The recent rape of a young woman in Bournemouth, the tragic murder and knife attack in Durley Chine, and subsequent knife threat to a woman on Redhill Common, has understandably, heightened fear among women about the risks they can face despite Dorset being reported as one of the 10 safest counties in the UK.

Women are not only more fearful of their safety but are questioning whether their safety is seen as important to Dorset Police and their partners.

At a public briefing on Wednesday last week, representatives from Dorset Police and BCP Council were unable to provide a satisfactory response to the question ‘How Are You Measuring Performance Against Your Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Strategies?” Answers were unspecific and disjointed. It was evident that the agencies’ strategies are not aligned nor being given priority focus.

A statement released on Friday 6th June, naming actions aimed to reduce violence against women in Bournemouth town centre, gives us great cause for concern that the uncoordinated, piecemeal actions, across the county, are only focussed in one area and are not going to tackle the root cause of the problem or give the women of Dorset the reassurance they deserve.

On further investigation, it is clear that there is not a county-wide effort to reduce violent crime against women and girls despite statutory duties to focus on specific communities, people disproportionately affected, and system-wide working across organisational boundaries.

  • Over 300 sexual violence crimes are committed in Dorset every year. 85% of victims are women. 31 reports of rape occurred in BCP alone in April 2024.
  • Nearly 8500 domestic abuse crimes were reported in Dorset in 2023. But only 7% resulted in a charge or summons.
  • In the BCP council area data shows that in comparison to April 2023, numbers for the most common types of serious violence have been lower in April 2024, with the exception of sexual assault on a female.
  • Dorset Police’s charge rate for rape and serious sexual offences went from 23.7% in 2014-15 to 4.9% in 2022-23.
  • Two Police Officers have been charged with gross misconduct relating to VAWG offences in 2024.
  • The Police and Crime Panel has not met since February 2024 and is not scheduled to meet until July 2024, despite these serious offences.
  • Dorset Council, BCP Council and Dorset Police have different VAWG or related Strategies. There is no Pan-Dorset, Multi-Agency Steering Group, Public Advisory Group or Public Scrutiny that oversees county-wide, coordinated efforts to reduce violent crimes against women and girls.

Women need to know urgently what has changed, and what will continue to change, since the Dorset Police Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy was published in July 2023, the Dorset Council Domestic Abuse Strategy  in 2021, the Dorset Community Safety Partnership Serious Violence Strategy in 2023 and the BCP Preventing Domestic Abuse Strategy 2021 – 2023 and BCP Serious Violence Strategy 2024-2025.

In order to reassure the women and girls of Dorset, we, the undersigned demand:

  1. Immediate detailed information about progress against all aspects of Violence Against Women and Girls (and related) Strategies and how accurately the impact of the strategies are being measured.
  2. The urgent convening of a meeting of the Police and Crime Panel to assure the public that there is purposeful accountability of associated strategies and the monitoring of their implementation.
  3. Ongoing public visibility of all related strategies’ key performance indicators (using BCP reporting as best practice) and progress with immediate publication of the minutes of the Violence Against Women and Girls Improvement Panel.
  4. The creation of a community-led and multi-agency, Dorset-wide Reduction of Violence Against Women and Girls partnership that works on a localised Dorset-focussed strategy with existing community and voluntary sector partnerships and Bournemouth University.
  5. The adoption of a county-wide data-set based on the KPIs used by BCP Council Community Safety Partnership.

Fundamentally, we demand assurances that the safety and protection of Women and Girls is given the attention it deserves and is made a top priority for the police and their public sector partners without delay.

In making these demands, we offer our collective support, action and involvement in the implementation of all Violence Against Women and Girls (and related) Strategies to facilitate the greatest success possible and the safest environment for all women and girls across the county, whether they live in Dorset or are visiting the county.

Sincerely,

Dr B Gail Thomas

Victoria Sheppard

Marianne Storey

Simone Gosden   

Jayne Jackson

Julie Johns

Donna Anne

Pace

Secretary

Founder              

Chair    

CEO

Activist & Founder

MD & Founder

Founder & CEO

Soroptimist International Bournemouth

BCP Unity Promise

Dorst Women CIC

Acts Fast

FoxStrut

Safe Space Consultancy

One Voice My Choice CIC
#GE2024

Summer 2024 Newsletter – Women Being Heard

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Summer 2024 - Women Being Heard

This summer brings plenty of opportunities to have your say – from campaigns and projects about local issues in Dorset to national issues in the General Election 2024. This season is a season to be heard!

Women's Health in Dorset

We have been working hard in partnership with NHS Dorset and Health Innovation Wessex on a Women’s Health Project that will see a brand new online Women’s Health Hub launched in September 2024. The Women’s Health Hub will be a central resource of education, information, services available and signposting for all things related to Women’s Health.

You can be involved in 3 BIG WAYS!

1. Take Part in the Women’s Health Survey – but be quick, it closes on Sunday 16th June. We have 750 responses, help us to reach 1000 voices. Your views matter, and 1000 opinions give us a brilliant sample from which to make important decisions. It only takes a few minutes.

Take Part Now

2. Volunteer to be a Patient Representative on the project’s steering group or governance panel. Do you have experience of using women’s health services in Dorset? Could you spare three to four hours a month to attend a meeting that oversees the project in order to make sure plans include consideration of the patient experience?

Contact Us For More Information

3. Tell us your story. Could you share your experience so that we can use YOUR story to help other women navigate the new Women’s Health Hub?. It is not always easy to know which service we need, especially when we have general symptoms like fatigue, bloating or pain. But we can all relate to stories and yours might help someone else who isn’t sure where to turn. All stories will be in video format and made available on the website but you may remain anonymous if you wish and we will use an actor to explain your experience. Email now for more information.

Email Now for More Information

We Join Other Women's Groups to Demand Action to Reduce Violence Against Women and Girls

This week we were proud to be one of 7 organisations to have signed an Open Letter to Dorset Police, Dorset Council and BCP Council to demand better collaboration between agencies to prioritise the prevention of violent crime against women and girls.

We recognise that there are some great things happening, particularly by voluntary organisations and charities in Dorset – but unless all these activities are strategically aligned and working together to prevent violent crimes against women, we simply cannot reach the standard that women and girls deserve set out as Standard 2 in the Dorset Women’s Charter.

We believe we need Culture Change, Education, Early Intervention against perpetrators, prevention of Repeat Offending, Zero Tolerance, Male Allyship programmes, Transparency of joined-up Data and Collaboration across systems and communities.

We know what is ALREADY happening, the point is, it is not working as sexual violence figures are on the rise in Dorset and women deserve better.

The Open Letter can be found at linktr.ee/DorsetWomen

Want to be involved? Email us at [email protected]

General Election 2024

We have been closely following the run-up to the General Election 2024 and will be bringing you more information in the coming weeks about the candidates running in Dorset, the issues we think they need to be considering and their intentions about how they plan to represent you.

First up, we bring you reports from some of the leading national feminist organisations campaigning on behalf of women nationwide. These are their priorities for #GE2024.

The brilliant Fawcett Society have, amongst other things, done a feminist analysis of the manifestos so far. Their 3 General Election headlines are:
1. Childcare Reform
2. Workplaces That Work For Women; and
3. Women’s Representation

The Young Women’s Trust manifesto campaigns for an equal world of work for young women and asks candidates to prioritise young women towards equal pay, equal access to work, equal opportunity, equal job security and equal treatment. Add your signature here.

The Women’s Resource Centre are campaigning for a Vision for a Better Society and have written a Women’s Manifesto on subjects that include:
1. Funding and Commissioning of resources and support for women
2. Economic inequality and the cost of living crisis
3. Male violence against women and reform of family courts and the justice system
4. Equality of Work
5. Women’s Health, Social Care & Housing
6. Women’s Rights

The Women’s Budget Group is the country’s leading feminist economic think tank. “Climate change has a disproportionate impact on women and the economy couldn’t function without unpaid care and domestic work. This is why we need a green and caring economic strategy.” Their 5 Priorities are:
1. Investment in Social Infrastructure for equality.
2. Investment in green physical infrastructure.
3. Transforming the tax systems across the UK.
4. Transforming paid and unpaid work; and
5. Investment in a caring social security system.
Women’s Aid are calling for a whole-system response to domestic abuse under 3 pillars:
1. Investment to fund specialist women’s services to save lives and money 
2. Support for survivors – to deliver the right response the first time
3. Prevention of abuse by transforming societal attitudes and understanding 

And to round off, which parties are making the greatest gains in better representation of women? Are any of them reaching 50:50? The simple answer is mostly no, some parties are doing MUCH better than others. But representation is WORSE this year than in the previous general election. Will that influence how you vote? Here are the stats (with great thanks to Elect Her CIC for doing the number crunching):

Overall, only 30% of all candidates are women. In the last election it was 34%
15% of the Reform Party candidates are women
28% of Lib Dem candidates are women
34% of Conservative candidates are women
43% of the Green Party candidates are women; and 
46% of Labour candidates are women.
If you are woman from an ethnic minority, living with a disability or from the LGBTQI+ community, the stats are much, much worse.
Is this democracy? You decide.

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International Women’s Day – The theme matters and confusion is reducing the impact

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Dorset Women CIC – are calling for the public to take notice of the misleading messages and campaigns being sent out this International Women’s Day.

Taking place on 8th March each year, experts at Dorset Women CIC have raised concerns that the impact of International Women’s Day will be damaged this year amid confusion over its theme,

‘Invest in Women: Accelerate Progress’

United Nations Women 2024

Chosen by the United Nations because of supporting data and evidence alongside global events, the theme centres on accelerating economic empowerment, understanding the ‘care society’, and how women can impact climate change.

Chair of Dorset Women CIC, Marianne Storey says “The International Women’s Day theme is set each year by United Nations Women – the global experts on championing equality for women. A marketing company that runs a website called Internationalwomensday.com promotes a very much more diluted message of #InspireInclusion alongside pictures of women making heart shapes with their hands.”

This message might seem ‘close enough’, but its difference from the United Nations Women theme is extremely important. The official theme suggests that women are powerful leaders of change, given the right investment – that they are essential catalysts for change that improves life and society for
everyone, not just themselves.
In contrast, Internationalwomensday.com suggests that women need to be asked to be included in something which perpetuates a very unhelpful stereotype and is, frankly, a bit patronising.

‘Including’ women is the bottom run of a very long ladder of measures needed to be taken to create equality for women. It IS crucial for particularly disadvantaged or oppressed women who require allyship to bring about change. However, it suggests passivity and helplessness which just reinforces a societal view of women as victims.

Dorset Women CIC are involved in multiple events this year but not hosting a specific event themselves. Marianne went on to explain

“The theme of International Women’s Day this year, more than any other year, reminds us that investing in women is something we all need to do every day, not just on one
day. And so we have decided this year to promote other people’s events, attend as many as we can, and shout about the work we and many others are doing all the time. There are some fantastic charities and organisations in Dorset doing great things – all the time. They need recognition, they need funds, they need volunteers, and they need investment. So, if people really want to do something for International Women’s Day this year that has a real impact, they could donate to, get involved with or volunteer for a worthwhile cause.”

Marianne Storey Chair Dorset Women CIC

Tracey West, Patron of Dorset Women CIC said “51% of Dorset’s population are women but women in Dorset still experience a 15% gender pay gap compared to their male counterparts. Waiting times for women’s health services are at an all-time high, and women are 85% of the victims of violent crime in the county. We need these opportunities like International Women’s Day to have a proper impact and help improve women’s experiences. This confusion simply doesn’t help.”

Events taking place across Dorset for International Women’s Day can be found
on Dorset Women’s website and the huge number of organisations and people empowering women and girls every day are currently being showcased across Dorset Women’s social media platforms.

Dorset Women CIC

Autumn Newsletter 2023

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You will notice that we look different!

Women’s Action Network Dorset has been a Community Voluntary Group since 2010 and we are delighted to have become a Community Interest Company in September this year. So, we are now officially Dorset Women CIC and we love our new look.

You can still find us on all the socials as @DorsetWomen and visit our new website to read about the cornerstones of our new strategy and the 3 pillars of our work. We are still the same committed people behind the scenes!

Dorset Women’s Charter

The Dorset Women’s Charter remains the focus of our work towards changing society for Women. It is growing in interest and we are increasingly working with partners to achieve its Aims and to take action under its 10 Standards.

Are you ‘In’? Please give your support to the Dorset Women’s Charter by completing this short questionnaire. The more women who say ‘I’m In!’, the more authority we have to act on your behalf.

Women’s Health

We have made great progress in our work under Standard 3: Health, Menstruation and Menopause and Standard 4: Reproductive Health, Pregnancy & Baby Loss. Following our fantastic Women’s Health Symposium in March this year we have bought together a Stakeholder Taskforce including decision makers from the NHS, and started a huge project that will consider a wide range of women’s health issues. After several months of discussions and workshops these are the project’s 5 priorities.

As a result of this programme, we are delighted that the NHS has received funding for a new virtual Women’s Health Hub which will go live in September 2024.

Do you have an experience of women’s health services or would just like to have your say? Get involved here by telling us what we need to know.

Safety & Justice
We are reassured to discover that there is a LOT going on across Dorset to reduce gender-based violence and women’s experiences of the criminal justice system. We have been meeting and talking with many partners and deciding how we can contribute to this wealth of work.

From 25th November, as part of the United Nations campaign of 16 Days of Activism to end violence against women, BCP Council is coordinating a series of events. As part of the programme, we will be hosting a round table discussion on 7th December 18.30 with 4 of Dorset’s experts. This will be a FREE zoom event on the subject of Life After Abuse – What Does it Take to Recover and Rise? For more information and to book your place, visit Eventbrite for details.

Society, Leadership & Politics

We don’t’ know about you, but we are not happy that there are no elected women MPs in Dorset and only 30% of Councillors in Dorset and 40% in BCP Councils are women.

We have been inspired by the 50:50 Parliament campaign and so we are hosting our own event on 10th January 2024 to start a conversation in Dorset about how we can see more people representing women’s issues to decision makers in local and national government.

There will be more details to follow, please save the date.

In the meantime, we have been busy responding to consultations from our local councils. You may be interested in our responses to consultations on Housing (Dorset Council), the Voluntary Sector (Dorset Council) and Strategic Transport Priorities (BPC Council).

Data

The common theme in our recent research and publications is the issue of data. We believe that it is critical that, before decision makers consider ANYTHING else, they need to sex-disaggregate their data. This means breaking the data in to sex and gender categories in order that they can see information that might be different for different people. The risk of not sex-disaggregating data is that gender bias in society is unknowingly perpetuated rather than addressed.

Get Involved

Want to be more involved? There are lots of ways you can be part of what we are doing.

Join our conversations on our social media channels and tell us what you think. You can find us on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Take part in one of our consultations, on those of our partner organisations. You can find them on our new website here.

Volunteer

We always need more people, and we have a range of different opportunities if you’re looking for a chance to ‘give something back’ and to join a passionate organisation committed to creating change for women. From researchers to administrators, from social media to being an ambassador. There really is something for everyone.

See all our opportunities here.