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

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 6^th 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,