New Report Highlights Challenges in Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls

New Report from the National Audit Office (NAO) Highlights Challenges in Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls

The National Audit Office (NAO) has recently released a comprehensive report examining the UK government’s efforts to address Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG). In this post, we summarise these findings and consider how community partnerships like Our Safer City can contribute to creating safer environments for women and girls.

Background summary from the report

Violence against women and girls (VAWG) affects a significant portion of the female population. Over 25% of women experience sexual assault or attempted assault in their lifetime, and one in 12 women are victims of VAWG annually. In 2022-23, 20% of all police-recorded crime was related to VAWG, according to the National Police Chiefs’ Council.

The UK government has taken steps to address this issue:

1. In 2021, the “Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls” strategy was introduced, focusing on prevention, victim support, perpetrator pursuit, and system strengthening.
2. The Domestic Abuse Act received Royal Assent in 2021.
3. In 2022, the Home Office published a separate “Tackling Domestic Abuse” Plan.

The Home Office leads the government’s response to VAWG, but progress requires collaboration across multiple departments. The new government has committed to halving VAWG prevalence within a decade.

Key Findings summary from report

• Despite ongoing efforts, VAWG remains a significant issue. The prevalence of sexual assault against women aged 16 to 59 has increased from 3.4% in 2009-10 to 4.3% in 2023-24.
• To date, the Home Office has not led an effective whole-system response.
• The Home Office has not had a full understanding of the scale of resources committed to tackling VAWG across government, limiting its ability to prioritise efforts.
• The lack of a consistent definition for VAWG across public bodies and
their approaches to measuring the scale of VAWG crimes has made it difficult
to measure progress in a consistent way.

Recommendations summary from report

Meeting the target to halve violence against women and girls will require strong cross-government leadership and the commitment of all departments. The Home Office should:

Establish a shared vision for how to meet the government’s target by:

• Agreeing a common definition of VAWG across government and policing and identifying the data that will be used to measure this; and
• Developing a system-level plan for halving VAWG that is informed by an evidence-based theory of change, places a greater emphasis on prevention, and is clear what all delivery partners must contribute.

Strengthen accountability for delivering against the government’s target by:

• Establishing a cross-government team, based in the Home Office, to lead on the implementation of the new strategy;
• Reviewing existing governance structures and adapting these to align incentives and sharpen accountability for delivering; and
• Coordinating available funding for tackling VAWG, including through considering a joint spending review bid for the strategy.

Embed learning and evaluation through the new strategy by:

• Developing and embedding a long-term evaluation plan into the strategy backed by appropriate resources; and
• Encouraging local innovation, particularly on preventing VAWG, and learning from this to identify opportunities to scale up effective interventions.

How Our Safer City Can Contribute

Our Safer City can play a vital role in supporting and complementing government efforts in three main areas:

Understanding the problem

• Data Collection and analysis: We are gathering and analysing local data and insights to contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of VAWG in our communities.
• Measuring success: We evaluate and measure if our activity is making a difference and refocus where necessary.

Mitigating the problem

• Local Innovation: We are developing and testing innovative approaches to VAWG prevention at the community level, including taxi marshalling, Safe Havens and Ask for Angela.
• Cross-Sector Collaboration: We are supporting public-private partnerships between local government, police, education institutions, and community organisations to create a more coordinated response to VAWG

Education

• Community Education: We are supporting initiatives to educate and raise awareness about VAWG, encouraging cultural change from the ground up.

By working together and leveraging the strengths of both governmental and non-governmental efforts, we can make significant advances in creating safer cities for women and girls. The NAO report is a call to action for all of us to redouble our efforts and work collaboratively towards a future free from violence against women and girls.