Through the employer lens event follow-up

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Event Overview

“Inspiring the future: preventing violence against women and girls and domestic abuse: through the employer lens” took place on 12 March 2026 at Livery Hall, Guildhall, City of London bringing together City-based and non-City attendees in roughly equal measure, underlining the City’s national and international reach and influence as an employer and policy leader.

Handouts from the individual presentations can be downloaded here and within the Event report below.

 

Welcome and strategic context

Opening the event, Phil Connor, Head of Community Safety at the City of London, welcomed delegates to Livery Hall. He emphasised the City’s long history of working in partnership, stressing that this collaborative approach has never been more important, while remaining optimistic about the potential for change through inspirational speakers and committed organisations. He highlighted the privilege of supporting survivors, the instrumental role of the City of London Crime Prevention Association (CoLCPA) and other partners in driving change, and acknowledged that while much has been achieved, there is still more to do as part of a continuing journey.

 

National strategy and the employer lens

Susan Bright, CEO of Employers’ Initiative on Domestic Abuse (EIDA), set out the scale and nature of domestic abuse, noting its prevalence (affecting around one in four) and the wide range of behaviours involved, all of which can have a massive impact on victims and workplaces. She outlined key aspects of the government’s new 10‑year Violence Against Women and Girls strategy, stressing that it is cross‑government, detailed across three volumes and supported by an in‑depth action plan, and she highlighted EIDA’s contribution to the consultation process. Susan focused on what this means for employers, including the need for robust workplace domestic abuse strategies and the support available from EIDA to help organisations move beyond compliance towards effective, survivor‑focused practice.

Download handout: VAWG national strategy – Susan B.

 

Our Safer City update and practical initiatives

Don Randall MBE, Chairman of Our Safer City, reflected on progress to date. He described the governance structure around the work, including a Focus Group, a Steering Group and an Advisory Board. Don set out several tangible initiatives

  • Taxi marshalling: funded by the Eastern City and Aldgate Business Improvement Districts, this scheme has supported around 38,000 journeys, with approximately one‑third involving lone female passengers, and includes 12 dedicated marshals to provide reassurance and safe access to taxis.
  • Safe Havens: there are currently 57 Safe Havens in the City, with the ambition to quadruple this number and to transition “Ask for Angela” venues into Safe Havens, alongside better data capture on their use.
  • Hospitality footfall data that showed higher visitor numbers in November and December but a significant reduction in violent crime, demonstrating the impact of targeted, partnership‑led interventions.
  • Training and awareness in setting expectations around acceptable behaviour, how to report concerns and the role of bystander intervention, and he noted the City’s strength in piloting and pioneering new approaches

 

Corporation experience as an employer

Jenna Stanley, VAWG and Domestic Abuse Coordinator and Clare Saltiel, Domestic Abuse Lead both from at the City of London Corporation described how the Corporation is progressing this agenda internally, with most actions currently focused within the City. They reported on activity during the 16 Days of Activism, which had received positive feedback, and set out a series of internal measures including updated policies, awareness training and a toolkit aimed at small and medium‑sized enterprises. Looking ahead, Jenna outlined future plans such as implementing the “Own My Life” programme to support staff, access to counselling, and deepening wider staff engagement to embed culture change across the organisation.

Download handout: Corporation experience – Jenna and Clare

 

Legal and cultural perspectives

Providing a legal and cultural perspective, senior lawyer Charlotte Hopkins (Former General Counsel and member of the Diversity Project Non‑Financial Misconduct Task Force) stressed the ambition to go beyond regulatory compliance in addressing sexual harassment. She highlighted the prevalence of sexual harassment, the fear many individuals feel about what might happen next and the fear of speaking up, and she framed the organisational response around several themes: aiming high in standards, digging deep into culture, promoting whistleblowing, ensuring active management involvement, setting the tone from the top and taking appropriate, decisive action when issues arise.

Download handout: Legal perspective – Charlotte H

 

Panel discussion: gaps, responses and workplace roles

A panel chaired by Heather Butler (Our Safer City) brought together Chief Superintendent Sanjay Andersen (City of London Police), Shital V (Free2BYou), Ndy Okoronkwo (Circles) and Andreea Groenendijk‑Deveau (Outcry Witness) to explore gaps and priorities in current responses.

When asked about the biggest gaps, contributors pointed to:

  • Under‑reporting, with the need to build trust and confidence in systems.
  • The need to create safe spaces and deepen understanding of what constitutes abuse and harmful behaviour.
  • The importance of education, training and awareness that is ongoing and evolutionary, not one‑off.
  • The gap around early intervention, including consistently challenging concerning behaviour and not minimising or joking about disclosures.
 

On responding to disclosure, the panel emphasised the complexity of individuals’ situations and the importance of partnership working, as well as the critical role of the first response in building confidence: listening without judgement, believing the person, and recognising that they may be masking their circumstances and would likely have left already if they could. Workplaces can act as safe spaces or sanctuaries, and people disclosing do not necessarily need an immediate solution but do need to be heard, believed and supported, including through signposting. Specific examples included supporting staff where finances are controlled by an abuser (for example, needing an alternative account for salary), providing additional devices such as a separate laptop or phone, and facilitating police engagement at work if appropriate.

The panel also addressed employers’ roles in spotting potential signs of abuse, such as sudden changes in sickness levels, requests to alter salary payment arrangements, cameras being consistently off in virtual meetings, sudden changes in behaviour or performance, and patterns that can occur across all levels of seniority. Participants stressed that in any sizeable workplace there will be individuals affected, and that fear of job loss can inhibit disclosure, so employers should focus on recognising signs and signposting resources. In terms of perpetrators, contributors suggested looking for signs of isolation and loneliness, comments that reflect harmful attitudes, lack of integration within teams and failure to take accountability, alongside work to tackle loneliness and isolation as part of a broader preventative approach.

When asked for one key action, panellists highlighted the importance of calling out bad behaviour, including sexist jokes, even when it feels uncomfortable, and challenging harmful behaviour early. They also emphasised allyship—getting involved even if someone is not personally affected—and the role of empowering daughters, educating sons and supporting young people to call out behaviour, recognise harmful language and consider the impact of social media. Panellists encouraged attendees to join existing initiatives rather than feeling they must start something new from scratch, reinforcing the event’s theme of partnership.

 

Technology and offender management

Debbie Jones (Resolute Women’s Support) and Deborah Alderson (Addressing Domestic Abuse) presented a powerful joint session on tackling domestic abuse by focusing on perpetrators through GPS tagging and proximity notification technology.

They highlighted how perpetrators typically minimise or deny their behaviour and how current enforcement and tagging systems leave too much responsibility with victims, with slow responses and no effective proximity safeguards.

Drawing on a Home Office–funded pilot in Northumbria, they described a Domestic Abuse GPS Proximity System in which tags are applied in custody, victim devices are configured with agreed exclusion zones and breaches are monitored in real time by trained staff using clear operating procedures and the THRIVE model to guide police response.

They set out the benefits—prevention and deterrence, early intervention, survivor autonomy, evidence-led prosecutions and cost-effectiveness compared with imprisonment—and stressed that technology must be embedded in a wider whole‑system, multi‑agency framework such as MATAC, which has already demonstrated significant reductions in reoffending.

Pointing to international models such as Spain’s COMETA programme and Portugal’s national “reverse tagging” approach, they showed how GPS-enabled monitoring can deliver rapid responses, very high completion rates and substantial reductions in protective order violations, and they closed with a call for UK ministerial support, funding for a modern Domestic Abuse Proximity System, its inclusion in national strategy and cross‑government engagement to scale this life‑saving approach.

Download handout: Offender Management – Deborah A and J

 

Digital Footprints

Richard P. then addressed digital footprints and digital safety, highlighting how online behaviours and data can both increase risk and support investigations, and underlining the importance for employers and individuals of understanding digital exposure and safe practices.

Download handout: Digital footprints – Richard P

 

Conclusions and next steps

The event closed with remarks from Don Randall, who drew together the themes of partnership, lived experience, innovation and the central role of employers in preventing VAWG and domestic abuse. Across the morning, contributors reinforced that while progress has been made – from Safe Havens and taxi marshalling to internal policies and tagging technologies – there remains more to do, and that sustained collaboration between employers, specialist services and national partners will be critical to inspiring a safer future for women and girls.