Council calls for misogyny to be made a hate crime on White Ribbon Day

25 November 2020

Beginning this month, the council will be highlighting the injustice of violence against women and girls, and raising awareness of this issue. On Wednesday 25 November, White Ribbon Day, or International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and Girls, the 16 Days of Activism against gender-based violence campaign begins. Running every year, the international campaign which challenges violence against women and girls, encourages men to wear white ribbons to signify their support in ending male violence against women.

Southwark Council and its partners have recognised domestic abuse as a priority for many years and it is a fairer future commitment to tackle all forms of gender-based violence. Over the past five years, the council has redoubled its efforts to ensure that preventing and tackling violence, and creating awareness of the issue, is now at the heart of council policy, strategy and service provision. It will fall to councils to enact the Domestic Abuse Bill if passed, despite stretched resources, and the council has already been operating within the guidelines of the Bill.

A five-year domestic abuse strategy was launched in 2015 and Solace Women’s Aid, experts in this field, was commissioned to deliver Southwark’s service. Building on the domestic abuse strategy, July 2019 saw the launch of a new violence against women and girls strategy, to 2024. This extended the partnership priorities to tackle all forms of gender-based violence.

Sadly, Christmas and the period before it inevitably sees an uptick in domestic abuse, as tensions in families escalate at a time of financial strain and relationship breakdown. Demand for our council commissioned domestic abuse service has increased year on year seeing a 43 per cent increase in the number of referrals (2013/14 v 2019/20).  The council’s service now receives as many as 2,500 referrals for survivor support per year, and this year has seen more serious and violent incidents than any previous year. By the end of September 2020, the Metropolitan Police had received an additional 12,107 reports of domestic abuse incidents in London compared to the same period in 2019.

Councillor Evelyn Akoto, cabinet member for public health and community safety, said: “It is horrifying to see the number of violent acts against women and girls still rising, despite all that we do. This year, it is worse than ever before for high-risk victims of violence who may have effectively had to isolate with their abusers – meaning a 25% increase in demand for our services during lockdown. In 2020, we are mindful of families where children have been away from school and women away from the workplace, when home is not a safe place, and when families have been under immense mental and financial strain. Today is a reminder that women and girls are still tortured, abused, beaten and killed, every single day, all across the world. The council will continue to do all that we can to make it stop.”

Councillor Alice Macdonald, Cabinet member for Communities and Equalities, said: “We have embedded the reduction of violence against women and girls into all of our work at the council. As a landlord, we have the ability to evict the perpetrator of domestic abuse so that the woman can stay in her home, for example. Statistically, we are almost always talking about violence against women by men. That’s why it’s so important, on White Ribbon Day and beyond, that men understand this issue and help us advocate an end to women being hurt and killed by men. These 16 days are an important moment to put a focus on the action needed but this has got to be a 365 day effort with all of us coming together to end gender-based violence for good."

At this week’s Council Assembly, held on Wednesday evening, the appointment of a new Deputy Cabinet member for Domestic Violence – Cllr Leanne Werner will be announced as well as the proposal of a motion to lobby the Government to make misogyny a hate crime. This is just a part of the work we are doing to tackle gender-based violence.

The Solace Women’s Aid contract provides a holistic service through a hub and bespoke model with a single point of access 24/7 to support those who have experienced domestic and sexual abuse (including female genital mutilation, honour-based violence, human trafficking, forced marriage and prostitution) to cope and recover from their experiences. It reduces risk, increases safety and provides a package of practical and emotional support to people, to enable recovery from trauma and gain independent lives.

The service is available to men and women who live in the borough, who are over 16 years of age.

As well as this, the council now has a huge range of services designed to protect and support people suffering violence and abuse including:

• Caseworkers who provide safety planning for 12 weeks
• Sanctuary Scheme to install safety measures and allow people who experience domestic abuse or hate crime to remain safely in their homes.
• A children’s therapist, who is a qualified practitioner providing a one to one play and arts based therapeutic intervention to children and young people and their mothers.
• Perpetrator Intervention: a 26 week programme of both individual and group work.
• Enhanced domestic awareness training and support in 25 GP surgeries across the borough.   
• Women’s Resilience Awareness Programme: This programme for survivors includes a series of structured workshops and support groups aimed at improving understanding of domestic and sexual abuse and providing longer term practical and emotional support.
• Counselling: (1:1 and groups) – long term support is offered through weekly sessions to help women recover from their experiences of domestic and sexual abuse/violence.
• The council’s Housing Solutions Service is recognised as being at the forefront of excellence in relation to domestic violence and abuse. In 2018, it was the first housing service in the country to achieve the Domestic Abuse Housing Alliance (DAHA) accreditation.
• Women’s Safety Charter – The Women’s Safety Charter is a voluntary pledge for bars, clubs and other licensed premises, with five principles on how they will support women experiencing sexual harassment in their premises.

Commissioned services:

• Refuge: 26 bed, emergency domestic abuse refuge for 26 women and their children, and YUVA which works with young people who are displaying abusive behaviours in their personal relationships (parent/carer or girl/boyfriend). 
• The PAUSE team works with women who have had two or more children removed from their care.
• Safe, Healthy Equal relationships services is an educational toolkit to promote awareness of healthy relationships and combat domestic and dating abuse, delivered to young people in schools across Southwark.

Page last updated: 25 November 2020