Agenda item

The Director of Neighbourhood and Environmental Services submits a report to the Committee to outline the current community safety work around ensuring women’s safety, the process used to improve women’s safety further within Leicester City and to outline the opportunity to access government funding to undertake proactive community safety work which will make a difference to the daily lives of women and girls.

The Committee is recommended to note the current work being undertaken and comment on the proposed way forward.

The Director of Neighbourhood and Environmental Services submitted a report to the Committee which outlined the current community safety work around ensuring women’s safety, the process used to improve women’s safety further within Leicester City and to outline the opportunity to access government funding to undertake proactive community safety work which would make a different to the daily lives of women and girls. The Committee was recommended to note the current work being undertaken and comment on the proposed way forward.

The report was introduced by Councillor Clair, Deputy City Mayor, and noted the report was a summary of what Leicester City Council as a local authority did for the safety of women in the city. He asked that the Committee provide their comments on the report and informed the meeting that updates would be provided to the Committee.

The report was presented by Daxa Pancholi, Head of Community Safety and Protection. Salient points highlighted were:

·         For the over a decade a considerable amount of work had been done around sexual and domestic violence, affecting predominantly women, though services were open to both genders.

·         At 4.2 in the report the four Leicester City Council domestic and sexual violence and abuse (DSVA) services were outlined, which provided support for children and young people affected by domestic violence, refuge provision, the supporting of perpetrators to change behaviours and helpline provision and outreach work.

·         The Team had also recently been successful in gaining more funding of £360,000 for respite rooms for those individual women fleeing domestic violence. The funding would be for one year from October 2021 to September 2022.

·         Safer Leicester Partnership had worked with partners such as the two universities and Business Improvement District (BID) around the night time economy to support individuals such as “Ask Angela” where the code words could be used by women who felt unsafe to alert bar staff, and the CityBus placed in the city centre on Jubilee Square where individuals could report crime or receive treatment, and was serviced by St Johns Ambulance Staff and PCSOs.

·         Officers were exploring a digital platform to provide people with information on safe ways home, but by being careful not to ghettoise certain areas of the city.

·         There had been success in getting Changing Futures funding. £3.5million was applied for and £2.6million was obtained. The funding would be used taking the street lifestyle approach to ensure support mechanisms were in place for people with multiple disadvantages, to VIP fast track people to get the help and support they need.

·         The Safer Leicester Partnership 3-year plan was available on the Council’s website. The focus for 2021 was around women’s safety, what types of issues were being faced and in a partnership context identify a set of actions.

·         The Safer Streets Fund Round 3 was being specifically focussed around increasing the safety of public spaces of concern for women and girls. £424k out of a total bid of £500k was focussed on the city, for example, in parks extra lighting, CCTV, cutting back shrubbery.

·         Demographic data on offenders and victims of sexual offences was regularly provided by the police, and an example was shared on screen and would be shared with Members of the Committee after the meeting. It was noted that women were predominantly the victims and perpetrators were predominantly men.

In response to the report presentation, Members made the following observations:

·         A powerful statement had been put out previously by Councillor Rita Patel about the safety of women in the city following the reported death of Sarah Everard. It was felt the tone of the report had watered down the statement made by the Assistant Mayor. It was further noted that the report should refer to survivors and not victims. There was also a question around consultation with women, particularly those survivors and how they experienced lack of safety in the city and what it felt like for them. It was also felt the report did not cover the persistent under-reporting of crimes, or the preventative action that a woman took daily to keep herself safe that men would not have to consider, therefore the scale of the actual problem was lost.

·         There was a gulf between stated aims and what was actually being done that needed to be closed.

·         The onus of the measures in the report fell on women to keep themselves safe, where it was male perpetrated violence and a problem with their attitude and misogyny. With regards to under reporting, it was noted only 10% of incidents of abuse were ever reported which reduced lower and lower depending on the severity of the crimes, and whilst what had been created were more ways for women to report issues, the onus was still on women to do so. Changing behaviour was welcomed which would be the seismic change that was needed.

The Officer said it was unfortunate Members had not felt the report had come across as proactive, which it was meant to do. It was stated the partnership effort was being built upon to create something meaningful, to bring all strands of support together. Also, with regards to under reporting, more data had been received from the Police, and conversations had been had around to ensure the hate crime category of misogyny was being captured.

The Deputy City Mayor took on board comments made and noted that under reporting was one of the areas that needed to be worked upon. The meeting was informed there were working groups set up in different parts of the council and agencies to work with young people and family services, safe home services, domestic violence intervention service. Updates on the report would be brought to the Committee on a regular basis.  He added that the aspiration was to make women feel safe in parks, the city, pubs and clubs, to make the city a safe place to enjoy with family members.

In response to further comments from Members, further information was provided to the meeting:

·         It was further noted that as part of Leicester City Council’s domestic violence work, the authority was one of only a few undertaking perpetrator work. It had been found the service was getting a series of victims from the same perpetrator who needed to change their behaviour.

·         There was also an opportunity for the city to look at the night-time economy and safety of women. There was an opportunity to bid for some funding towards the end August to support the work.

·         There were a number of safe spaces created, such as the bus stations and some of the night clubs where people could go to, to feel safe and was looking to be extended. Security staff in night clubs would also be trained to help spot the signs to help individuals.

·         Partners and agencies were working with schools to educate young people.

·         The Bystander Programme was information for people on what to do to report issues or assist people there and then to support an individual.

·         There were lots of hard infrastructural measures in place or planned, and softer measures to change behaviours.

·         With regards to the night-time economy, officers would explore the use of late night buses in the city, which had been used in the past.

·         Members asked that more focus be made on what people felt about certain spaces and areas that made them feel intimidated, that the discussion process be led by women specifically how they felt about safety in the city, for spaces to be mapped and for them to lead on works.

·         A workshop should be held in every ward to let people know the Council was taking women’s safety seriously.

Members asked how the data on domestic violence and sexual abuse across the city had been collated and could it be broken down in terms of ward areas, and a breakdown of the calls from men / women. It was further asked that as the authority was one of the few areas that had a perpetrators programme, how was it impacting on the reporting of domestic violence, and how were the Council utilising the community resources across the city. It was noted there were great community relations across the city. It was asked if the Council and partners were tapping into those resources, skills and connections in different communities to raise awareness of reporting methods, and not just relying on the victim to report issues.

Councillor Russell, Deputy City Mayor (Social Care and Anti-Poverty) suggested it would be useful to bring a whole report on domestic violence and sexual abuse services to the Committee, as the topic deserved a full report and not just an addendum to the programme. The Chair welcomed the suggestion for a full report which would be factored into the Committee’s work programme.

The Chair said he felt that one area that was not given enough attention was the education of young people and youth work, and that there needed to be huge focus on working with young people about issues, violence, demeaning women, and the whole attitude problem amongst young people and adults about how they see women.

The Chair added he hoped when the subject was revisited in December 2021, longer term work with young people was a priority for the Safer Leicester Partnership. He looked forward to hearing about practical issues and outcomes, and extended an invitation to women to come and speak at the meeting.

The Chair thanked the officer for the report, everybody involved and Members’ comments. He added the Committee would be scrutinising the Police and Crime Commissioner at some stage to ask whether it was a priority.

AGREED:

1.    That the report be noted.

2.    Demographic data on offenders and victims of sexual offences would be shared with Members of the Committee.

3.    A further report to be brought to the meeting of the Committee in December 2021.