Doncaster men urged to lead battle against violence to women and girls

Yesterday marked the launch of a new national framework for the police response to violence against women and girls.

The framework has been developed by a taskforce of top experts from across the country, including South Yorkshire Police' s Violence Against Women and Girls strategic lead Natalie Shaw, and is built around three key pillars of building trust and confidence, pursuing perpetrators and creating safer spaces.

While the framework has been created to tackle male violence against women and girls, Natalie said it is important to differentiate between the men causing the problem and the ones who will be a welcome part of the solution.

"We don't want to alienate our male friends and colleagues - they are very much a part of the solution," she explained.

"It's about creating male upstanders rather than bystanders. There's nothing more powerful than a male challenging misogynistic behaviour. Men can start those conversations at work, in the pub, at the football match and call out another man for his behaviour or lack of respect towards women.

"If a man is prepared to stand up and say something isn't acceptable, that's when we start to see the societal change."

The new national framework - entitled 'Policing Violence Against Women and Girls - National Framework for Delivery: Year 1' is the first part of a three-year plan. In this first 12 months, the focus is on coordinating and standardising the policing of VAWG.

In years two and three, the focus will broaden into the wider community and criminal justice partnership approaches needed to deliver sustainable change and radically reduce the prevalence of this societal issue.

Here in South Yorkshire, plans are already well underway for the development of a local delivery plan based on the national framework. Working groups have been set up to explore each of the three pillars within the framework and the action that can and should be taken both within the force and in our communities.

"Lots of great things are happening across policing which have been recognised, this is about coordination and consistency," said Natalie.

"It's about looking at how we deal with people in a much more empathetic way and understanding where we have gone wrong in the past."

Part of this will be engaging and listening to women and girls who have experienced male violence here in South Yorkshire.

An Independent Advisory Group (IAG) will be launched in the New Year, and the force will also be creating scrutiny panels to look closely at investigations that have previously failed to achieve a criminal justice outcome, to better understand the reasons why. I

n addition, the force will be approaching victims who have been unwilling to engage with investigations in the past, to find out more about why they couldn't support a prosecution and learn what more police can do to support them through the process.

Also on the to-do list in the next 12 months is to make better use of existing police powers that can further protect women and girls and disrupt offending, such as domestic violence, stalking and harassment protection orders.

Natalie said: "There's got to be a real focus on preventative measures, using the powers available to us to prevent violence against women and girls. Then when they're breached, we need to make sure we make the right response and victims get the right support."

Natalie added: "While violence against women and girls cannot be tackled by policing alone, we at South Yorkshire Police are determined to play our crucial part. I will be looking for support, feedback and suggestions from our communities here in South Yorkshire - both men and women - as we make this happen."