Contents

Current Work

Delivery of the objectives within the previous Strategy were carried out in partnership with both statutory and non-statutory partners to ensure best effectiveness.

 There was an additional £17.7million MOPAC investment in Pan-London voluntary support services, including prevention education and specialised response services for victims and survivors. These organisations offer various projects which can be utilised in Bexley to achieve these aims, such as in-school awareness sessions and national helplines. 

Existing Bexley commissioned services will also be used to tackle VAWG, such as Solace. We will continue to identify and explore pre-existing services and to ensure residents are aware of the offers available to them, in order to make best use of resources.

A key partner in this work is local policing. The MPS have developed their own MPS VAWG Action Plan and 10 Commitments and one of their key goals is to act to re-build confidence and trust in the police and criminal justice system, to ensure victims and survivors are supported and empowered to get the justice they deserve.

Various mechanisms have been developed to make reporting to the police more accessible, including online location pinpointing via StreetSafe and the Walk and Talk scheme. 

The Night Safety Charter

The London Borough of Bexley has signed up to the Night Safety Charter, which includes championing and communicating to the public women’s night safety, encouraging reporting and training staff on how to respond to reports. 

In delivering the objectives contained therein, we work with Licencing, local venues, the police and voluntary organisations, such as Street Pastors, to maintain an awareness and preparedness for safety in the night-time economy. This includes violence against women and girls, being a main form of abuse taking place at night, including offering the Welfare and Vulnerability Engagement (WAVE) training and Ask for Angela resources.

Similarly, we have developed a VAWG training programme consisting of a series of 1-hour bitesize webinars and workshops, covering prominent themes and issues needing attention and awareness, and available to both professionals, partners, and residents.

There is also a pre-existing training programme under the domestic abuse provision, which does include training on other forms of VAWG, such as stalking and harassment, honour-based abuse and Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), which are often but not always part of domestic abuse. 

  • Bystander Intervention workshop
  • Introduction to Violence Against Women and Girls webinar
  • Misogyny and Allyship workshop
  • Safe Spaces webinar
  • Sexual Exploitation webinar
  • Tackling Digital VAWG webinar
  • Understanding Consent workshop

We recognise that as we increase awareness of VAWG and support services, reporting is likely to increase and professionals need to be ready and able to support victims in a trauma-informed and person-centred way. 

The BCSP regularly consider gaps in training and needs, and jointly commission professional training to ensure professionals can effectively respond to community needs and concerns and crimes, and to safeguard vulnerable people. 
For example, we have commissioned an expert to train BCSP members on how to distinguish sex work from sexual exploitation, and how to safeguard in either one. 

The BCSP are piloting five projects to provide awareness, new opportunities and early intervention for victims, survivors, and people vulnerable to VAWG, including:

Women-only boxing and self-defence programme at local leisure centres

  •  This programme is free and available to women and girls 16+ who have experiences violence against women and girls and are looking for a space to increase confidence and resilience, improve their mental health and network, and to participate in a male-dominated sport.

In-school jujitsu sessions for girls and vulnerable boys

  • This programme is free and available to students under 16 as a school club and comprises single-sex jujitsu classes for girls and vulnerable boys, to improve their confidence and mental health. This is accompanied by safety talks from subject matter experts to raise awareness of risks and prevent escalation of risky behaviours into crime.

The expansion of the WAVE training offer to all premises 

  • in addition of licenced premises – to include retail, private and faith venues, to ensure confidence and readiness to response to situations of risk or where vulnerable people may approach them for help or identify them as a place of safety.

Rotating College Engagement Forums

  • This consists of partnership professionals attending a forum hosted by one of the four colleges in rotation where all students are invited to attend and share concerns, feedback, ideas and recommendations, and to obtain safety advice, information and resources. 

Belvedere pilot

  • This is an area targeted pilot in Belvedere funded by the Safer Neighbourhood Board to trial different actions and measure how they impact on safety and feelings of safety for women and girls, including the targeted training of businesses and local venues; awareness resources clearly visible; community engagement and awareness-raising; a community Walk & Talk; an Environmental Visual Assessment by a design-out crime officer; an area clean-up; and measures such as reporting QR codes in locations people feel more vulnerable in.

The BCSP has been co-ordinating VAWG reduction messages, not only promoting a zero-tolerance message and raising awareness of VAWG and VAWG services, but also promoting the good work done. This not only raises awareness but challenges the negative stereotypes of victimhood and increases trust that professionals are taking this seriously. 

A communication plan should consider how different demographics will best be able to access and connect to a message and think about different methods of targeting previously underreached groups. Messaging should be diverse, powerful, and persistent. This includes:

  • Social media
  • Press releases
  • Newsletters and Bexley Magazine
  • Leafleting and canvassing
  • Community engagement events
  • Community meetings  

As a partnership, we recognise the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence (25 November to 10 December, annually) is a key opportunity to raise awareness of VAWG-related issues and support. 

To demonstrate some of the work that has been ongoing, the partnership ran a local campaign in 2023, including:

  • online communications - a partnership awareness stall in our main shopping centre providing advice
  • information and resources to residents and businesses - ran our training programmes in these 16 days
  • organised three community women-only boxing sessions; hosted a Domestic Abuse Tech conference
  • ran an internal campaign for White Ribbon Ambassadors. 

Ongoing participation in the MOPAC VAWG Co-ordinators meetings and a BCU tri-borough VAWG meeting is used to share and learn from best practice among other local authorities and partnerships, and to ensure our messaging and work is aligned to achieve the best combined outcomes. The experiences and examples can be used as models and localised to deliver against this Strategy.