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Violence Against Women Update
The Violence Against Women Working Group
The VAW Working Group and Sub-groups have not met since the last Commissioners meeting, the last meeting was on 10 October 2007, and the next meeting is due to take place Wednesday 16 January 2008.
In the next meeting the group are due to discuss:
Forced Marriage
Q&A on prostitution
And are due to receive talks from
Sarah Morgan from GEO, who now has a regular slot in the meeting
Helen Musgrove and Martyn Henderson who both work on Public Service Agreements (PSAs). Helen will be talking specifically on PSA 23 which concerns sexual violence and Martyn will talk about GEO PSAs and equalities across the PSAs generally.
Joyce will be attending the Sexual Violence Policy monitoring sub group at the meeting in January.
Making the Grade
The individuals who are scoring departments responses met at Ashdown House on Wednesday 21 November. They are making good progress with the scoring although not all of the departments have submitted their responses.
They are hoping to launch Making the Grade 2008 in February.
National Service Standards on Domestic and Sexual Violence
The National Service Standards are still ongoing. The Group have now met five times to develop the standards, most recently on 29 November 2007. They are working on a final draft which they hope to send out for consultation in January. This will be done via an online consultation ready to be completed by the end of January.
Correspondence
Liz Kelly and Joyce Gould received an invitation from Barbara Follet to talk about the Victim's Fund. This meeting is due to take place in February
On 13 December 2007, EVAW representatives are attending a meeting with Harriet Harman to discuss EVAW.
The WNC are in the final stages of drafting a letter congratulating the Crown Prosecution Service on their VAW Strategy.
Consultations
Members of the VAW group will be meeting to discuss a response before the next meeting in January.
WNC staff have attended the following meetings/conferences:
Womankind launch of `Challenging Violence', their report on VAW education in school
A speaker on the `Swedish Model of Prostitution' at the House of Commons
Women's Aid launch of `Kidspeak', their resources for children witnessing violence in their families.
Update on Maps of Gaps
The report by EVAW and EHRC which outlines the post-code lottery of VAW support services was launched on Wednesday 28 November 2007. The study uses actual geographic maps which chart the geographic location and distribution of services.
There was good broadcast coverage including BBC Breakfast, GMTV, Radio 5 Live and lots of good media in the Nations & Regions. There was less coverage in the national papers.
It has now been reported that this issue is now firmly on the agenda of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, a key target for EVAW. Trevor Phillips has called VAW an 'undeclared war on women' and on BBC Breakfast gave a very clear warning to the worst local authorities that the Commission will be monitoring whether they take action and taking legal action if they don't.
Minster for Women's Priority Consultation
The WNC recently sent a letter to Harriet outlining the top issues raised in the consultation and inviting her to meet with relevant Ministers on these issues.
The draft consultation report is still ongoing.
It now seems likely that Harriet Harman will make a statement on her priorities in January.
WNC/07/5/07
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