North Yorkshire Police has published its strategy to tackle the issue of violence against women and girls. The document is entitled: “Helping women and girls to feel safe and be safe”.
Chief Constable Lisa Winward said:
We are already working in line with the national policing approach to eliminating violence against women and girls but we wanted to demonstrate to the public of North Yorkshire and the City of York how we are putting this crime at the heart of what we do.
This issue is already a priority for action across the force and in the coming year we want to absolutely demonstrate our commitment to the safety of every woman and girl in our county.
We are committed to making the difference that the public expect from us as their police service.
We will focus on giving the public more visibility of what we are doing to keep them safe. We will work harder to incorporate the voice of women and girls into how we develop and deliver our services. We will work with our partners to better support women and girls to help them to feel safe and be safe.
In addition we will also be working to ensure that we provide an exemplary work environment that demonstrates the best of professional policing standards. That is important both for the public and for our people.
We will also be working in partnership with our Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner to support the development of her overall VAWG strategy for North Yorkshire and the City of York.
As part of this we will be working together to establish a systematic approach to surveying the public so that we can better track the impact of what we do on the level of public confidence and trust in our service.
This is one of the things which partners are seeking reassurance on so it is important that it is clear that the NYP operationally-focused strategy will form part of the overarching local VAWG strategy which is still in development.
North Yorkshire’s Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner, Zoë Metcalfe, has the ambition to establish an overarching strategy to tackle all issues involved with Violence Against Women and Girls across North Yorkshire and York.
Commissioner Zoë has the issue as one of her main priorities and is currently working with survivors, victims and partner organisations across North Yorkshire and York to develop the plan which it is hoped will be launched in the spring.
It will incorporate North Yorkshire Police’s operational strategy on Violence Against Women and Girls, released today (1 March 2022) following the National Police Chiefs’ Council’s new framework in December, and ensure there is an ambitious yet achievable series of actions that build on the innovative work already done but recognises there is much more to do.
Commissioner Zoë said:
I welcome the publication of this strategy today setting out how North Yorkshire Police intend to help women and girls to feel safe and be safe in our county. I recognise the work that has already been done to achieve that but accept there is still much to do.
This new operational strategy from North Yorkshire Police is an important part of that, but I am determined we make the conversation much broader and all-encompassing and that is what is currently happening. My team and I are already listening to victims with lived experience of these crimes and are working with organisations who support them, to assemble our joint strategy.
In the spring, I will be putting in place an overarching strategy which combines compassion and positive outcomes for victims, with a commitment to prevent harm before it happens.
Temporary Assistant Chief Constable Lindsey Butterfield, North Yorkshire Police, Publication of violence against women and girls strategy
The Published Document
