Some good news I read about on the Home Office website and I repeat the gist of it here:
A new intelligence-led national policing centre will put the experiences of victims of child sexual abuse, rape and sexual offences, domestic abuse and stalking at the heart of police investigations – backed by more than £13 million of government funding.
The National Centre for VAWG and Public Protection, run by the National Police Chiefs’ Council and the College of Policing, will be based in Ryton and bring together around 100 officers and staff to prioritise tackling violence against women and children across England and Wales.
For too long, crimes disproportionately impacting women and girls, such as domestic abuse and grooming gangs, have not been met with the specialist response they require.
Police efforts to tackle these crimes will now benefit from a national coordinating function – a specialist capability usually reserved for counterterrorism and serious and organised crime – making sure victims get a consistent level of support regardless of where they are in the country.
The government has been clear it will prioritise protecting women and children from these harms as part of our commitment to halve violence against women and girls in a decade through our Plan for Change. This new policing centre will ensure that standards in tackling them are driven up across the country.
This funding builds on measures set out before Christmas to introduce Raneem’s Law and embed domestic abuse specialists in 999 control rooms, action to tackle spiking and stalking, as well as new measures to tackle the scourge of child sexual abuse, including mandatory reporting and increased funding for the Child Sexual Exploitation Police Taskforce.
Launching in April, the centre will build on existing areas of work to:
- roll out new quality training for police officers across the country in tackling violence against women and girls and child sexual abuse, implementing a manifesto commitment
- professionalise public protection work within policing so that future police leaders will all be expected to have built up experience and training in public protection roles
- deploy intelligence-led tactics used to target other serious offenders to pursue domestic abusers, rapists and stalkers
- work with the National Crime Agency to ensure that all forces are supported to respond to online child sexual abuse
- drive up investigative and operational standards across all 43 police forces in England and Wales in tackling these crimes
- train more police officers in the skills necessary to tackle violence against women and girls and child sexual abuse
- ensure the latest academic research informs investigative practices
This announcement aims to build confidence in victims to come forward to report crimes to the police, knowing they will receive the service they deserve.
Ken Hawkins 