Agenda and draft minutes

Everyone was welcomed to the meeting and introductions made around the screen and the room.  Apologies were received from Morcea Walker, Cllr Rosie Humphries, Rachel Packman, Cllr Cathrine Russell, Tina Collett and Anjona Roy.

The Minutes of the last meeting were agreed to be a true record.

DCI Nickie Deeks, Northamptonshire Police lead for VAWG

DCI Nickie Deeks introduced herself as the Force lead for VAWG (Violence Against Women and Girls) which included sex workers and domestic abuse.  She also oversaw paedophile and online offences.

Northamptonshire Police consulted with the public every 3 years to help determine the 4 main Matters of Priority.  They were:-

Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG)

Drug Harm

Serious & Organised Crime

Serious Violence

Females were disproportionately affected by violence and the Force were committed to creating an environment that women and girls feel safe in and this included internally within the Police Force.  These were looked at nationally under 3 pillars

1 Build trust and confidence

This included challenging misogyny internally, working with other organisations, working with people who report, safeguarding through the justice system and making sure the right officers were in the right place.  There was a dedicated Rape Team, all DCs, co-located with the Domestic Abuse (DA) Team/Child Abuse Team under the Vulnerable Persons umbrella.  Work was currently underway to set up an exploitation hub.

There was a lot of community engagement with use of the Beat Bus, work in schools, internal review to police response to all offences to make sure everything possible was done, updating processes for vetting of Officers at recruitment and re-checking.

Partnership working included working with social care, Sexual Assault Referral Centres (SARC), Northampton Rape Crisis (NRC) etc.  It wasn’t possible to solve these issues by working in silo.

Victim survivors highlight areas where agencies can do better and one even produced a video for police training.  Everyone needs to use trauma informed processes.  New officers upwards received vulnerability training

2 Relentless perpetrator pursuit

Targeting the most dangerous perpetrators, groomers and sex offenders, better use of police powers.  Rape was the most difficult to investigate and sometimes the evidence does not meet the threshold for prosecution but they can look at what else they can do with the perpetrator, sometimes it was nothing, but maybe a Sexual Risk Order or DV Protection Order in which case if they breached they would be back in court.  All rapes were reviewed to see if there was anything that could have been done better.  Once someone had been the victim of rape they were much more likely to become a victim again.  They had adopted a trauma informed process and there was a need to recognise that people do not react to a situation in a single way.  Victims were fully safeguarded.  The top 10 offenders were identified –other teams were made aware of who they were and see who else could get evidence, look to see if anything had changed.

Top 10 victims were also identified – make sure they are safeguarded and signposted.  Look to see if  anything had changed with them.

Interview review – have a theme each month, the review would be carried out from the rank of Inspector up.  Find out how the victim felt, review everything all the different teams have done and learn from it.

3 Safer spaces  ...  view the full minutes text for item 74.

Annabel (C2C) – reminded everyone of C2C’s Women’s Centre in Kettering – look on the website for courses and how to refer.  Also the Shine Girl programme which could be delivered in schools.

April (Creating Equalz) – the Black and brown women’s DA meeting had been that morning.  Members were very committed to what they were doing and fed into WNC’s Domestic Abuse & Sexual Violence strategy.  Creating Equalz were delivering a fourth recovery toolkit with Divya supporting.    Also supporting Mavis to work through the toolkit so she could deliver the programme in November with April supporting.  Links to the podcasts were on the website.

Chris (Women’s Institute) – WI were running a Campaign to raise awareness of ADHD and Autism in women and girls. To try and make it easier to get earlier diagnosis and funding at a local level.  Dawn added they were looking at other ways of supporting women with autism than in a  room by looking to the green spaces and walking / talking.  Annabel offered Dawn C2C’s allotment as a green space.

Julie (Emmanuel Church)  – informed the group of the GoodSam app - link GoodSAM (goodsamapp.org), which was used by ambulance service, most police forces and fire.  The public could live stream videos of incidents straight through to police.   From a medical point of view, cardiac arrest cases had 2 times survival rate and police had 3 times higher arrest rates using this method.

Mavis (Power of the Mind) – ladies chat sessions continued.  April had delivered 3 sessions and the invite was out for other speakers.  They used a holistic approach for DA survivors around mental health, and wellbeing.  About to start a Healthy Heart Campaign in mid-August doing blood pressure tests to see if people were at risk then sending the info to their GP for follow up.  Black women were more pre-disposed to heart problems.  They had managed to secure a community space and were moving into Springs Centre on 1^st April.

Neelam (IHWO) Chia & Chat and walk & talk were a lifeline to many ladies.  They had entered the Bloom Neighbourhood competition with judging on 16 August.  A charity was chosen each year to raise money for and this year it was Northampton Association for the Blind (NAB) as they had been inspired by a staff member – if you want to donate, get in touch.  India Independence Day flag raising on 15 August.  Diwali was still going ahead despite the Market Square not being available and would be on Saturday 4 November – look out for further information nearer the date.

Debs (WNC) – there was now a community events page on the WNC website as well as the newsletter – let Debs know of any content to add.  Calendar of events | West Northamptonshire Council (westnorthants.gov.uk)

Debbie (WNC) – the Women’s Business Networking meetings were close to realisation and would be delivered in partnership with Patricia Greaves, Senior Information Manager, Business & IP Centre, Central Library.  These meetings would  ...  view the full minutes text for item 75.

Serious Violence Duty – Vicki Martin

No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF)

Tuesday 26 September, 11am, in the Jeffrey Room, The Guildhall and on Teams