Domestic abuse and violence against women and girls strategy 2024 to 2027

For the period of 2022 to 2023:

• there were 11,648 unique incidents of violence against women and girls. Of this total, 4,650 of them were identified as domestic abuse
• there were 738 incidents of rape and other sexual offences. 3,661 offences of violence without injury, 1,334 of violence with injury
• there was 1 reported incident of female genital mutilation, and this was included in the 23 reported honour base violence offences
• the ethnic group with the highest recorded offences for 2022 to 2023 was White British with 3,542 (42%) occurrences, followed by “not stated” with 3,499 (41%) and then Pakistani 359 (4%)
• the age bracket with the highest number of victims is 30 to 39 age group with 3,095 incidents- this is followed by 20 to 29 age group with 2,605 incidents and 40 to 49 age group with 2,264 incidents
• the majority of suspects and offenders are male. 7,839 (79%) have their gender listed as male with 1,968 (20%) as female and the remaining 1% unknown
• more than half of victims of VAWG offences during 2022 to 2023 have been affected on more than one occasion - a few victims identified have been victims in over 20 separate incidents

Some national issues will be considered alongside our priorities to inform the Domestic Abuse Partnership Board Delivery Plan.

A Draft Delivery Plan is included in Appendix One and includes Year One actions only Two current factors are detailed below but others may be considered and agreed by the Board.

The Government has placed new duties on a range of agencies to work collaboratively to prepare a strategy for preventing and reducing serious violence (Violence Against Women and Girls National Statement of Expectations, GOV.UK).

When defining the scope of these strategies, local areas will be able to consider whether to include domestic abuse and sexual offences along with other types of serious violence.

This Domestic Abuse & VAWG strategy and its accompanying delivery plan will dovetail with the new countywide Serious Violence Strategy 2024 to ensure joint working to tackle serious violence in Buckinghamshire. View the Buckinghamshire Serious Violence Response Strategy.

The Sound of Silence Report, produced by Safelives, developed a series of workshops on the theme of ‘harmful masculinity’ among men and boys. These workshops provided a way to engage young people, and young men specifically, in direct conversations about healthy relationships, and the way that harmful ideas about masculinity negatively impact their lives. Recommendations from this report are as follows:

• The RSE curriculum should include more topics relating to boys’ needs specifically, in a way that is relevant to their age group. Boys should be taught how to combat forms of toxic masculinity in their own lives.
• Communications need to be tailored: Boys should be encouraged to support their friends and ‘keep them in check.’ Boys needs to understand what is and isn’t appropriate and call out their friends if they cross the line.
• Training programmes on masculinity should be aimed at sports teams and associations

The Sound of Silence Report states that only 58% of teachers interviewed said they have had sufficient training to teach RSE effectively. 14% have received no training at all.

Only half of young people agreed or strongly agreed that RSE classes gave them a good understanding of toxic or unhealthy relationships.

In October 2023 the Buckinghamshire Domestic Abuse Board delivered a workshop with key partnership organisations to inform the development of our joint priorities and give their support in the development and completion of them.

Stakeholder engagement has continued throughout the development of this Strategy and the accompanying draft delivery plan with regular opportunities for comment and contribution. All partners support this strategy and acknowledge their key roles in delivering its Priorities.

The agencies that participated in the workshop included:

• Buckinghamshire Council (Community Safety, Public Health, Housing, Legal & Democratic Services)
• Wycombe Women’s Aid Aylesbury Women’s Aid
• Sexual Assault and Abuse Support Service Bucks & Milton Keynes Rape & Sexual Abuse Support Service South Buckinghamshire SAFE!
• Thames Valley Police Probation Service
• Wycombe Homeless Connection Oxford Health NHS Trust
• BOB Integrated Care Board Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust Local Criminal Justice Board
• One Recovery Bucks

Organisations that were unable to attend have had the opportunity to feed into this strategy.

At the Buckinghamshire Domestic Abuse Board Stakeholder Workshop, the multiagency partnership met to review and conclude the outgoing 2021 to 2024 strategy and evaluate performance against the 4 priorities.

Produced at the workshop was:

• a summary of key achievements referenced on figure 2 of the PDF
• a SWOT analysis of the existing Domestic Abuse and Violence Against Women and Girls offer in Buckinghamshire with stakeholder evaluation of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, referenced on figure 3 of the PDF
• a list of ambitious priorities for 2024 to 2027, recognising that these may need to evolve or change in response to emerging trends and the economic landscape

Throughout December 2023 to February 2024, the Buckinghamshire Domestic Abuse Board conducted face to face meetings and focus groups with a range of individuals.

In December 2023, the Lived Experience Forum was consulted on what they regard as top priorities and in January 2024, service users from our commissioned specialist services were engaged with. This included male and female clients.

In order to listen to the voices of children and young people, the SASH service were consulted too. All this feedback has been considered in the development of this strategy to ensure that service user views and experiences are represented within our priorities.