To receive the report of Jonathon Toy, Head of Community Safety.
Minutes:
Ivana Price, Head of Service, Young People & Community Safety and Cllr Gina Needs, Cabinet Member, Community Cohesion & Enforcement provided an introduction, noting that the report sets out background to the Mayor’s Women’s Night-time Safety Charter (WNSC) and the steps that businesses need to take to adopt the Charter as well as other key points that form core elements of support for women and girls if they feel unsafe in the area. The report also provides the outline of how and where officers intend to pilot the Charter as part of a long-term plan to expand it across the borough.
Jonathon Toy, Head of Community Safety highlighted key aspects of the report. The Women’s Night-time Safety Charter came into effect in 2018, following two successful projects in Lambeth and Southwark. The purpose of the Charter is to work with businesses to create safe environments and is part of the Mayor’s Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy and London’s commitment to the UN Women Safe Cities and Safe Public Spaces global initiative.
The Safer Business Network has been appointed by the Mayor’s Office to lead on the London wide Charter. The Network co-ordinates and administers Business Crime Reduction Partnerships (BCRPs) across London. The Charter sets out 7 Pledges that each business is required to work towards in order to create a safe environment for women and girls to both work and travel in.
All London Councils have signed up to the Charter with Enfield Council signing it back in 2022 and since then positive progress has been made (details of which are included on page 19 paragraph 2.9 of the agenda pack). The Council has taken the opportunity to refresh its overall approach towards this programme and to support this the Director of Public Health has recently taken on the role of Champion for women’s safety. The Council is now working on an action plan to ensure the 7 Pledges are being actively progressed, aligning with the pan London approach. The intention is to develop a Women’s Night-time Safety Charter for businesses across Enfield.
The approach is to include a number of elements within the Charter to maximise engagement including Safe Havens, which are a practical way for businesses to let people know that a form of support is easily available if they need help; Ask for Angela- a customer facing campaign which helps prevent and reduce sexual violence and vulnerability. It’s a code word which can be given to staff when a customer feels unsafe or threatened and allows them to access discreet help and WAVE- which is designed for those in a customer facing role, aimed to help identify vulnerability and put interventions in place to support those visitors coming to a business.
Speaking about the last two years, Jonathon explained that what hadn’t been done up until recently was to focus the attention on getting local businesses signed up to the Charter. A very small number of businesses have signed up, but it is certainly not the numbers hoped for and therefore it was felt that this was where the focus needed to be. Therefore, with the support of the Cabinet Member for Community Cohesion & Enforcement, Cllr Gina Needs, it was agreed that a pilot would launch in one particular area of the borough; namely the Fore Street and Edmonton Green areas, as this is where the highest level of street harassment and sexual abuse in Enfield is recorded. This location is also the key focus for the Operation Pisces footprint and provides the best opportunity to pilot the programme. In addition, Tottenham Hotspur Football Clun has already signed up to the Charter and is a key anchor institution in the area. The Club has offered their support in rolling out the pilot and offered facilities for networking events.
The intention is that the Council will fund the training programmes for interested businesses as part of the pilot. The aim is to offer a mixture of Face to Face and virtual training and a budget of £2500 has been identified to fund this.
The aim is to run the pilot for 6 months, commencing September 2024 and use the learning to expand the programme across the borough.
On Friday 27th September Council Officers plan to walk along Fore Street in Edmonton with female colleagues and Councillors connected to the campaign to get a sense of what is going on in the area, and all Members of the panel were invited to join this walk-about.
Questions were invited from the Panel.
In response to Members’ questions regarding how many businesses were currently signed up to the Safe Havens, Ask Angela and WAVE schemes in Enfield, Officers advised that numbers across the borough were disappointingly small, at just over single figures, therefore the aim is to encourage more local businesses to join these schemes and promote the services.
In response to Members’ queries regarding monitoring the progress of the programme, Officers advised that a WNSC task and Finish Group has been established to oversee the development and progress of the programme. This group includes representation from the Police, Solace Women’s Aid, Enfield Council Domestic Violence and Community Safety leads, Regulatory Services, Safer Business Network, Tottenham Hotspur Football Club and Enfield Council Commination leads. The group will also report to the SSCB Violence Against Women and Girls Board, which reports directly to the Enfield SSCB Board.
Members asked further questions about the roll out of the programme across the Borough, and whether local Business Association would be approached to help with this. Officers assured Members that this would most definitely be the case and welcomed any contacts that Councillors might have which could assist in future engagement.
In response to a question raised regarding what measures the Council has in place to support Councillors, especially women Councillors who may experience incidences from members of the public, Officers said that this was a point well made, and could be looked at as part of a refresh of the current action plan as it is important to ensure that it encompasses every woman, girl, Councillor or Council employee using any facility or visiting a Council building.
Ivana Price, Head of Service, Young People & Community Safety also referred to the White Ribbon Day Conference taking place on 25 November 2024, which marks the start of the 16 days of activism against Gender-Based violence. During these 16 days the LBE, alongside the BCU will be holding events with dedicated sessions for women, girls and employees about how to keep safe and Members were invited to attend these sessions. Alternatively, if Members were interested in a more bespoke session, outside of the 16 days of activities this could be considered. Cllr Needs suggested incorporating something into the Members Development Training Sessions and Officers agreed to look into this and feedback accordingly.
Action: Ivana Price/Stacey Gilmour.
Supporting documents: