The Home Secretary has launched a new, multi-year national communications campaign which says ‘Enough’ to violence against women and girls.
The campaign includes television adverts, billboards, social media and radio advertising, and will highlight different forms of violence against women and girls and the simple acts anyone can take to challenge perpetrators of abuse.
Forms of violence against women and girls represented include street harassment, coercive control and workplace harassment.
The campaign was informed by the 180,000 responses to the Call for Evidence last year. This multi-year campaign will also include communications to educate young people about healthy relationships and consent and ensure victims can recognise abuse and seek support.
It has been developed with an advisory group comprising over 30 voluntary sector organisations, survivors and academics who have given their expert insight. The latest findings in behavioural science have also been used, including the role of peers and wider society in influencing people’s actions, and the importance of providing simple, clear options to overcome the barriers people can have to challenging abuse.
It comes as the Home Secretary, National Police Chiefs’ Council and College of Policing (HMICFRS) confirm that they are accepting and implementing all of the recommendations made by HMICFRS in their violence against women and girls inspection.
The inspection, commissioned by the Home Secretary last year, recommends:
Home Secretary, Priti Patel, commented: “For too long, the responsibility of keeping safe has been on the shoulders of women and girls. This campaign says enough, and recognises it is on all of us to demand major societal change. Everyone has a stake in this.
“Our new campaign shows that everyone can play a role in challenging abuse and making our country a safer place. By accepting all of the recommendations in the HMICFRS report I commissioned last year, the government and the police are doubling down to support victims and survivors and punish perpetrators.”
Deputy Chief Constable, Maggie Blyth, said: “The last year has seen some tragic and shocking incidences of violence against women and girls. There have been abhorrent examples of abuse or misogyny by police officers.
“The government’s decision to make tackling violence against women and girls a strategic policing requirement reinforces the commitment already made by police chiefs to prioritise making women and girls safer.”
Andrea Simon, Director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition (EVAW), argued: “We welcome this campaign to tackle male violence against women and girls. We can’t end this abuse without addressing the unacceptable attitudes and behaviours that minimise and normalise it.
“The End Violence Against Women Coalition has called for a public campaign since 2018, and it’s clear that this type of campaign must be long-term, properly funded and shaped by specialist organisations including those led by and for Black and ‘minoritised’ women.
“It’s really important to engage men and boys in this conversation, because violence against women and girls is everyone’s business and we should all be able to take action and hold each other accountable.”
