Agenda item

A period of up to one hour is allocated to consider the motions on notice.  This may only be extended with the agreement of the Council.

The Chairman advised that one motion on notice had been submitted for this meeting.

White Ribbon Campaign

The Council considered the following Motion on Notice submitted by Councillor R. J Hunter:

“Council fully supports the White Ribbon campaign and thanks our Community Safety officers for their tireless proactive work to end domestic abuse in our communities.

Council will continue to support the development of new ways to help victims and survivors of domestic abuse, including through the ‘cut it out’ initiative.

Council calls upon officers to explore the potential for formal recognition of our efforts to eradicate domestic abuse through official White Ribbon accreditation.”

Councillor R. J. Hunter proposed the Motion.  In doing so he referred to one in four women in England and Wales experiencing domestic abuse in their lifetime.  The Police responded to a domestic abuse call every 30 seconds.  The work undertaken by the Community Safety Team in collaboration with volunteers was vital in empowering women to get the help that they needed.  A presentation at a recent Overview and Scrutiny Board meeting had highlighted the Council’s work in this area and he gave examples of the initiatives supported by the Community Safety team.  He acknowledged that survivors of domestic abuse included male victims, but 93% of perpetrators were men.

Councillor Hunter considered that the Motion as proposed would demonstrate the Council’s strong support and show practical action as part of this.  The White Ribbon Campaign and accreditation would help give recognition to the team and volunteers and in a practical sense would assess whether the Council was doing all it could to make sure all its employees were safe.  He thanked officers and leading members for their support in bringing the Motion to Council.

The Motion was seconded by Councillor B. Kumar, who referred to awareness of the Campaign locally and across the world.  The incidence of domestic abuse related crimes had increased by 7.7% between 2021 and 2023.  Whilst the majority of cases were against women, women had also inflicted physical, emotional and psychological domestic abuse against men.  Overall, he suggested there was an issue of underreporting of domestic abuse, especially during the Covid pandemic.  In Bromsgrove, there were 30 cases in 2020-21 where the Council had been asked for assistance because an individual was being made homeless or was in fear of this. In 2022-23 there had been 27 approaches for temporary accommodation, and this had increased to 43 in 2023-24.

White Ribbon Day would begin on 16^th November and whilst it was welcome, Councillor Kumar suggested year-round initiatives should be carried out, including workshops, seminars and school-based education and establishing and promoting support services.  In his view the Council’s website could include links to relevant sources of support and information.  It would be important to monitor effectiveness of such programmes.

During consideration of the Motion the following points were made:

·        the White Ribbon accreditation process supported embedding a culture in an organisation and many Councils had become accredited; the Council should support this.

·       since the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 the Council had been obliged to provide a co-ordinator for domestic abuse; this post was in Bromsgrove District Housing Trust (bdht) and in practice this role worked very well.  The officer worked with various community groups to raise awareness and included school visits.

·       the statistics provided during the debate had illustrated that progress still needed to be made.  Achieving white ribbon accreditation was crucial to ensuring Council employees felt safe and secure in their working environment.

·       the view was expressed that the issue was wider than domestic violence and should be about all violence against all women.  Educating younger men about appropriate behaviour was an important part of the initiative.

·       the Motion was timely as the European Football Championships would begin in June and there was a risk of increased domestic abuse around the time of the competition.

·       domestic abuse was endemic, and conversations should include all generations in the community.

·       the community safety team worked with many groups on prevention of domestic abuse, but more could be done, and the Campaign provided a good framework for this.

Having been put to the vote the proposal was carried unanimously.

RESOLVED that

1)    Council fully supports the White Ribbon campaign and thanks our Community Safety officers for their tireless proactive work to end domestic abuse in our communities;

2)    Council will continue to support the development of new ways to help victims and survivors of domestic abuse, including through the ‘cut it out’ initiative; and

3)    Council calls upon officers to explore the potential for formal recognition of our efforts to eradicate domestic abuse through official White Ribbon accreditation.