PCD 1024 Women's Night Safety Charter

PART I - NON-CONFIDENTIAL FACTS AND ADVICE TO THE DMPC

1. Introduction and background
2. 2. The Women’s Night Safety Charter was developed to encourage local authorities, businesses, venues and other organisations to prioritise women’s safety. It comprises seven key pledges to improve women’s safety and perception of safety. The pledges are:
      
      1. Appoint a women’s night safety champion
      2. Provide regular communications to staff and customers about women’s safety
      3. Encourage reporting by victims and bystanders
      4. Provide information for staff and customers on how to report harassment
      5. Train staff to ensure everyone who makes a report is believed
      6. Train staff to ensure all reports are recorded and responded to
      7. Ensure public spaces are planned and designed to be safe at night
   3. The Charter is part of the Mayor’s Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy. It is championed and led by the Night Czar, with work supported by teams across the GLA family. It is part of London’s commitment to the UN Women Safe Cities and Safe Public Spaces global initiative.
   4. During the pandemic, the ability to engage and support those that had signed up to the Charter was limited. But the safety of women and girls on London’s streets was brought into sharp focus following the tragic deaths of Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman, Sarah Everard and Sabina Nessa.
3. 5. In Spring 2021, the GLA and MOPAC provided funding of £34,000 to Safer Business Network to: promote the Charter; encourage more organisations to sign up; re-engage existing signatories; and carry out research to understand what help businesses need to implement the charter.

• 6. The research included an online survey, one-to-one interviews and focus groups. It involved a wide range of business sectors. While it is not possible to pull data and statistics that demonstrate the impact of the charter. The headline findings of the survey demonstrate how signatories have improved their offer as a result of being involved in the WNSC. Highlights include:
• Four-out-of-five signatories have met their pledges to nominate a women’s night safety champion and demonstrate to staff and customers that their organisation takes women’s safety seriously.
• Over three quarters (89%) had taken steps to design their public spaces/workplaces to make them safer for women at night (outcome – increasing feelings of safety)
• Almost two thirds (64%) had fully implemented this pledge to train staff to ensure that all women who report concerns are believed and to ensure that all reports are recorded and responded to (outcome – women feel believed when reporting SA and that reports will be taken seriously)

The online survey also demonstrates where more work needs to be done to improve the WNSC offer:

• Just under half had developed a communications campaign to encourage reporting by victims and by-standers.
• A quarter of respondents requested more resources to support training and promotion of the objectives, including posters, leaflets, and interactive web-based tools.

• 51% of respondents stated they have not received any training on either sexual harassment, assault, welfare or vulnerability.
• Of those that had received training, 55% had only received internal, rather than accredited training.
• Two-thirds of signatories would welcome regular communications and mechanisms to share of best practice.
  
  7. The report includes six recommendations, based on the feedback of signatories:

• Brand: Create a unique Women’s Night Safety Charter brand and deliver a visible campaign with the charter at its centre. This will enable stakeholders to rally around and champion the charter within their own organisations and throughout their sectors.
• Communications: Deliver regular communications on the issue of women’s safety, as part of the charter campaign. This should be pro-active with a social media identity and hashtags amplifying the charter’s brand and allowing it to engage and resonate with its key audiences.
• Steering group: Set up a Women’s Night Safety Charter Steering Group to oversee the

development of resources, share best practice and provide a central point of communications with stakeholders. This will create greater ownership of the charter amongst signatories and support the evolution of the charter as a sustainable and potentially national initiative.

• Online resources: Create a bank of centralised online resources, including an interactive version of the existing toolkit, with signposting to downloadable resources and campaigns for signatories to use.
• Events and networking: Deliver networking opportunities, events and conferences to promote good practice and the work of other signatories as well as best practice initiatives such as Best Bar None, WAVE / Ask for Angela and Purple Flag which can play an important part in driving up standards and creating safer venues and public spaces at night.
• Training: Deliver high quality training, covering welfare, vulnerability and other themes, that help the wide range of signatories to implement the charter.
  
  8. Grant funding to the Safer Business Network is requested to implement the above recommendations. Bronze, silver and gold funding options have been developed, which deliver the recommendations at various levels.
  9. MOPAC’s investment would deliver the following objectives by December 2022:

1. Appointment of a dedicated full-time project manager responsible for: a continuous signatory recruitment drive through engagement with key stakeholder groups, including night time cultural venues, retail, public realm management organisations, London boroughs and universities; oversight of all aspects of the programme; and evaluation of its impact.
2. Creation of a Stakeholder Steering Group. This will increase signatories’ ownership of the charter and transfer responsibility for the evolution of the programme to the Group. This will increase the long-term sustainability of the charter and address the reduction in City Hall funding.
3. Safer Business Network CEO sourcing additional funding and developing partnership opportunities to leverage MOPAC’s investment in the programme.
4. Creation of a new online interactive toolkit is a priority for existing signatories. The toolkit will guide signatories through a series of practical ways to implement the charter. It will include downloadable resources and links to existing campaigns such as Ask for Angela, Best Bar None, Purple Flag and Report it To Stop It. The toolkit will be flexible, allowing new

content and resources to be added. Future developments could include sector specific resources and new police and safety advice in response to evolving threats.

5. Delivery of new, high quality online training events. These trainer-led events will cover all aspects of implementing the charter. They will build on the success of the welfare and vulnerability training programme WAVE, which Safer Sounds delivers on behalf of the Met police.
6. The training programme will include the creation of two new animated e-learning films. These standalone films can be used as a training resource by as many staff, within a signatory organisation, as required. This will increase the reach of the training beyond the limited numbers that are possible via the trainer-led events.
7. Creation of Women’s Night Safety Charter brand that will enable signatories and the Steering Group to rally around a visible campaign. This will play a crucial role in awareness raising and leveraging many more signatories than could be achieved without a visual identity. The brand will be communicated via events, e-newsletters and social media activity.
8. Branded networking events for signatories will enable knowledge and best practice sharing to increase the levels of charter implementation. They will provide opportunities for media activity to raise awareness of the charter and secure more signatories. They will create a sense of momentum around the campaign and ensure that the issue of women’s safety remains live and at the top of the agenda for business.

1. 10. The investment would deliver the following outputs and outcomes:

1. 11. With investment and a strong brand, there is potential to develop the Women’s Night Safety Charter into a national initiative. Cardiff, Nottingham and Plymouth have so far expressed interest in adopting the charter. A national scheme would also make it easier to sign up large national chains that struggle to engage with regional projects.
2. Issues for consideration
   1. The overarching objectives and outcomes of this investment are: Objectives
      
      • To deliver on the Mayoral manifesto commitment to expand the Women's Night Safety Charter.
      • To increase the number of signatories to the charter, across all industries and all parts of London.
      • To create a network of signatories that are actively making London safer for women.
      • To help signatories, through training and resources, to implement the charter, making a real difference for women.

Outcomes

• • • Women feel believed when reporting sexual harassment and assaults to an organisation that has signed the Women’s Night Safety Charter. Women feel that the report will be taken seriously.
    • More business across London are confident implementing measures to improve the safety of women and increase reporting of sexual harassment.
    • Women report an increased feeling of safety when working, travelling or going out in London at night.
    • Bystanders who witness sexual harassment and assaults are more likely to report the incident when working for or visiting a premises that has signed the Women’s Night Safety Charter.
    • London is seen by its workers, residents and visitors as a city that takes women’s safety at night seriously.