Campaign to tackle violence against Merseyside women and girls

The #TakingAction campaign is focused on putting the voices of women and girls at the heart of the work to tackle the issue and sets out Serena Kennedy and Emily Spurrell’s determination to change things for the better.

It builds on the work over the last three years to prevent and reduce the violence and abuse women face every day in communities across Merseyside by acknowledging the scale of the ongoing issue in Merseyside.

It follows on from a survey carried out with approximately 4,000 women and girls to better understand how safe they feel in the places they live, work, and socialise.

The results show 71% of women still live in fear of sexual assault and 69% of women say they would not report an incident to the police.

#TakingAction is focused on ensuring there is a constant dialogue with women and girls on how partners can work together to combat it.

Merseyside Police Instagram post as part of The #TakingAction campaign, which aims to help end violence against women and girls (Image: Merseyside Police) As well as representing the views of women and girls across Merseyside, the first phase of the campaign focuses on some of the key initiatives and steps introduced by Merseyside Police to change these statistics and make women and girls feel safer across the region.

That includes the use of new measures to relentlessly pursue and target perpetrators, to improved reporting mechanism and to a greater focus on ensuring women and girls are given the support and action if they are victims of VAWG.

Campaign messaging will be featured prominently across the region, including across the transport network and in the night-time economy.

A giant ad van will also carry these messages around key locations in the region, while encouraging people to find out more about the work underway to prevent offences, protect women and girls and provide enhanced support.

Future phases of the campaign will focus on action being taken by the police, the PCC and community safety partners to prevent and tackle domestic abuse, followed by the other key VAWG threats, including rape and sexual assault, child sexual exploitation, tech-enabled VAWG, such as online stalking and harassment.

Each of these phases will be developed with key organisations working to support victim-survivors on Merseyside and be shared with partners across to maximise awareness and reach across the region.

Chief Constable Serena Kennedy said: “We have been working hard over the last three years to prevent VAWG and we continue to look at ways to improve our service to women and girls.

"Together, with partners, we’ve introduced a number of initiatives since we set out our strategy in 2022 including; working with schools to educate children on the impact behaviours can have on others and what is and isn’t acceptable, the launch of the ‘Safer Streets’ campaign, which focused on preventing sexual violence in the night-time economy, we regularly identify and proactively pursue perpetrators who pose a risk of harm to women and girls, we manage offenders, which includes education, prevention, diversion, disruption and enforcement tactics and we have implemented a perpetrator programme to identify and manage domestic abuse perpetrators.

“We will continue to listen to the voices of women and girls to understand what more policing can do to keep them safe and will put effective measures in place to respond to those fears and concerns."

Merseyside’s Police and Crime Commissioner Emily Spurrell said: “Women’s voices must be at the heart of our work to prevent, reduce and tackle the violence and abuse they face in our communities, day in day out.

"Our focus must be on doing everything possible to prevent it and showing that through the multi-agency VAWG Delivery Plan I launched in November 2022, there is a clear plan to make our region a safer place for all women and girls.

“We have made progress, but there’s much more to do.

"It’s vital that everyone who has a role to play in improving the safety of women and girls in our region is now focused on #TakingAction."