Support victims

We will work with the public, service providers and our partners to better understand the issues faced by women and girls, in different communities to provide a tailored response to victims and witnesses that empowers them and supports their individual needs. Regardless of whether they choose the criminal justice route or not.

We will work with victims and victim support services to understand issues affecting women and girls to improve our practice and invite scrutiny of our service through Independent Advisory Groups and Community Forums to ensure we improve access to our services and hear voices from communities who may not have a voice to enhance our response.

We will raise awareness internally and externally regarding the available protective measures and multi-agency arrangements that are in place to safeguard victims to build on the good practice developed around MARAC, MASIP and MATAC* and to maximise the safeguarding opportunities these present.

*Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Committee, Multi-Agency Stalking Intervention Programme, Multi-Agency Tasking and Co-ordination Committee.

We will develop our practice to ensure that there is a multi-agency focus on issues that affect women and girls. We will develop a shared understanding and cross partnership arrangements to reduce threat, risk and harm. We will promote what is available through a single portal to ensure support is accessible to all.

We will continue to develop our investigative response by capturing the victims experience through satisfaction surveys and case reviews to ensure that those with responsibility for investigating cases, are skilled in trauma informed practice, thereby, securing the best evidence from victims and witnesses to increase the chance of successful outcomes.

We will continue to develop new and innovative ways of working to identify threats and address hidden harm in partnership with national and local stakeholders. This will include tackling cyber enabled crime to reduce the harm caused to victims targeted online.