Respect CEO Jo Todd CBE was pleased to be invited to join the Prime Minister and the Cabinet at Pinewood Studios yesterday as he launched his Plan for Change. Sharing her reflections on the day, Jo said:
"We were pleased to see the government re-state its commitment to halving violence against women and girls in a decade in the Plan for Change, and that they identify “reducing offending, intervening early, supporting victims and driving societal change” as the key aims.
"It was disappointing that the Prime Minister didn’t take the opportunity to mention VAWG in his speech. We will be pushing to ensure this issue is given the priority it deserves and look forward to seeing bold action as well as strong words.
"We welcome the commitment to place 13,000 extra police officers, PCSOs and special constables into neighbourhood policing roles – and strongly suggest that at least a quarter of these are trained as domestic and sexual violence specialists. We welcome the commitments to early intervention and social change – this will need dedicated engagement and action from all government departments and statutory agencies within a whole system approach.
"We stand ready to work with the government in order to achieve their goal to halve VAWG, and will be submitting a blueprint for stopping perpetrators of domestic abuse to Phase 2 of the Comprehensive Spending Review in the new year. Long term funding is urgently needed if we are to see a response that matches the scale of the problem and indeed the scale of the government’s stated ambition."
