Plans unveiled to protect Cambridgeshire's women and girls from violence
The Police and Crime Commissioner announced the plans, as the Government commits to halving abuse against women and girls within a decade
As the Government looks to halve violence against women and girls within a decade, the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough has unveiled plans to tackle the issue more locally.
The current PCC, Darryl Preston, has placed a special focus on early intervention and prevention of abuse against women and girls in his Police and Crime Plan.
Preston said: "The long-term emotional and psychological impact of this kind of violence is devastating. This is why we are leaving no stone unturned."
The Police and Crime Plan includes the expansion of existing initiatives, such as Businesses Against Abuse (BAA), which teaches staff in businesses how to spot predatory behaviour before it escalates.
BAA was initially rolled out in Peterborough and Fenland but will now come into force across the county.
Mandy Geraghty, CEO of Peterborough Women's Aid, praised the expansion of the scheme, saying: "There are some things that members of the public can do to intervene if they feel that a woman or a girl is in danger.
"For example, simply asking if that person is okay, do they need any support, and then reporting any such behaviours is really important."
However, Geraghty has also called for there to be longer-term funding for violence prevention, not just one-off initiatives.
Geraghty praised the police's scheme which aims to contact median-risk victims of abuse within 24 hours, calling it "a real positive and innovative approach to ensuring that support services are available to those victims immediately after a domestic abuse offence."
Several schemes to address violence against women and girls in Cambridgeshire were already in place before the Police and Crime Plan, including a Multi-Agency Stalking Intervention Project, which provides one-to-one support for high-risk perpetrators of stalking, and gives them access to a Stalking Consultant Psychologist.
The PCC's office says that in a recent case, a man with 20 years of domestic abuse and stalking offences underwent 10 sessions as part of this scheme, and has since found a job, reduced his drug use and fully complied with the requirements of his probation order.
Geraghty said Peterborough Women's Aid welcomes this scheme. "This is vitally important because we know that stalking and harassment can often lead to the most extreme forms of violence, including domestic homicide."