Bruce George MP today welcomed the government’s announcement of a new ambitious strategy aimed at tackling violence against women and girls. The new ‘Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy’ marks a greater focus by the government to prevent such violence from happening. As part of the strategy schools will include in personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education lessons on preventing violence in relationships. This will be accompanied by a high profile marketing campaign.

Speaking today Bruce said:

“I am glad to see that the government is taking a more joined up approach to this vitally important issue. It is extremely important that all the relevant bodies, whether local councils, the NHS, the police and government departments work together to see that violence is prevented as much as possible, and that where it does occur there are sufficient specialist services in place to help and support the victims.

As part of this new strategy the government will be encouraging local authorities to appoint a Violence Against Women and Girls champion at Director level, and I would encourage Walsall Council to follow government advice and appoint someone as soon as possible to better ensure Walsall can provide excellent services in this area.”

Bruce added:

“The Council’s record on domestic violence isn’t very good. For the last few years the resources allocated to Walsall Domestic Forum have been significantly reduced, forcing cuts in services. I suppose the Council are currently considering next year’s budget for the Forum and will be thinking about cutting it again – it was halved last year! If you look at the statistics it is pretty obvious that during the current economic crisis the number of cases of violence within the family has been on the increase and the Christmas and New Year holiday will also see an increase in cases if previous years are any indicator. So now is not the time to be considering cutting funding. I just hope the Council will protect the very many vulnerable members of our town by enabling this excellent service to survive.”