Appendix 2: Note of the informal meeting
with the Women's Aid Young People Advisory Panel
Overview of the meeting
A delegation from the Committee met with a group
of young people convened by Women's Aid on Wednesday 15 October
2014. The group was made up of 8 young people who were members
of Women's Aid Young People's Advisory Panel. The Committee delegation
comprised Virendra Sharma MP, accompanied by the Lords Clerk and
the Commons Clerk. The purpose of the visit was to provide members
with the opportunity to speak directly with young people who had
witnessed or experienced violence against women and girls or worked
within this area.
The young people attending the meeting had been recruited
onto the Women's Aid Young People's advisory panel in various
ways. Young people must submit an application form which meets
the following criteria: they are aged between 13-24; they have
experienced domestic violence at home and/or within their own
relationship/s; or be working with a specialist service for children
and young people. Women's Aid then interviews candidates and runs
reference checks. Two members of Women's Aid staff who work with
the young people attended the meeting and ensured that participants
felt able to contribute to the meeting. We are grateful to the
staff of Women's Aid for their support in arranging and facilitating
the meeting.
At the beginning of the meeting it was explained
that no names would be recorded, no formal transcript would be
taken and they did not have to answer any questions they did not
want to.
We are immensely grateful to the young people who
attended the meeting and spoke to us.
Key themes emerging from the discussion
Education
A few participants felt that there needed to be more
inclusion of VAWG within PHSE lessons. One participant felt that
PHSE, and the related teaching of what constitutes a healthy relationship,
needed to be taught throughout primary school as well as secondary
school using age appropriate techniques including play learning.
Another participant built on this, arguing that PHSE for older
children should include contact details for support services or
women's charities that young females could contact if they were
worried about their own relationship or within their family.
One participant felt that education needed to go
further in teaching healthy stereotypes for men and women: several
participants argued that young women grow up with a set of particular
beliefs about how men should behave to appear masculine and how
women should behave within a relationship based on their own parents
which may have been an abusive relationship. One participant argued
that, in the light of the examples some women may have from their
mothers, self-esteem should be included in PHSE.
Another participant argued that schools teach about
bullying and are willing to intervene in cases of bullying yet
are not willing to do the same for cases of domestic violence,
yet they argued it to be the same thing. This participant articulately
argued that domestic violence was just a form of bullying with
a label and so should be spoken about in the same lessons that
address bullying.
One participant argued that they would like to see
a big national campaign aimed at teaching children and young people
what a healthy relationship consists of. Other participants, however,
were cautious about how to implement such a campaign as whilst
many young people are on social media, there are still a lot who
aren't and those that are suffering or living in a family with
domestic violence are more likely to be closed off to the internet
than others. Other participants argued that the campaign could
be extended to be in libraries, parks, youth clubs, music festivals
and many other places that young people may go.
Culture within schools
Some of the young people we met talked about the
culture of sexual bullying at an early age within schools. A handful
of participants described situations they had witnessed where
sexual name calling or bullying had taken place yet the schools
had not picked up on it and it went unstopped. Participants felt
that this sexual name calling grew to become more focused sexual
bullying as the boys get older. They also argued that the name
calling normalises what the boys are doing, so young women do
not grow up knowing any different and young men do not understand
why it is wrong.
One participant argued the segregating girls and
boys in schools, e.g. for physical education, did not help break
down gender lines and reinforces to young people that men and
women are different.
Response and responsibilities of teachers
One participant thought that domestic violence, or
how to deal with young people witnessing abuse, should be included
within teacher training and all teachers should be able to respond
appropriately if a young person talks to them about these things.
Another participant said that she had talked to a teacher but
she realised afterwards that it had been 'the wrong teacher'.
We were concerned to hear that there could be a wrong teacher
to turn to for support.
One participant believed that having a member of
staff that was dedicated to helping children in vulnerable situations
or they could turn to talk to who was not a teacher would have
been beneficial. Other participants endorsed this view. Another
participant argued that there should be members of staff, again
not teachers, who act as class mentors and that explore why children
are acting up, or are someone that they could have gone into more
detail about what's happening at home with.
In discussions about whether school was appropriate
forum to have these discussions, and whether teachers should be
responsible for raising these topics with children, one participant
said that school may be the only safe place a young person knows
and may also be the place where they spend the majority of their
waking hours at. They believed that this meant that schools had
to play a role in actively teaching about violence against women
and girls and teachers needed to be prepared to act in a caring
capacity for vulnerable pupils. Other participants highlighted
why schools remained different to other potential services which
could try and speak to victims or families of violence against
women. They said that children would rarely go to a Dr's without
a parent accompanying them, and they were unlikely to have a rapport
or trust with the Dr.
One participant, however, argued that, despite all
the recommendations of the other participants, the biggest issue
regarding the response of teachers or other professionals is that
teachers can only help if they know there is a problem. Many children
themselves do not realise that what they are experiencing or witnessing
is wrong and so do not go to teachers for help.
Experience at universities or higher education
establishments
Some of the participants were over 18 years old and
talked about their experiences of the culture at university between
men and women. One participant, who went to a university in Nottingham,
described her freshers events as being characterised as sexist
and sexual stereotypes were used for events or marketing. She
also said that at university sexism was commonly disguised as
'banter' and was seen everywhere.
Another participant talked about support services
available for students who experience violence against women during
their time at university, or who may need help coming to terms
with things that happened to their family during childhood. This
participant argued that universities had greatly increased provision
for mental health services not for victims of domestic abuse.
Another participant argued that universities weren't doing enough
to support students who had been victims of gender based violence
and it was not featuring on the agenda of the universities.
Another participant argued that going away to university
created a safe place during term time, but that the student still
had to go back in the holidays and face an abusive father or home
life. They also raised the difficulty of being torn between university
and going home if their mother rang and said she was in trouble.
Support services
One participant argued that mothers were scared to
report domestic violence because they believed that social services
would remove any children from their care as a result. Participants
said that there was a stigma attached to social services which
meant victims did not realise the help that social services may
be able to give to the family.
Another participant said that shelters provide an
opportunity for somewhere to go if the police fail them and they
have no family to go to. She also said that a shelter has a benefit
for the victim as there are other women to share experiences with.
Police and the Criminal Justice System
"Services that are meant to protect us should
start protecting us"—17 year old victim. This statement,
from one of the participants, sums up the views of all the participants
regarding their own experiences with the police and the criminal
justice system.
One participant felt that, as a young person, she
would not be taken seriously by the police and another participant
said that when they told the police, the officer said that the
girl must have misremembered the details. Participants said that
young people mistrusted the police and that as victims, they had
felt looked down on by the police they had encountered. One participant
who had been found a safe place by the police, then felt let down
as the then had practically no contact from the police to make
sure that they were ok and to follow up the case.
Several participants gave examples of how they felt
their cases had not been handled well by the police. One participant
said that she had called the police at 6pm about her partner being
abusive, and had their two children in the house, yet the police
did not arrive until midnight. Another was told that as she had
a mental health issue, there was little point taking the case
to court as her history of mental health would count against her.
Another participant explained that the police told her family
that as there was no evidence, no bruising or broken bones, then
they should drop the case. One participant said that when she
had made a complaint against a police officer, the police officer
that she had made a complaint about had rung her and said "I
hear you've made a complaint about me". It then took twelve
weeks for the complaint to be dealt with.
Other participants described the difficulties they
had had when it came to the law being enforced. One participant
explained that she had successfully pushed her own case through
a magistrates' court to get an order against her partner when
the police had not done so. Another said that her father had broken
his restraining order, yet had not served any custodial sentence.
Her father returned in the middle of the night and broke into
the house through a window. After this, the family had to live
in a home with bars on the windows. One participant argued that
harsher custodial sentences were necessary.
Two participants talked about the impact of the legal
aid reforms on their cases. One girl explained that she had been
ordered to pay £1000 after she had failed to obtain legal
aid for her case and she was currently fighting against this.
Another participant argued that financial dependency means that
women are staying with men because they cannot afford legal aid
if they report the crime and don't qualify for legal aid, or they
are scared that they will lose the family's breadwinner and be
unable to afford bills and other living costs if the report their
partner.
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