Greater Manchester launches bold plan to tackle gender-based violence

Greater Manchester has launched a new two-year plan to continue our pioneering work to tackle all forms of gender-based violence and the attitudes that allow it to occur.

The Gender-Based Violence Delivery Plan 2024-26 outlines how the city-region will continue to bring partners and organisations together to tackle and reduce gender-based violence and coincides with the start of this year's 16 Days of Activism and White Ribbon Day. This work brings together partners across education, housing and transport, and includes public engagement campaigns as well as work with policing, probation and criminal justice partners.

The Government has pledged to cut violence against women and girls by 50% over the next decade, appointing the first ever Minister for Violence Against Women and Girls, Jess Phillips MP. Greater Manchester hopes its plan will act as a blueprint for how the Government can meet their targets through a variety of successful projects in our city-region.

The Delivery Plan explains how we are implementing Greater Manchester's Gender-Based Violence Strategy. Recent success from the strategy include:

• Lived Experience Panel: Comprised of inspirational women who, drawing on their own diverse experiences of gender-based violence, have committed to working with GMCA to develop and deliver transformational and creative responses to the challenge posed by gender-based violence.
• The creation of a Housing Reciprocal: An agreement across all 10 boroughs of Greater Manchester so that victims of domestic abuse can be rehomed in suitable housing in any borough. Previously victims could only be rehomed within their borough, and this is still the case in most other parts of the UK, which can cause further trauma and be unsafe for victims.
• Lotus Hub: This is a coalition of by-and-for services providing essential support and advocacy for ethnically minoritised women who have experienced domestic abuse, and abuse of their immigration status to make them further vulnerable. Many of these women have no recourse to public funds and would be destitute without the Home Office funded Lotus Hub project.
• Domestic Abuse Crisis Workers pilot: Piloted in Bolton and Salford, domestic abuse workers were funded to join GMP when attending reports of domestic abuse to provide emotional and psychological support and signpost to support services. 50% of those that met a worker alongside the police felt improvements in their safety and 63% had positive outcomes around their health, including 50% who accessed support for their mental health. We have funded this new approach for a second year while exploring options to provide this into mainstream domestic abuse provision.

The Gender-Based Violence Delivery Plan looks to build on this work while acknowledging that more must be done to make life safer for women and girls across our city-region.

Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham said:

“Everyone in Greater Manchester deserves to be able to live well without the fear of abuse or violence. I am clear that we cannot achieve our ambitious vision for Greater Manchester without preventing and tackling the entrenched problem of gender-based violence in all its forms.

“The scale of the challenge is significant, but since we launched our 10-year Gender-Based Violence Strategy in 2021, we are seeing real progress. I'm particularly pleased that my campaign, #IsThisOK, has challenged men and boys to call out sexist and misogynistic behaviours and to consider their own conduct. The most recent phase of #IsThisOK has reached over 4.1 million views on social media and over half of men and boys we surveyed said it had made them think, feel, or want to do something differently. We all have a role to play, whether in calling out abuse or supporting those who have experienced it.

“I want to see change. While we are making a difference there is still more to do. Misogynistic attitudes and offences such as sexual violence, domestic abuse and stalking and harassment continues to happen. This has no place in Greater Manchester, and I believe that our city-region can lead the way in eradicating gender-based violence. This Delivery Plan and our wider Gender-Based Violence Strategy makes clear how we intend to do that.”

Deputy Mayor of Greater Manchester for Safer and Stronger Communities, Kate Green said:

“Gender-based violence has a long-lasting impact on those who experience it and can shatter people's lives. The ambition and scale of our Delivery Plan reflects our determination to root it out, with coordinated action across services and our communities. 

“I'm proud of the progress we have made in the first two years of our Gender-Based Violence Strategy. The establishment of our Lived Experience Panel has been particularly important to us, and its members are critical to ensuring we change the way we do things for the better in Greater Manchester.

“Greater Manchester Police (GMP) has improved investigating and solving domestic abuse crimes. The work we have delivered with GMP, such as our Domestic Abuse Crisis Worker pilot, has also seen significantly positive results. By working closely with GMP as well as Greater Manchester Probation Service and VCFSE (voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise) organisations to tackle gender-based violence, we are using all our collective powers to punish, disrupt and change the behaviour of perpetrators of abuse.

“We know there is work still to be done and that we need to sustain the achievements we have made so far. But working together with our Gender-Based Violence Governance Board, organisations and communities across Greater Manchester, we will see the change that we are so desperate to see. This Delivery Plan sets out our ambitions and our determination to achieve them.”

Notes to editors

The Delivery Plan can be read here: Gender-based violence strategy delivery plan 2024-26

Greater Manchester's Gender-Based Violence Annual Report 2024 can be read in full by going to GMCA's webpage: greatermanchester-ca.gov.uk/gbv.

The Government's pledge to halve violence against women and girls in the next decade can be found on the gov.uk website: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-measures-set-out-to-combat-violence-against-women-and-girls

Find support services available for people affected by gender-based violence on GMCA's website: https://www.greatermanchester-ca.gov.uk/what-we-do/safer-and-stronger-communities/gender-based-violence/support-services