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WQ.82/2024
WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE MINISTER FOR JUSTICE AND HOME AFFAIRS
BY DEPUTY L.M.C. DOUBLET OF ST. SAVIOUR
QUESTION SUBMITTED ON MONDAY 11th MARCH 2024
ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON MONDAY 18th MARCH 2024
Question
“Will the Minister advise what actions, if any, she is undertaking to educate Islanders in relation to domestic abuse; and what strategies, if any, are being implemented to prevent different types of domestic abuse?”
Answer
The Taskforce on Violence Against Women and Girls report made a number of recommendations for action to educate Islanders about domestic abuse, and violence against women and girls (VAWG) more widely. Following careful consideration of these recommendations, I have accepted and intend to take forward the following recommendations in this area in 2024:
- Introducing a campaign to tackle street harassment in St Helier (Recommendation 7)
- Ensuring healthcare practitioners are aware of their mandatory reporting duties in relation to FGM (Recommendation 9)
- Introducing a campaign to raise awareness and change attitudes about VAWG (Recommendation 73)
The Taskforce also made a number of recommendations in relation to the education of parents, children and young people around VAWG issues. These include:
• Develop PSHE curriculum on sex and healthy relationships (Recommendation 76)
• Improve awareness of specialist support services amongst young people (Recommendation 65)
• Develop and deliver an education programme for parents on VAWG issues (Recommendation 66)
• Ensure PSHE curriculum makes explicit the links between gender inequality and VAWG (Recommendation 76)
• Introduce mandatory training for all PSHE teachers (Recommendation 76)
• Utilise skills and knowledge of Brook in delivering VAWG content (Recommendation 76)
• Include an explicit audit of VAWG in Jersey School Review Framework (Recommendation 76)
• Include an explicit reference to VAWG in annual safeguarding audit of schools (Recommendation 76)
• Consider rolling out a ‘whole-of-school’ approach across schools (Recommendation 77)
• Introduce by-stander training for professionals working in educational settings (Recommendation 77)
These recommendations fall within the remit of the Minister for Education and Lifelong Learning. I understand that officers are meeting with the Minister to discuss his approach to implementing these recommendations later this month.
Educating the community and raising awareness about VAWG issues is an integral strand of work to prevent domestic abuse. As was highlighted by the experiences of the victim-survivors who contributed to the Taskforce report, domestic abuse can take many forms, including online and technology-facilitated abuse and economic abuse. Alongside the work to prevent further abuse through education, I have also agreed to undertake the following recommendations aimed at the prevention of these forms of domestic abuse:
• Providing and maintaining accessible information for citizens in Jersey about online and technology-facilitated VAWG (Recommendation 14)
• Reviewing the Domestic Abuse (Jersey) Law 2022 within the first five years of its enactment to determine whether this legislation has been able to consistently and successfully prosecute perpetrators of economic abuse (Recommendation 27)
I will publish a detailed response to the VAWG report recommendations by the end of this month. This response will include an implementation plan for the work we intend to progress in 2024 and 2025.