• Lead Member Trafford Council
  • Participating Members Stevenage Borough Council, Swindon Borough Council, Trafford Council
  • Year 2023
  • Type Policy Labs

Principles met

About the project

Introduction

The partner councils: Trafford Council, Newcastle City Council, Stevenage Council and Swindon Council, have come together throughout the Policy Lab (October 2023 – March 2025) to promote learning, build collaborative relationships and demonstrate how cooperative councils can use cooperative values to drive innovation in the male violence against women and girls (VAWG) sector and improve services for victims/survivors.

This Policy Lab focused on demonstrating innovative and cooperative models from places leading the way on tackling VAWG to share this learning with others. Women’s safety from male violence impacts all women’s lives, with 97 percent of women aged 18 to 24 having experienced sexual harassment in public spaces and more than 70% of women of all ages having endured such behaviour.

Around one in four women (27%) have experienced domestic abuse since the age of 16.

For men, the figure is around one in seven (13.9%), with 93% of perpetrators in domestic abuse cases being male.

With a national government promise to halve VAWG in a decade, this policy lab springboarded off this commitment to share creative interventions, challenge traditional approaches and seek to improve outcomes through shared expertise.

This report sets out the CCIN Values and Principles that were explored during this Policy Lab; the approach of the Policy Lab explains the activities and events that took place during the Policy Lab; the insights that came from the facilitated discussions between sector experts (which took place at the events) and then several case studies that give best practise examplesthat can be learnt from and replicated by others.

It is our hope that this report will serve as a learning document for other local authorities and their partners in the VAWG space.

For further information contact the Project Lead: