THE Richmond upon Thames Community Safety Partnership has approved a new strategy to tackle Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) in the borough.

Richmond Council has fully supported this strategy and provided additional funding of £139,000 to deliver a broader approach focusing on the safety of women and girls at night.

The strategy, which has been informed by survivors and victims and developed with key partners, is based on a preventative model and plans to deliver the cultural and behavioural shifts needed to deliver long-term change in men's attitudes to women.

There are four priorities at the heart of the strategy:

- Prevention and changing attitudes and behaviours

- Early identification and help

- Safety and support

- Holding perpetrators to account The strategy is supported by a comprehensive action plan which sets out partnership working to deliver on these priorities, through activities including system wide training and education, as well as ensuring frontline services delivered to victims are coordinated. Councillor Ben Khosa, Richmond Council's White Ribbon Champion, said: "Today is International Women's Day, and everyone is encouraged to 'Break the Bias', and to speak out against bias, discrimination and stereotyping. This International Women's Day we are announcing our Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy - changing attitudes to create gender equality helps prevent violence against women and girls. "We have spoken with victims and survivors so that their voices and lived experiences are at the heart of this strategy. We will continue these conversations throughout the delivery of the strategy, as well as conversations with relevant professionals and partner organisations. "This strategy is ambitious and includes working together with a wide range of partners, practitioners and organisations, but we will be resilient in our approach because violence against women and girls needs to stop." Further details of the report will be published in due course.