Wednesday 29-10-2025 - 13:01

 

 

What happened when... I spoke to the Police and Crime Commissioner (or did I?)

 

 

On Wednesday 22nd October, I attended a “Senior Roundtable” event with the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) for Lancashire to contribute to discussions on a county-wide approach to tackling violence against women and girls. Police and Crime Commissioner Clive Grunshaw places “prevent violence against women and girls” at the top of his list of priorities, yet I couldn’t help but notice that he left the event after his senior leadership breakfast. Is this truly a priority for him if he cannot even find the time to stay and listen to our ideas and experiences? 

 

     
If you missed my little explainer on the day, the “Senior Roundtable” was essentially a gathering of people with positions of influence from across Lancashire. There were local councillors there, business owners, company directors, members of the fire service, and a few headteachers from local schools – it was an incredibly broad range of people all with unique perspectives, expertise, and ideas to share. 
We talked about various issues such as anti-spiking measures, street lighting, nighttime safety, support for sex workers, education and early intervention for perpetrators, active bystander training. We also discussed how our individual organisations could share best practice and improve our existing approaches to tackling systemic misogyny. 

 

Why was I there?

Over summer, the Police and Crime Commissioner put out a survey to women and girls from across Lancashire, seeking to draw out experiences of sexual violence, harassment, and general feelings of unsafety in public areas. Of 4809 responses, only 7% were from those aged under 24. This means that the experiences of students and young people were hugely underrepresented in this research.

As we know, young people between 18-25 are one of the highest risk groups for domestic abuse, sexual harassment, violence, predatory behaviour, and grooming gangs. Not only this, but young people make up a huge demographic across the county – there were 486,060 people under the age of 25 in Lancashire as of 2024. That’s 30.3% of the population, and therefore a systemic issue such as violence against women and girls cannot be tackled without considering the experiences of those people.

Young people are the drivers of cultural norms. We are the demographic that is responsible for realising these changes that the PCC are trying to enact. Therefore, it is so important that we are consulted collectively on matters such as this. Out of everyone in that room, there were only two student representatives there – me, and an officer from the University of Lancashire. I was there to advocate for every young person whose voice was neglected by the Police and Crime Commissioner. 

During discussions, I raised topics such as:

•    The need to focus on trans-misogyny and the victimisation of queer women,
•    The importance of a dedicated strategy for engaging with marginalised groups,
•    Funding and resources for our student groups and outreach to our liberation networks,
•    How the loneliness epidemic that we are seeing among students and young people who grew up in COVID may be exacerbating susceptibility of young men and boys to misogynistic ideology,
•    Attitudes of young people towards the police force and distrust in their capabilities to handle reports of sexual violence compassionately,
•    University-level pastoral care for victims needing to be trauma-informed, with consistent and compassionate communications throughout the reporting process (specifically the problem of our wellbeing service being under-staffed with little resource to recruit specialists),
•    Communications on initiatives from the PCC not resonating with young people due to unnecessary use of inaccessible, overly corporate language.

 

     
Source: Understanding Violence Against Women and Girls in Lancashire (2025)

 

What still needs to be done?

The conversations we had were useful, but there is still so much room to do more. There need to be considerations for intersectionality – representation of the experiences of trans women, queer women, women from ethnic minority backgrounds, disabled women, women from different socio-economic backgrounds – there are so many overlapping identities that will impact how a person experiences sexual violence.

We need to ensure that stakeholders are held accountable to broadening their scope and continue to involve a targeted approach to get engagement from underrepresented groups in their strategy going forward. Young people are at significantly higher risk and often carry multiple disadvantages, particularly when it comes to accessing support and resources.

 

Source: Understanding Violence Against Women and Girls in Lancashire (2025)

 

What’s next for us?

We want to hear from you! 

On Thursday 30th October at 6:30pm in Bowland North SR10 (MazeMap), your Women’s+ Network are hosting an event to discuss tackling rape culture at Lancaster.

It’s an incredible opportunity to contribute to ongoing conversations and help us tailor our approach to best suit our students. If you self-identify as a woman or trans person, I strongly encourage you to come along to listen and share ideas – keep an eye out for more information here and on our Women+ Officer’s account (@lusuwomenplusofficer)

See you there!