The Care Quality Commission has published a report sharing their findings and recommendations after reviewing incidents related to sexual safety on mental health wards. In 2017, following concerns raised on an inspection of a mental health trust, the CQC carried out a review of reports on patient safety incidents that staff had submitted through the NHS National Reporting and Learning System. We found that many reports described sexual safety incidents, including sexual assault and harassment.

AVA’s resource, Safe and Equal: A Guide on Young People and Meaningful Participation for the Violence Against Women and Girls Sector is now available to download. This guide aims to provide an overview of the issues to consider when undertaking meaningful participation with young survivors of abuse and multiple disadvantage. The guide is primarily for practitioners working within the Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) sector but may also be of use to funders and commissioners.

Everyone’s Business is a new innovative cross-partnership programme putting employers at the heart of tackling domestic abuse and providing them with the tools they need to recognise and prevent domestic abuse, be prepared to receive disclosures and actively respond and speedily support employees who are experiencing or perpetrating domestic abuse. To find out more, visit the Hestia website. 

Law enforcement agencies in the UK and USA have signed an intelligence sharing agreement to tackle female genital mutilation (FGM). Signatories including the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), the Metropolitan Police, Border Force, the FBI, and the US Department of Homeland Security have pledged to share intelligence about travel patterns between the UK and US and other parts of the world where victims may be taken for the procedure. Source: NSPCC Caspar Alert