The Healthy and Safe Communities Scrutiny Panel are scheduled to discuss the Enfield Safer Stronger Communities Board Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy 2026-30, community cohesion work, and the Safer Stronger Communities Performance Report at their next meeting. They will also note the work programme for 2025/26 and future meeting dates.

Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy 2026-30

The panel will be asked to give their views on, and endorse, the Enfield Safer Stronger Communities Board Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy 2026-30. The strategy is based on a public health approach, with three tiers:

• Primary: Preventing violence before it occurs.
• Secondary: Responding to the immediate risk of violence.
• Tertiary: Long term support for those impacted or affected by violence.

The strategy's vision is to:

Create a borough where all residents live a life free from domestic abuse and violence against women and girls.

The mission statement is:

Over the next 5 years, partner agencies will work together using a public health approach to prevent violence against women and girls, provide timely and effective support to those affected, challenge harmful attitudes and behaviours, and ensure perpetrators are held accountable, creating a borough where abuse is never tolerated.

The agreed priorities include supporting victims and survivors, tackling the causes of violence, responding to changing patterns of harassment and violence, and holding perpetrators to account.

The strategy aligns with the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime Plan and Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy. Consultation has taken place with partner agencies, community and voluntary sector organisations, and survivors of domestic abuse, with support from Solace Women's Aid.

The Violence Against Women and Girls Strategic Group will oversee the strategy and develop a delivery plan. Enfield Council is a White Ribbon accredited organisation, supporting the national White Ribbon Campaign, and has a White Ribbon Champion (the Director of Public Health) and eight male Ambassadors.

Safer Stronger Communities Performance Report

The panel will receive the Safer Stronger Communities Performance Report for the period up to October 2025. Key points from the report include:

• A decrease of 1.1% in total notifiable offences.
• A decrease of 2.7% in violence against the person offences, compared to a 2.6% increase in London.
• A 12.6% decrease in non-domestic abuse violence with injury offences, against a London-wide decrease of 7.5%.
• A 0.9% decrease in domestic abuse incidents and a 7.3% decrease in domestic abuse violence with injury offences.
• A 2.1% decrease in robbery of personal property offences, compared to a 14% decrease in London.
• A 5.5% reduction in gun crime offences.
• A 2% increase in knife crime offences.
• A 12.7% decrease in residential burglaries, compared to a 7.6% decrease in London.
• A 52.4% increase in drug offences, linked to Operation Pisces¹.
• Increases in shoplifting (12%) and theft from person (33%).

The report recommends further evaluation of Operation Pisces, continued focus on crime hotspots, and clarification on changes to how the Metropolitan Police Service records knife crime offences.

Community Cohesion Work

The panel will receive information on ongoing community cohesion work and hate crime data. The Enfield Safer and Stronger Communities Board has identified building community cohesion as a key priority. The council's Community Safety Team has offered workshops and assemblies on supporting cohesion to schools, reaching over 1400 students in the past year.

The council also works with community partners, such as One-to-One Enfield, the Community Security Trust, and Galop, to support diversity and tackle hate crime. The council has worked with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to support community cohesion activity, including the formation of a Turkish-Kurdish network supported by Gikder².

The council is working to re-establish the Enfield Multi Faith Forum and establish a Community Resilience Group.

There were 580 hate crime offences recorded in Enfield in the year to October 2025, a decrease of 11% compared to the previous year. Racist and religious hate crime offences accounted for approximately 93% of all reported incidents. Enfield has regularly supported the National Hate Crime Awareness Week.