Domestic Abuse and Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy consultation

Help us to shape our new Domestic Abuse and Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy

We are currently consulting on our new Domestic Abuse (DA) and Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Strategy 2025-2029.

We have developed the draft strategy with Barnet victims and survivors, who have told us about their own personal experiences of domestic abuse and VAWG, and with partners from across the borough who support victims and survivors.

Domestic Abuse (DA) is defined by the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 as behaviour that includes: physical or sexual abuse, violent or threatening behaviour, controlling or coercive behaviour economic abuse, and psychological, emotional or other abuse.

Violence against Women and Girls (VAWG) is the umbrella term used to describe a range of violent and/or abusive acts and behaviours against women, including domestic abuse (including coercive control); rape and sexual violence; female genital mutilation; forced marriage; crimes in the name of 'honour'; sexual harassment; stalking; trafficking; and prostitution/sexual exploitation.

The draft Strategy sets out our partnership commitments to embed a public health approach to prevent DA & VAWG; ensure victims and survivors get the help they need; focus on holding perpetrators to account; and to increase feelings of safety in the borough.

Your views are important to us

Our approach to the strategy is to ensure everyone benefits, including men, boys, transgender, and non-binary people. To achieve the aims of the strategy, we need to make tackling domestic abuse and violence against women and girls everybody’s business, from practitioners at statutory, community and voluntary levels, to communities and friends and family, we all need to play our part. That’s why we welcome your views.

The consultation is open to all our residents, as well as people who visit or work in the borough. You do not have to have personally experienced violence or abuse to take part in the consultation. We also welcome feedback from organisations, community groups and local businesses to help us make Domestic Abuse and VAWG everyone’s business.

To find out more about our strategy and our ambitions for the borough please read our summary consultation document.

How to share your views:

We are keen to hear your views on our strategy.

• Please take the time to read our summary consultation document which includes a summary of the strategy's vision, aims, and commitments, then complete our online questionnaire.
• If you have any queries or would like to request a paper version of the questionnaire or another format of the consultation, or if you would like someone to help you to complete the questionnaire, please email: STOPVAWG@Barnet.gov.uk or call 07548 719384.

We want to ensure that our strategy is focused on the needs of the borough, and we look forward to hearing everyone’s feedback to help shape the final strategy and action plan.

If you would like someone to help you complete the questionnaire or need more information, please contact us using one of the above methods.

How to get support if you are experiencing domestic abuse or VAWG

For more information and how to access support, please visit Barnet Council website.

If you need support or are worried about someone, please call 999 in an emergency.

What happens after the consultation closes?

The council will use the consultation findings to inform our final strategy and action which we aim to launch and publish in November 2025. We will publish the results of the consultation, our decision and how we are acting on the results of the consultation on this web page in October 2025.