The Joint Consultative Committee with Ethnic Minority Organisations is scheduled to meet on Tuesday 17 March 2026. The meeting's agenda includes a discussion on the Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy and a verbal update on immunisation uptake.

Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy

A significant portion of the meeting is scheduled to be dedicated to the Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Strategy. The report pack outlines the strategy's vision, which is to end violence against women and girls through a robust multi-agency action plan. It highlights that while the strategy focuses on VAWG due to its prevalence, the borough also recognises men and boys as victims of domestic abuse and will provide them with support. The strategy places the victim at the centre of service delivery, with a clear focus on perpetrators, keeping victims safe, and raising local awareness.

The strategy details five key partnership priorities:

• Changing attitudes and behaviours: This involves empowering the community to understand VAWG, challenging outdated attitudes, promoting the White Ribbon initiative, and developing culturally relevant activities. It also includes working with young people to promote healthier relationships and educating them and their parents about online harms.
• Improve the safety of women and girls: The aim is to ensure women and girls feel safer and are safer in the borough by assessing and improving public spaces, collaborating with venues in the night-time economy, and supporting local businesses to implement Safe Haven initiatives.
• Early identification and help: This priority focuses on preventing domestic abuse and VAWG by addressing root causes such as gender inequality and misogyny. It includes supporting partners to identify abuse through training, ensuring children's and adults' services work together, and empowering young people to recognise abuse and seek help.
• Support victims, survivors, and their children: The strategy commits to providing accessible, evidence-based, and holistic support, including specialist advocacy services, refuge accommodation, and access to the One Stop Shop. It also aims to understand how survivors from minoritised backgrounds access services and ensure they receive appropriate support.
• Holding perpetrators to account: This involves increasing the number of perpetrators brought to justice, improving women's confidence in reporting crimes, and developing a better understanding of local perpetrators for targeted intervention.

The report pack also includes national and regional data on the prevalence of VAWG, highlighting statistics on domestic abuse, exploitation, sexual violence, stalking, and harmful practices. It details relevant policies and laws, such as the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 and the Mayor of London's VAWG Strategy. The strategy acknowledges the disproportionate impact of VAWG on certain groups and commits to an intersectional approach to ensure services are fair, sensitive, and effective. It also emphasises the importance of hearing survivors' voices and providing a coordinated community response.

Immunisation Uptake

A verbal update is scheduled to be provided on immunisation uptake. This update will be delivered by Desta Pinks, Unika Cumberbatch-Wynter, and Dr Andrew Brown from the Croydon BME Forum.

The meeting will also include a JCC Member Update and an Any Other Business (AOB) session.