Consultancy

From the outset CWASU has provided consultancy to groups, organisations and individuals in formal and informal ways. Everyday individuals ring or email the Unit - from the UK and many other parts of the globe - asking for information about research, support services and other related matters. There is a limit to how much of this we can respond to, and hope that this website will fulfil some of these basic needs for information.

At more formal levels within the UK, CWASU staff have been paid as consultants to:

• local social services departments wishing to transform their responses to the sexual abuse of children;
• local authorities wanting to develop responses to domestic violence or violence against women more broadly;
• organisations such as UNISON who are developing policy;
• organisations and individuals developing training manuals on responses to sex offenders and the perpetrators of domestic violence.

We have undertaken far more unpaid consultancies with groups and individuals on policy development and research methods. These range from single discussions through to regular meetings with individuals and commenting on draft documents - both policies and research instruments. The many organisations we have provided this support to include, among others:

• the Royal Colleges of Nursing and Midwives;
• the government Women's Unit;
• NCH Action for Children;
• the Crown Prosecution Service;
• National Criminal Intelligence Service;
• CHANGE;
• YWCA;
• Rape Crisis Federation;
• Greater London Authority;
• Association of London Government;
• Project Sapphire, the Metropolitan Police.

More long-term participation in policy development has involved members of CWASU being invited to serve on committees that meet over time. The most recent of these include:

• The Home Office Sex Offences Review;
• The Independent Advisory Group to the Metropolitan Police on Serious Sexual Offences;
• The Zero Tolerance Trust;
• The Labour Party;
• The Best Interests Campaign.

Internationally, CWASU staff have provided consultancy (sometimes including training) in many countries under the auspices of the British Council (see Overseas Work). Examples of this include:

• work in Uganda on a street children's project;
• work in Ghana on a major research project on the prevalence of gender violence;
• work in Malaysia on understanding feminist approaches to supporting abused women;
• work in Spain on developing responses to perpetrators;
• work in Ethiopia on developing a campaign on gender violence;
• work in Bangladesh on research and the development of a programme where young men challenge other men about gender violence;
• work in Ireland on a variety of issues, including the links between child protection and domestic violence.

Our work with the British Council has also involved:

• producing a briefing document on violence against women;
• running a series of international seminars in the UK;
• producing a Directory of groups and organisations (voluntary and statutory) in the UK which can currently be regarded as developing 'best practice' (British Council Directory of UK Resources on Violence Against Women)

In addition we have worked with the Council of Europe on a number of projects, including drafting the Plan of Action on violence against women (Final Report of Activities of the EG-S-VL: The COE Plan of Action for Combating Violence Against Women) and producing a self-training and awareness raising manual for police officers (The VIP Guide: Vision, Innovation and Professionalism in Policing Violence Against Women and Children).

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