What did we hear from the candidates?
We were pleased to welcome candidates standing to be East Midlands Mayor and Nottinghamshire Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) to our hustings on Wednesday 24th April. Ahead of the event, we published our Women’s Manifesto, setting out our demands for what we would like to see from the newly elected Mayor and from the PCC across the areas that they will have influence over.
Our CEO Vandna was chairing:
“Our mission at Nottingham Women’s Centre is to enable women to reach their full potential. To have their voices heard and overcome barriers to creating a better future for themselves. To achieve this, engaging in the political process is an imperative. Women have fought long and hard for the right to vote. A staple of every election in discussion is of women’s votes, as if women are distinct from the normal vote. Given that women make up 51% of the UK’s population, they are an even greater proportion of eligible voters. And they are just as likely to vote as men. The average voter is in fact a woman. So those standing for elected positions here today would be best advised not to ignore our potential for driving election results!”
Questions to The Police and Crime Commissioner Candidates:
How will you ensure women’s voices are listened to in improving the experiences of women when they interact with the Police?
All candidates started with outlining their experience, background, and key priorities for the role, which you can read about on their websites.
Key points from their answers are summarised below:
Gary Godden
- Tackling violence against women and girls is a key pledge.
- Specialist staff in control rooms along with a Labour national pledge to implement ‘Raneem’s Law’.
“I don’t know if you’ve heard the name Raneem and the story of how she called the police 13 times, and guess what? She ended up being murdered. Not good enough on my watch. That’s not good enough. It’s not acceptable.”
- Making sure women’s services are supported and women are believed – working with women’s organisations to make sure that if a woman or girl comes to the police with a complaint, they are believed.
“My job is to hold the police to account, and I will make sure that that happens.”
- Increase conviction rates in line with Labour’s national targets
- Support resources for women coming out of prison or experiencing domestic violence and abuse
Caroline Henry
Caroline talked about her achievements in her current role as Police and Crime Commissioner and outlined the following:
- A violence against women and girls strategy developed in collaboration with different organisations and groups .
- Prevention:
“We all know that we’ve got to prevent crimes from happening in the first place and I’m passionate about early intervention and going into schools, and for the first time we’ve been funding through Equation a programme called GREAT”
- Response:
“I want to make sure that if somebody rings the police, first of all they are believed, they are supported and they are really listened to. That’s really important. And also I want to make sure we capture best evidence which is why I invested in a new sexual assault research referral centre and also a children’s sexual assault referral centre. So we capture best evidence when needed and respond.”
- Support – introducing ‘opt out’ rather than opt in for victim services and supporting the role of independent sexual violence support.
- Support for hard-to-reach communities to be able to report to the police, such as for those with English as a second language, and Deaf communities .
David Watts
- Need to completely change the male dominated culture to enable women’s voices to be heard.
“And that change has to be at every level of the police. So it means not just that bobby on the beat, but their supervisors have to make sure that that sort of attitude is not accepted”
- Training for police officers to listen to and believe victims.
- Root out police officers who will not change.
“And say sorry, but that is not good enough. It is not acceptable to have misogynistic behaviour within the police.”
- Role of the PCC is to hold the police to account
“If things don’t change, then that’s a failure of the Police and Crime Commissioner.”
Other questions for the PCC candidates included issues around the behaviour and training of police officers; the response to post-separation domestic abuse; the ability for the PCC to hold the police to account if they themselves have been part of institutions such as the police before; prosecution and conviction rates for different crimes relating to violence against women and girls; and safer streets for women.
We have summarised key quotes from their answers below:
Caroline Henry
“I’m really sorry about that experience and none of that has been brought to my attention before. Surviving economic abuse is a massive issue. Absolutely needs more training. Obviously been a mistake there. Happy to look into it. There’s been a lot to do and I’m sorry that’s not been on my radar. It will be, going forward as well.”
“The way to solve this is a whole system approach like I spoke of before about preventing crimes from happening in the first place. Changing violent behaviour, so women feel safe to walk down the street, getting allies and bystanders to step in because there is a plan. It’s part of the budget that’s put in place for 2024. It’s already in place. We are increasing labour but it’s a whole system approach.”
Gary Godden
“We talk about training. Police officers are trained, but this is about accountability, and this is about holding the Chief Constable to account and if we don’t have that confidence, then we lose confidence in terms of our communities and you in your homes. It’s really important to try and understand and work with the training aspect of the police, but it’s also more important that those police officers that don’t want to toe the line or follow that path, or feel that the training isn’t appropriate, then they are removed. I’ve worked in the police; I’ve seen behaviours that I do not condone. And one of the reasons that I’m here today is because of that experience and because I want to make a change, I want to make that difference. It was exactly because of that institutionalisation. I went into the police when I was 32 years old. I’ve lived a life. Some of my experiences within the police have led me to being here today, and part of that experience is about being able to challenge them because they don’t like to be called out, which I did in the police in 2015. But this is about accountability. And for me, it comes from the top. It comes from the Police and Crime Commissioner holding the Chief to account.”
“For me part of the issue with Nottinghamshire and the lack of confidence in the safety of Nottinghamshire, is that there’s no police officers. We don’t have police on the street, so we will be looking to rebuild policing. This is about how we work more collaboratively and in trying to raise money within our current system. There’s lots of people that I talk to at the moment, they don’t seem to have that access. That’s got to come back on the table. To be able to deliver a neighbourhood policing plan that actually fits the community for service is not complex. It’s actually about communication and knowing your communities and being able to talk to police officers when you want one.”
David Watts
“So that’s a 16 year failure by the police and unfortunately it’s not at all uncommon… As I mentioned at the start, it’s changing that culture within the police and it has to be zero tolerance of the police. You cannot behave like that. And if you do, you are out. I do not accept the explanation that it’s hard to get rid of police officers. If the will is there, the way is there and you can get rid of bad police officers. Now what we need are good police officers. That needs to be at every level, not only the officers on the ground, but those who supervise them insisting on those standards and making sure that things are done properly. The other bit of your question that hasn’t been addressed yet is the police in special measures. But I think the answer is the same. It’s insisting on improvement at every level of the police and that is a key job of the Police and Crime Commissioner. It’s not going to be just sat in an office and filling in forms and looking good for leaflets, but it’s going to be out there in the community talking to people, talking about their real experiences and making sure that does not happen.”
“Get police on the beat so that people know there is a police officer around. I was talking to the National Farmers Union yesterday and they were complaining that in the north of the county they never ever see police officers. That’s absolutely wrong. We need to make sure that every community has police officers. One way of making sure that improves is making sure the police have accounts. I did a freedom of information request a couple of weeks ago about the number of or the percentage of domestic burglaries that the police in Nottinghamshire respond to. They are not holding them accountable in terms of the number of incidents and the way that they’re responded to. It is a way of making sure that the streets are improved. How long is it going to take? It’s an ongoing thing. There will never be a state where we say, well, we have achieved that unless we get to a state where there is no crime and I probably can’t promise that, but we should see early improvement by getting officers out there and by people seeing them.”
Questions to the Mayoral candidates
How will you make sure women and women’s organisations will be involved in shaping the priorities of the new combined authority?
All candidates started with outlining their experience, background, and key priorities for the role, which you can read about on their websites.
Key points from their answers are summarised below:
Matt Relf
- Bring an independent approach to the mayoral role that is based on consensus and agreement.
“It is far more important to have somebody who is able to speak up when it is right to speak up but is able to agree when it is right to agree rather than having predispositions as to what position they should take based upon pre-existing animosities between different political parties”
- Support asks in the She Votes Manifesto on drive to bring more women into certain industries.
- Housing – try to grow the housing stock available while also lobbying for change on the funding available for social housing.
- Transport – improve accessibility, coordination between different modes of transport and connectivity with integrated ticketing. Design accessibility in for wheelchairs, prams and buggies.
- Culture and working practices of the new authority – utilise existing council headquarters so people across the region can work for the authority, flexible working to enable people to fit work around their lives and childcare.
We actually have an East Midlands Secretary of State and they should actually be doing this work
Frank Adlington-Stringer
- Leader for men in confronting misogyny and calling out abusive behaviour .
- Green industrial revolution with a complete overhaul of transport system and making it public .
- Investing in youth services.
- Adult education – investing in sustainable and future technologies.
- Housing – affordable and sustainable homes.
- Citizens assemblies as a way to give everyone a seat at the table.
“As your mayor, I’m not just going to sit and listen to business or to other politicians, but make sure that people like me and you, voters, those who are actually affected by our policies, have a real way of coming into the Mayor’s office and making their voice heard.”
- Free menstrual products.
- Accessible and beautiful public spaces including toilets.
- Set up LGBTQIA+ accreditation for venues.
- Progressive employer – paid menstrual leave and 4 day working week.
Helen Tamblyn-Saville
“Women are not represented and that has to change and that’s one of the reasons I’m sat here in front of you today. I want to hear your voices. I want to work with women’s groups. I want women’s perspective to shape policy.”
- Housing as a priority – Increase in social housing and ensuring that safe homes are available to women fleeing domestic abuse. Building energy efficient homes for Net Zero but also to bring down energy costs.
- Transport – own experiences of a lack of family friendly transport. Audit for accessibility e.g. to look at step free access. Integrated simplified ticketing that works better for families, tying into Net Zero by 2030.
- Work with women’s groups to put in place free transport when fleeing to safety.
- Grassroots approach.
Claire Ward
“There are more mayors named Andy than there are women mayors”
- Pledges shaped by listening including visits to women’s groups.
- Transport in East Midlands currently inconsistent – connect communities by expanding public transport to rural areas and outside the city. Fare caps in the region
- Make childcare part of our infrastructure using the adult education budget – addressing the challenges of juggling childcare and job hunting.
“And that’s why childcare for me is a huge part of what we need to do, and my pledge is about raising childcare to a level as a part of our infrastructure. It is important to getting everyone back into work and to getting those opportunities for skills, as it is when we provide transport, or we provide those extra skills.”
- Investment in a Green Growth Skills Fund
“So that we can have digital skills and skills to retrofit our homes because if we can retrofit our homes, if we can have new homes that are more low carbon or zero carbon, more energy efficient, we can start to tackle some of the fuel poverty that we see across our communities.”
- Support high street and new green technologies – use of apprenticeships to make sure women and girls are part of these industries.
Other questions included themes around building trust with women, and how to engage women who are experiencing multiple disadvantages and are marginalised and stigmatised in many ways. Candidates also responded to the question about safe streets asked to PCC candidates.
Here is our summary of quotes from their answers:
Matt Relf
“For me the proof is in the pudding. You know we need to get out there and deliver services in a fair and equitable way that is very clearly not built on prejudice… I do think it’s a real shame that we even within this debate, we’re sort of saying, you know, we have to have a woman at the top to care about women. Well, I’m sorry. That’s a prejudice against me that I couldn’t possibly care… We need to get away from this prejudice position and make sure we are delivering services that are visibly equitable for all and I think it is when you start doing that that people then start building the trust in what you’re doing and a big part of that is communication. You know, we don’t do enough communication of public services. To explain how we’re going about. You know, this election itself has been really poorly communicated. Very few people out there are even aware it’s on next week and what it even means. You know that I’m forever getting comments saying, you know, what are you doing about this? Well, it’s nothing to do with the combined authority. It will stay with the existing councils. And so we need to do a much better job of communicating with our society about what all these democratic roles do, how we go about it, and how you can influence what we are doing in the decision making. That feedback loop of input to result is what builds trust.”
Alan Graves
“All I can say is that I’ve been a local councillor for a long time and I’ve engaged with women for many, many years and it’s quite important that you do that. It’s about what you actually do and what I actually do is I engage with people. I believe in equality, so it’s it doesn’t matter who comes to me. I have to engage with them. I don’t ignore women. I don’t ignore men. I don’t ignore anybody. If somebody comes to me with a problem, you engage with them. I engage with the women’s refuge in in my local area. Very important. It’s very important in lots of ways because obviously when a refuge has to be fairly secret and you know you’ve got to be sensitive to those sorts of issues, but I also engage with the local rehab. It’s about listening to people and engaging directly with them and finding out what their problems are. And let’s see what we can do to solve them.”
Frank Adlington-Stringer
“Trust is built through honesty, and that comes from both directions. We need you to be honest with us as politicians, but also as politicians, we have to be honest with you. I’ve been elected in North East Derbyshire since last year. I have put every single one of my pay slips online available. For anyone to see. I have said that when I become mayor, I will continue to show that and I will only take an average wage, take £38,000 a year rather than the full amount, because I believe people are suffering and I should stand with my communities.”
“I’m trying to take tangible steps to make sure that I’m standing with people. I’ve said already that I’ll set up Citizens Assemblies. What is a Citizens Assembly? That is a forum for you to come to the mayor’s office and to speak to us, and I will make sure that that space is as diverse as possible. It isn’t just a space where those who are politically engaged can turn up. We’re making sure that people from all backgrounds are coming along and able to participate. Because I don’t have all the answers, none of us do. Of course not. But what we’re here to do is speak up on your behalf.”
Helen Tamblyn-Saville
“People don’t trust politicians particularly right now. I mean, we’ve seen a certain previous Prime Minister who apparently couldn’t stop lying. It’s no wonder that trust has gone. But we also need you to be honest with us as well… We need to listen to you. An elected mayor needs to listen to you. To truly represent you, we need you to be honest with us. We have these hustings so that you can hear from us. And also so that you can scrutinise us later. Are we doing what we said we would do? And as your mayor, I would carry on those conversations. I don’t just want to listen to you. I want to engage with you. I want you to tell me if I’m doing stuff wrong and what I can be doing better. So if elected, I would pledge to come and meet with you and hear from you. Hear your experiences, hear what’s happening. But more than that, scrutinise me. Say to me, Helen, you pledged this. What’s happening? Where are we? Hold me to account. Hold us all to account. We have to build up that trust. I talked about a grassroots up approach and there shouldn’t be grandstanding from the top down. It’s not a one-size-fits-all approach.”
Claire Ward
“I think people feel really disengaged with politics and I get it. Particularly the last 14 years, what we’ve seen is Westminster politicians doing something and then telling us to do something else…And our country feels broken. Our local councils certainly feel broken. Our roads are broken, our cars feel like they’re broken. Certainly, if you’re driving across them. And because of that, our confidence and trust in the democratic institutions and in the way in which we communicate to those politicians, it was broken. And I sat outside of that for the last 13 years and the reason why I’m standing now is because I want to bring a different approach to it.”
“I don’t want to make promises to people that I can’t deliver… The reality is there is so much wrong right now that we have to do things differently, and we have to engage with people, and we have to collaborate in order to make this work. So my commitment is to do that with whoever. And wherever it takes me. And that’s not just with the community. But I know if I’m elected next week, Ben Bradley is the Conservative leader of the County Council, and will still be the Conservative leader of the County Council afterwards, and I’ll still have to work with him. And that is something that everybody needs to understand is that the way in which we get change is by having that ambition to say this region is going to be the best place to live in, to work in, to learn in. And that means no stone will be left unturned, but we will have to work together to deliver it and it will take a lot of work.”
Whatever you do, don’t forget to vote in the East Midlands Mayor, and Police and Crime Commissioner elections tomorrow, Thursday 2nd May 2024!! Your vote is your voice! Use your vote to choose a better future for all women in the East Midlands!
