Bristol Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence Strategy 2024-27 Engagement

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Consultation has concluded - This consultation was open from 21 February to 6 March 2024


If you are unsafe and need immediate help:

  • In an emergency always call the police on 999.
  • If you need to speak to the police when it is not an emergency dial 101.

If you are/have been affected by domestic abuse or sexual violence and would like to speak with someone, please call:

  • Next Link (Domestic Abuse) Helpline: 0800 4700 280
  • SARSAS (Rape and Sexual Violence/Abuse) Helpline: 0808 801 0456

Bristol City Council engaged on the draft Bristol Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence Strategy from 21 February to 6 March 2024. The strategy builds on the work that has already taken place in the city to tackle domestic abuse and sexual violence.

The development of this strategy follows on from work already undertaken in the last three years including the Mayoral Commission on Domestic Abuse Report, public engagement and consultation on recommissioning activities, and the Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence needs assessments that were carried out. A needs assessment is a systematic approach to understanding the needs of a population. It helps us understand and decide how to use our resources to improve the health of local people.

This strategy would cover domestic abuse for victims-survivors aged 16 and over and the wider areas of abuse that are included under the statutory definition of domestic abuse, as outlined in the 2021 Domestic Abuse Act[1].

The strategy will use the 2021 Rape Crisis definition of sexual violence.

“Sexual violence is the general term we use to describe any kind of unwanted sexual act or activity, including rape, sexual assault, sexual abuse, and many others.”[2]

This strategy has been co-produced with the Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence Survivors Forum; this group has led to the development of the priority areas ‘Progress’ and ‘Prosper’.

As part of the re-commissioning of domestic and sexual violence services in 2021/2022, we asked people what they thought about our services for domestic and sexual violence. We did this by having events, consultation surveys, and talks with different groups and people who use our services. The majority of this feedback was used to help inform the commissioning of services and what couldn’t be addressed through commissioning has been used to inform the strategy.

Feedback was also collected for the Safe Accommodation Strategy in 2022, and again feedback that wasn’t relevant for that strategy has been fed into this strategy.

This engagement survey was to make sure we have included all the feedback and whether the priority themes, intended outcomes and our ambitions feel achievable. We want to make sure these are the actions people in Bristol want to see partners taking to tackle domestic abuse and sexual violence in the city.

As there are no proposed changed to services, we carried out an engagement survey on this strategy and not a consultation survey.

Your feedback will help to let us know if this approach is right and if anything is missing. The feedback will also help to develop the action plan. We hope to publish the strategy in March 2024.

We will set out 5 priority themes for the strategy: Prevention, Provision, Protection, Progress and Prosper. For each of these themes, we have explained what we want to do and how we plan to do it.

Once the strategy is in place, an action plan will follow to make sure it is delivered.


If you are unsafe and need immediate help:

  • In an emergency always call the police on 999.
  • If you need to speak to the police when it is not an emergency dial 101.

If you are/have been affected by domestic abuse or sexual violence and would like to speak with someone, please call:

  • Next Link (Domestic Abuse) Helpline: 0800 4700 280
  • SARSAS (Rape and Sexual Violence/Abuse) Helpline: 0808 801 0456

Bristol City Council engaged on the draft Bristol Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence Strategy from 21 February to 6 March 2024. The strategy builds on the work that has already taken place in the city to tackle domestic abuse and sexual violence.

The development of this strategy follows on from work already undertaken in the last three years including the Mayoral Commission on Domestic Abuse Report, public engagement and consultation on recommissioning activities, and the Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence needs assessments that were carried out. A needs assessment is a systematic approach to understanding the needs of a population. It helps us understand and decide how to use our resources to improve the health of local people.

This strategy would cover domestic abuse for victims-survivors aged 16 and over and the wider areas of abuse that are included under the statutory definition of domestic abuse, as outlined in the 2021 Domestic Abuse Act[1].

The strategy will use the 2021 Rape Crisis definition of sexual violence.

“Sexual violence is the general term we use to describe any kind of unwanted sexual act or activity, including rape, sexual assault, sexual abuse, and many others.”[2]

This strategy has been co-produced with the Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence Survivors Forum; this group has led to the development of the priority areas ‘Progress’ and ‘Prosper’.

As part of the re-commissioning of domestic and sexual violence services in 2021/2022, we asked people what they thought about our services for domestic and sexual violence. We did this by having events, consultation surveys, and talks with different groups and people who use our services. The majority of this feedback was used to help inform the commissioning of services and what couldn’t be addressed through commissioning has been used to inform the strategy.

Feedback was also collected for the Safe Accommodation Strategy in 2022, and again feedback that wasn’t relevant for that strategy has been fed into this strategy.

This engagement survey was to make sure we have included all the feedback and whether the priority themes, intended outcomes and our ambitions feel achievable. We want to make sure these are the actions people in Bristol want to see partners taking to tackle domestic abuse and sexual violence in the city.

As there are no proposed changed to services, we carried out an engagement survey on this strategy and not a consultation survey.

Your feedback will help to let us know if this approach is right and if anything is missing. The feedback will also help to develop the action plan. We hope to publish the strategy in March 2024.

We will set out 5 priority themes for the strategy: Prevention, Provision, Protection, Progress and Prosper. For each of these themes, we have explained what we want to do and how we plan to do it.

Once the strategy is in place, an action plan will follow to make sure it is delivered.