02 May CITIZENS ADVICE CORNWALL WINS TOP NATIONAL CAMPAIGNING AWARD

Citizens Advice Cornwall are celebrating after winning Campaign of Year in the national Citizens Advice Awards for its work on police handling of domestic abuse and stalking.

The award was announced at the Citizens Advice Annual Conference in Birmingham following the campaign last year which resulted in Devon and Cornwall Police accepting 17 of 19 recommendations made by the charity.

Chief Executive, Jon Berg, said:

“This award is a fantastic testament to the work done by our Research and Campaigns Team here in Cornwall, and more importantly, the work has resulted in police taking measures to improve officer training and processes when dealing with abuse cases, especially when lives are at risk.”

Citizens Advice Cornwall Victims of Crime Adviser, Allison Livingstone, was dealing with around a dozen clients who had poor experiences with police when reporting stalking and abuse. This included missed evidence, failure to act, believing the perpetrators account and failure to bring cases to court. In some cases, the women concerned were left in a dangerous situation. The report identified a further 24 similar cases.

Research and Campaigns Officer, Wailim Wong, said:

““The team worked very closely together and with clients to research and understand the issues and achieved fantastic results with media highlighting the widespread problem and police accepting our points and taking action. This led to steps which are improving people’s situation and may influence police policies nationally.

“Police are now in regular discussions with our Victims of Crime Officer and our report has been sent by Devon and Cornwall Police to the National Police Chiefs’ Council.

“This award acknowledges our efforts to help people who come to us for support by working to address the root causes of their issues.”

This year’s award for the Most Influential Campaign, was open to 250 local Citizens Advice charities across the country, and was awarded in memory of Alun Evans, a passionate Citizens Advice national campaigner, who died last year.

The full campaign report, Police Handling of Abuse Cases in Devon and Cornwall can be found on the Citizens Advice Cornwall website at https://tinyurl.com/392x6fbk