Celebrating Excellence

CELEBRATING EXCELLENCE IN CAMPAIGNING, COLLABORATION AND DEVELOPMENT

Suzy Lamplugh Trust is the UK’s pioneering personal safety charity and leading stalking authority. Our vision is a society in which people are safer and feel safer from stalking, violence and aggression, so they can live life to the full.

Our expertise covers frontline advocacy, policy, research and political and media engagement. Our experience of providing support and advocacy to victims of stalking has given us an in-depth understanding of the dangers and harms posed to them, and the long-term trauma they often face. We work closely with the senior police officers who have responsibility for stalking and harassment and have a broad base of knowledge across the public and voluntary sectors, as well as strong and effective working relationships with key sector stakeholders.

OUR ROOTS

The Trust was founded in 1986 by Diana and Paul Lamplugh following the disappearance and, later, presumed murder of their daughter, Suzy. At the time, very little research had been done into personal safety and the term was rarely used.

Suzy Lamplugh Trust won in three categories at the Markel 3rd Sector Care Awards 2019: Campaigning for Change, Collaboration and Contribution to Sector Development. Here, we find out more about the charity.

Paul and Diana became the foremost experts on personal safety and Diana travelled throughout the UK raising awareness of the subject. Diana and Paul were both awarded OBEs for their work for the charity. In 2006, they were jointly awarded the Beacon Prize for Leadership for their work in raising awareness of personal safety and addressing the causes of and solutions to violence and aggression in society.

The Trust exists to continue their work and ensure that no other family has to go through the Lamplugh family’s awful experience of losing a loved one. Our work always prioritises supporting victims and ensuring that their voices are heard.

WHAT WE’VE ACHIEVED

The positive outcomes achieved by the Trust include contributing to the passage of legislation; providing support and advocacy to victims; producing innovative research; managing a programme to prevent stalking reoffending; providing co-ordination and support within the Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) sector; running the National Stalking Helpline; and building links outside this sector to raise awareness of the impacts

experienced by victims of stalking and workplace aggression and violence. 2019 marked a hugely productive year across our training, campaigns and operational work. In February 2019, Government pledged to legislate for national minimum standards for taxi and private hire vehicle licensing and to establish national enforcement powers for licensing officers and a national licensing database. The Suzy Lamplugh Trust made these recommendations as part of Steering Towards Safety in Taxi and Private Hire Licensing, a research report we launched in 2018. The recommendations were also included in the report of the Ministerial Task and Finish Group (of which Suzy Lamplugh Trust was a member), which was submitted to Government in 2018. Following its agreement in February 2019, Government has since withdrawn its support to legislate for minimum standards, but we continue to lobby.

The Trust was instrumental in the passage into law of the Stalking Protection Act on 15th March 2019, a crucial piece of legislation which would allow police to act early to protect victims of stalking. Stalking Protection Orders (SPOs) will allow police officers to protect victims from abuse, harassment and stalking before a criminal investigation has concluded. The police, rather than victims, are required to apply and pay for the orders, which is an important issue for victims. SPOs came into effect in January 2020 and represent a significant strengthening of the protections previously available in England and Wales, and an acknowledgement of the suffering victims of stalking can face.

As part of the Trust’s ongoing Stay Safe at Work Campaign, we launched ‘Suzy’s Charter for Workplace Safety’ on our annual Personal Safety Day in November 2019. The Charter outlines simple yet effective steps that employers and employees can use to make their workplaces safer and it was developed as a result of close work and consultation with unions, corporations, and the police. The agreement of such a range of stakeholders on the content of the Charter has been a great achievement; we hope to continue working with employers across all sectors to implement it in workplaces over the course of this year. Last year, we also provided personal safety training for over 6,000 people and organisations, helping companies to embed personal safety in their workplace culture. Throughout 2019, Suzy Lamplugh Trust continued to manage the Multi-Agency Stalking Intervention Programme (MASIP), a world-first project that takes a holistic approach to identifying and tackling stalking, with comprehensive victim support at the centre of its work. Operating across three sites in Hampshire, Cheshire and London, MASIP brings together criminal justice professionals, health practitioners, and victim advocates to provide innovative way for these agencies to collaborate on preventing reoffending and keeping victims safe. We’re already seeing exciting signs of a more effective approach developing, with stalking victims reporting that they feel safe, supported and listened to. We hope that the MASIP project will continue to produce positive results, develop new approaches, and further our understanding of how to effectively tackle stalking and keep people safe.

OUR GOALS FOR THE FUTURE

The team at Suzy Lamplugh Trust was thrilled to have our ‘Contribution to Sector Development’ and our ‘Campaigning for Change’ and ‘Collaboration’ work recognised by the judges of the Markel 3rd Sector Care Awards. It has been a challenging and exceptional year for the Trust; receiving the awards in these categories is a testament to our teams’ dedication to the Trust’s mission to help people to feel safe and be safe. We are also grateful to the Awards’ headline sponsor, Markel for the complementary consultancy services offered to us by Janjer, and we intend to use these to explore how we can increase our social impact.

In the coming years, we plan to use our experience in victim advocacy, research, and engagement with policymakers to continue our work to ensure perpetrators of stalking are better managed, and victims are kept safer and better supported.

Alongside the UK-wide ‘safety net’ provided by our national service, we want to transform the provision of stalking support services in the UK by taking our quality casework service to more victims.

The maturity of our service, the expertise gained from directly supporting thousands of victims and our position as a leader in the sector make us uniquely positioned to ensure that local provision is more accessible and of consistently high quality.

By combining work on policy, engaging with key services, including criminal justice professionals and healthcare providers, campaigning, training and providing practical support for victims, we hope that 2020 will see continued progress in ensuring that people are – and feel – safer. CMM

Suky Bhaker is Chief Executive of Suzy Lamplugh Trust. Email: info@suzylamplugh.org Twitter: @live_life_safe

3RD SECTOR MARKEL CARE AWARDS

Headline Sponsor

The Markel 3rd Sector Care Awards is run specifically for the voluntary care and support sector. Nominations open on 14th June. Enter today at www.3rdsectorcareawards.co.uk. Sponsorship opportunities are available.

With thanks to our supporters: National Care Forum, Learning Disability England, The Care Provider Alliance, Association of Mental Health Providers and VODG.

The Campaigning for Change Award was sponsored by

The Collaboration (Integration) Award was sponsored by

The Contribution to Sector Development Award was sponsored by

Janjer Ltd