Victims Taskforce papers: June 2024

Victim/Survivor Advisory Board to the Victims Taskforce update June 2024 (paper 3)

Introduction

1. The Victim Survivor Advisory Board (VSAB) provides a platform for the feedback of victim/survivors of crime to be shared and discussed, and for these experiences to inform the work of the Victims Taskforce (VTF) in delivering practical, system-wide improvements. The process for capturing this information, and for feeding back to the VTF can be seen in Annex A. This paper provides an update from the VSAB since the previous meeting.

Background

2. Membership of the VSAB was agreed at a previous VTF meeting and includes:

• Adult victims/survivors with lived experience of crime and abuse (‘lived experience representatives’).
• Victim Support Organisation (“VSO”) representatives, including those who will support members with lived experience.
• Victims’ representatives to the VTF would also be invited to attend.

3. As previously stated, it is the intention to identify up to four further lived experience representatives through specialist organisations working with groups who are multiply-disadvantaged or marginalised by the justice system. This is to ensure that the VSAB hears views and perspectives from as wide a range of lived experience representatives as possible. It was recognised in a previous paper to the VTF that this approach may take time to set up and this has been discussed by the VSAB with an agreed approach outlined below.

4. It was further agreed that although the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs and the Lord Advocate would not be members of the Advisory Board, they would actively support its work and would attend regularly as requested by the Advisory Board, as this would provide an opportunity for them to hear directly from victims and survivors of crime.

Progress update

5. Set-up of the VSAB has progressed further since the last VTF meeting in November 2023. There have been several meetings to progress practical arrangements in addition to the two dedicated meetings with the lived experience representatives that comprise the VSAB.

6. A development meeting in February 2024 took place between lived experience representatives and Victim Support Organisations with a dedicated focus on the issues tracker document, both in terms of the content and the format. This issues tracker, available within the papers for the VTF meeting, is a live document that provides a form of feedback loop for updates between the VSAB, and the agencies that comprise the VTF. Updates were made to this tracker based on the discussion that took place.

7. It was also agreed in the previous VTF meeting that a series of themed VSAB meetings would take place to allow for focus on specific topics, with ministers invited directly. 

8. In March 2024, the first of these themed meetings took place with a group of individuals who were survivors of sexual crime. Further updates were made to the issues tracker following this meeting, a note of which has been circulated to members in the papers for the June meeting of the VTF. Key themes highlighted by lived experience attendees at this meeting include 1) reporting processes and giving statements, 2) complainer access to their data, 3) communication from justice agencies, 4) preparation for giving evidence and cross examination, 5) experiences of the court setting, 6) experiences of giving evidence, 7) victim impact statements and sentencing, and 8) the not proven verdict. 

9. As part of the forward planning work for the VSAB, it has been planned that further themed meetings will take place focussing on specific subjects including: 

• BAME victims/ survivors (TBC, July 2024)
• LGBTQ+ victims/ survivors (TBC, September 2024) 
• Victims/ survivors with disabilities (TBC, November 2024)
• Victims/ survivors in rural or remote areas (TBC, January 2025)

10. Further discussions have also taken place with organisations that support children about hearing the important experiences of children and young people affected by crime. This is likely to take place in an additional themed session.

Issues tracker

11. An up-to-date version of the tracker, presented in the papers, has been circulated to criminal justice agencies for updates and comment on previous or new topics raised.

Discussion questions

12. Given the content of this paper and the annexes, there are a number of questions that VTF members could usefully discuss and feedback to the VSAB:

• Are there particular issues on the tracker that members of the VTF can work together to address and how will this be progressed?
• Are there any issues that the VTF would like to add to the tracker for the VSAB to consider and provide lived experience input on?
• How can the VTF work to ensure future policy and its delivery is informed by lived experience?

Victim/Survivor Advisory Board
June 2024 

Annex A: feedback mechanism – issues tracker background and process

A ‘feedback’ agenda item is to be included at each VTF and VSAB meeting. For example, each VTF meeting will begin with an update provided from the previous VSAB meeting, with VTF members invited to take responsibility for investigating issues raised. 

VTF members are invited to report back on the changes they are taking forward as a result of feedback from victim/survivors. This information is then fed back at the following VSAB meeting, with VTF members potentially invited to attend VSAB meetings to provide updates on actions which they are leading on.

An issues/feedback log is in place which contains information on: the particular topic or theme under discussion; feedback from the VSAB; a VTF action lead(s); actions being undertaken, and; progress made. This log is to be a standing item on both the VSAB and VTF agendas. 

The proposed feedback process is provided below:

Victims Taskforce

The Victims Taskforce will have a standing agenda item to consider the advisory board's issues/feedback log:

• progress updates on outstanding issues should be provided by the respective action lead, who will be a member of the Victims Taskforce.
• if the advisory board has made suggestions for new issues/feedback, these should be discussed and either: a Victims Taskforce member should be assigned as the action lead; the suggestion should be amalgamated into other outstanding issues/feedback, or; the suggestion deemed out of scope for the Victims Taskforce.
• invitations should be considered for action leads to attend the next advisory board meeting and provide updates to the advisory board in person.
• the issues log should be updated by the appropriate action lead(s).

Advisory board

The advisory board will have a standing agenda item to discuss its issues/feedback log:

• progress updates should be communicated, either by reviewing the issues/feedback log or by having the Victims Taskforce action lead(s) invited to provide these in-person/online. Deadlines should also be determined for the next update.
• the advisory board will also discuss whether it wants to provide any new suggestions not covered under the current work and issues/feedback being considered by the Victims Taskforce and whether other structures/approaches should be engaged with.