The West Midlands is home to a thriving night-time economy. Hundreds of thousands of residents and visitors enjoy our rich cultural and entertainment offers, and tens of thousands make their living working predominantly after 6pm.
However, we know that a night out or working in the night-time economy can be a source of great anxiety for female residents and visitors, with the majority of women surveyed having experienced some form of sexual harassment.
We are determined to ensure that the West Midlands is a region where all women and girls feel confident and welcome at night whether on our streets, our public transport or inside our night-time economy venues.
What is the women's night safety charter?
The Women’s Night Safety Charter is an initiative to improve the safety of all women in the night-time economy, whether staff or customers. To do so requires us all to work together to improve safety for all at night.
The charter is designed to encourage all West Midlands employers to make a commitment and enable systemic change for prioritising safety of women in the workplace and for customers. it has been designed with the night-time economy in mind, but is beneficial to the entire 24-hour economy, including anyone who works in and enjoys our region at night.
The seven principles of the charter
- Champion: appoint a named contact for this work who will champion and drive forward any action taken.
- Communicate: create a positive public/staff facing communications campaign, both online and in your space.
- Support your staff: make clear the routes for reporting unacceptable behaviour while at work and supporting cultural change.
- Support the public: communicate routes for reporting unacceptable behaviour while using your service or space at night.
- Training: provide staff training and any relevant policies, including what you can and cannot say and do.
- Recording: ensure staff training on information sharing and appropriate recording of details.
- Design for safety: audit your spaces and adapt them to promote a safer environment and reduce risk of crime and sexual misconduct.
When you sign up to the charter you will receive a free toolkit to help you implement the seven principles of the charter, as well as information around future training and support to help further improve safety for women at night
Who can sign up to the charter? Any business or organisation which has staff working between the hours of 18:00-06:00. Whilst the primary focus is NTE cultural and leisure businesses, it is open and applicable to all organisations operating after 6pm – from clubs to care homes, restaurants to gyms, taxi firms to security, pubs to colleges.
Any questions please email christian.sayer@wmca.org.uk
This Charter is inspired by the pledges created for the Mayor of London’s Women’s Night Safety Charter.