1 Placing Victims at the heart of the criminal justice system in Kent Kultar Nayyar, Divisional Manager Victim Support 21/11/14

2 The current victim experience… Confusing? Intimidating? Frustrating? Inconsistent?

3 “Any crime will affect a person mentally as well as emotionally and physically, but this does not always seem to be taken into consideration in terms of response.” “Nobody has ever updated me. They gave me a form to fill out. Nobody has ever updated me. I've never been told anything.” “I’ve been to court and it was really frightening - it wasn't at all how I expected it to be from TV shows” “The biggest complaint I have is the lack of information provided to me by various agencies including the police. This should be the minimum that victims and witnesses receive.”

4 Partnership approach to identifying gaps Lack of information (timely updates and signposting) Lack of continuity No single point of contact Poor understanding and communications between agencies

5 Partnership approach to solutions Multi-agency workshops Identifying shared principles – victims! Keeping the focus on victims Collaborative problem solving Creating solutions together

6 A victim centred approach The Victim Centre A multi-agency hub for victims services and criminal justice agencies One-stop service for victims (support, information and signposting) Bringing agencies together will give opportunities for better service outcomes for victims

7 A victim centred approach cont… Convening a victim panel to give victims a say Opportunities to work with partner agencies to jointly problem-solve Encouraging collaboration to really put victims at the heart of the CJS

8 An exciting time for victim services Victim’s Centre (and a victim centred philosophy) Victims Code of Practice Track My Crime Victims’ Charter