A new £13 million national policing centre will place victims at the heart of investigations into domestic abuse, rape, stalking, and child sexual abuse.
A new national policing centre dedicated to tackling violence against women and girls is set to launch in April, backed by £13 million in government funding. The National Centre for VAWG and Public Protection, based in Ryton, will bring together around 100 officers and staff to coordinate police efforts against domestic abuse, stalking, child sexual abuse, and rape.
Run by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) and the College of Policing, the centre aims to professionalise public protection work, ensuring that police forces across England and Wales receive specialist training and intelligence-led tools to go after dangerous offenders. For too long, crimes that disproportionately impact women and girls have lacked the dedicated policing response seen in areas such as counterterrorism or serious organised crime. This new centre will change that by making public protection a national priority.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper emphasised the significance of the centre, stating, “Women and girls experience violence and abuse each year, yet for far too long it just hasn’t been taken seriously enough by policing, the criminal justice system, or the government. Warm words are not enough. We need to drive up standards and start treating the epidemic of violence against women and children with the seriousness it deserves.”
The government has pledged to halve violence against women and girls within a decade through its Plan for Change. The new centre builds on recent initiatives such as the introduction of Raneem’s Law, the embedding of domestic abuse specialists in 999 control rooms, and the expansion of the Child Sexual Exploitation Police Taskforce.
The centre’s key priorities include rolling out enhanced training for police officers across all 43 forces in England and Wales, ensuring future police leaders have experience in public protection, and deploying intelligence-led tactics to track and apprehend perpetrators. It will also work alongside the National Crime Agency to improve responses to online child sexual abuse and implement the latest academic research to inform police investigations.
T/CC Maggie Blyth, the NPCC lead for Violence Against Women and Girls, welcomed the initiative and financial backing from the government. “The centre will build on existing police work and progress made in tackling violence against women and girls, allowing us to mandate nationwide improvements to support forces and frontline officers to carry out their jobs effectively,” she said.
Backed by the government, the centre will prioritise intelligence-led tactics to improve policing standards and support for survivors across England and Wales.
She highlighted the need to equip officers with specialist skills similar to those provided for firearms or public order policing, ensuring that survivors receive the support they need and offenders face justice swiftly. “We also need to better support victims through the criminal justice process, and alongside partners, we will drive improvements for swifter justice and a more robust response when people seek our help,” she added.
The centre will unify three existing victim-focused policing programmes: Operation Soteria, the national VAWG Taskforce, and the Vulnerability Knowledge and Practice Programme. These initiatives focus on protecting vulnerable people, particularly survivors of child sexual abuse. By integrating these programmes under one national framework, the centre will ensure a consistent and evidence-based approach to tackling these crimes across all police forces.
Assistant Chief Constable Tom Harding, Director of Operational Standards at the College of Policing, reaffirmed the centre’s commitment to victims, stating, “Policing is dedicated to protecting women and girls by targeting those who seek to harm them. We will place victims at the heart of the new centre and work across law enforcement, government, and both the public and voluntary sectors to boost the training we give to officers.”
The centre’s establishment is a core part of the government’s Safer Streets Mission, which prioritises public safety through improved policing and crime prevention. By strengthening national coordination and enforcing specialist training, the initiative aims to enhance the police response to these serious crimes, ensuring that all survivors receive the protection and justice they deserve.
