socitm

A quick moan about SocITM. It feels like every other time I go to the Bristol Council web-site I get this wretched pop-up:

I've answered the damn questionnaire once (and it's very long). Unfortunately there is no "Enough Already" option to make it go away permanently.

Anyhow, apparently I contributed to an online discussion on Climate Change at AskBristol, but I'm damned if I can remember what I said. I received the attached today:

Dear Colleague

You may recall that a few months ago you contributed to an online discussion on Climate Change via the AskBristol website (Bristol City Council). The site had a dedicated space to support the work of the Climate Change Select Committee. The site is available here: http://www.bristol-climatechange.public-i.tv/site/

As part of the evaluation of the site we are asking all those who contributed to the on line discussion a few questions and would be grateful if you would spend a few moments answering the following questions:

1. Would you describe yourself as democratically active?
2. What other community or democratic activities do you take part in?
3. What was your primary purpose in using the site?
4. Has it been a useful resource to achieve this purpose?
5. Which parts of the site did you find particularly useful (or not useful!)?
6. Have you any suggestions for improving the site?
7. Do you think this would be a useful resource for other topics areas?

Please provide your answers as a reply to this email. All your answers will be treated in confidence and you will not be identified in any reporting.

For your information the report from the Climate Change Select Committee is available here: http://www.bristol.gov.uk/item/committeecontent/?ref=sc&code=sc019&year=2008&month=05&day=06&hour=14&minute=00

Please get in touch if you have any questions.
Best wishes
Mike

Michael Brewin
Consultation and e-Participation Officer
Corporate Consultation Team
Corporate Communications
Bristol City Council
Telephone: (0117) 922 4644
Fax: (0117) 922 2948

Other Consultations

Dog Wardens

If you've got the time and inclination, you can respond to a number of current consultations, including a customer satisfaction survey about the Dog Warden service. (I didn't know there was a Dog warden service).

Rape & Sexual Assault Strategy

The consultation has just finished on Bristol's Strategy to tackle Rape & Sexual Assault 2008-11 (why are these strategies always "tackling"?). The aim of the strategy:

• Raise awareness of sexual violence and the harm it causes.
• Take action to challenge social acceptance of sexual violence.
• Champion the challenging of harmful myths, stereotypes and pervasive representations of women or men that can contribute to a culture that is accepting of sexual violence.
• Prevent and reduce the harm caused by sexual violence.
• Develop a range of flexible and effective services which meet the needs of the victims of sexual violence.
• Bring more offenders to justice.

I look at these and struggle to think of anywhere in our society where there exists "social acceptance of sexual violence". Is this really a problem that wouldn't be better solved by putting more effort into street patrolling and locking up rapists? (See Exhibit 'A' below)

I'm usually pretty dismissive of the template Equalities Impact Assessment attached to all council documents, but this one contains some interesting points:

Women from BME communities

It can be more difficult for Black and Minority Ethnic women from some communities to
report rape or sexual assault for fear of bringing dishonour on themselves and/or their
family, or because they fear it will reflect badly on their community. There can also be
distrust of the police and fears of unfair or discriminatory police practice. Women who
fear deportation are unlikely to report to the Police. At the same time, Black and Minority
Ethnic women need to have the same rights to support, advocacy and counselling as
white majority women, and specialist services may need to be offered within the overall
provision. This would include ensuring that workers reflect the diverse BME groups in
Bristol and are culturally competent as well as providing translation services.

This would seem to be the area where some further investigation is needed; to resolve this distrust of the Police and the ridiculous contention that sexual assault implies dishonour to a family.

There is also a companion document which attempts to answer a previous criticism I have made - why there are both Rape Crisis Centres and Sexual Assault Referral Centres - which seems to boil down to "because we do". There's a lot of talk about joined-up thinking in government, but it often seems that policy is more driven by the maintenance of personal fiefdoms and "me-too" interventions rather than spending the money where it can achieve the most effect.

Here are the rest of the consultations: