Company working with Northumbria Police "heartened" by "desire to change internal culture"
ICENA are carrying out trauma-informed training, with the help of sexual abuse survivors, in police forces across the UK
An organisation working with Northumbria Police on trauma informed training to better support victims of sexual violence tell us they are "heartened" by the "self-reflection" of individual officers' and the "desire to change internal culture".
ICENA provide training and consultancy to organisations that want to create a safe, respectful and inclusive environment for all.
They have expanded their training to police forces across the UK, namely the Metropolitan Police, West Yorkshire Police, and Northumbria police, carrying out trauma-informed training, with the help of sexual abuse survivors.
Kat Hymas, from ICENA, explains they've been delivering the trauma-informed training for a year: "the training is unique because it's co-produced with survivors who have been through the court system."
"We deliver the training to support them in thinking about trauma-informed practice, and how they can implement that in their roles and in their interactions in support of survivors."
"We've been really heartened by the engagement in material, the self-reflection of participants, and the desire to improve on their practice and transform the culture within the police."
As we mark four years since the kidnap, rape and murder of Durham University graduate Sarah Everard, Kat tells us she doesn't think "feelings of safety amongst women and girls have improved".
However she does believe that "the media response and exposure of Sarah Everard's murder, coupled with the conviction of Carrick and the Casey review, have resulted in an exposure of behaviour and internal culture within the police."
In 2023, Baroness Casey’s independent review looked into the standards of behaviour and internal culture of the Metropolitan Police Service.
It found institutional racism, misogyny and homophobia in the Met Police, and recommends a complete overhaul of the institution.
Baroness Casey warned that if progress is not made, radical, structural options should be considered.
Since then, Kat says there's been "an increased prioritisation of awareness raising in the criminal justice system."
Ms Everard was killed by a serving Met officer, Wayne Couzens, in Clapham, south London, on 3 March 2021.
An inquiry into her death found her killer Wayne Couzens - who was a serving police officer - had a history of alleged sexual offending, and that failings in the vetting process allowed him to become an officer.
Couzens was sentenced to a whole-life term and will never be freed.