Debate contribution: Ending Violence Against Women and Girls: Strategic Framework

Debate contribution by Ms Joanne Bunting on 2 February 2026.

MLA: Ms Joanne Bunting
Party at the time: Democratic Unionist Party
Date: 2 February 2026
Type: Debate contribution
Business: Oral Answers to Questions
Heading: Ending Violence Against Women and Girls: Strategic Framework
Assembly identifier: Official Report component 5356455

Text

I am grateful to the Member for her question. We recently conducted a pilot campaign on coercive control that addresses how it makes people feel, using the memorable framework of "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes", which enables women and girls to check in with themselves to identify what coercive control is, understand whether it is impacting on or happening to them or other people whom they know and, from that, understand how to take action. The campaign was developed in partnership with Ulster University and engaged stakeholders, those with lived experience, importantly, and the youth sector, drawing on evidence-based research in its development. In September, a training toolkit for front-line services was delivered by our partners in Ulster University to 43 workers from 20 organisations across a range of sectors. They trialled that training in their own settings for a three-month pilot phase that ended in December 2025. An evaluation of the pilot is under way, and it is anticipated that there will be a region-wide campaign launch in the spring.

171 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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