Making Manchester Safer For Women And Girls

Manchester City Council’s Women’s Night-time Safety Charter aimed to improve safety for women and girls working in or visiting the city centre at night. The Council didn’t know how effective the Charter was or how different groups felt in relation to safety, so they asked us to help.

Launched in 2022, the Night-time Safety Charter has seen over 400 organisations in Manchester’s night-time economy (NTE) sign up. The Council asked us to evaluate its effectiveness and identify areas for improvement. This involved assessing current perceptions of safety, the scale of sexual harassment and abuse of women in Manchester, understanding how the Charter was designed, the quality of support provided to Charter Champions and NTE workers, the impact of this support, and lessons learned to guide future developments.

We used both qualitative and quantitative research methods, including:

• In-depth consultations with key stakeholders, such as council partners, and Charter Champions working in the NTE.
• Surveys of the general public, NTE staff, and Charter Champions, with over 1,400 responses.
• Assessing how different demographics experienced safety issues.
• Geo-spatial analysis (using GIS mapping) to evaluate the Charter’s reach and identify gaps in coverage.
• Comparisons with similar programmes in London, Bristol, and Leeds, including discussions with their safety leads and desk-based research.

Because of the sensitivity, we provided participants with access to support resources and followed GDPR and ethical guidelines. We also used inclusive language and collected data on protected characteristics to ensure that the voices of marginalised groups were heard.

Our recommendations are shaping future safety strategies in Manchester, with some already in action, such as the introduction of the WalkSafe app, which helps users plan safe travel routes, share their location, and notify friends or family if they don’t reach their destination.