Inspirational work is already underway to prevent the "scourge" of violence against women and girls (VAWG) in one part of Hertfordshire, as a county-wide strategy is being created to deal with the issue.

At a meeting of the Herts County Council's health and community safety cabinet panel, members were presented with a motion drawing attention to the existing North Hertfordshire Women's Safety Charter.

The charter was introduced three years ago and has completed its initial roll-out phase, starting with the night-time economy of bars and clubs, which have reacted "positively" to it.

One of the motion's co-authors, Cllr Alistair Willoughby (Labour, Baldock & Letchworth) said: "Three years ago, I worked alongside district Cllr Elizabeth Dennis… and actually Cllr Sean Prendergast… to introduce the North Hertfordshire Women and Girls Safety Charter to North Herts Council, which was the first of its kind in Hertfordshire.

"The charter was developed through our community safety partnership with a simple objective: to make women and girls feel safe in the places where they live, work, socialise and travel.

"At the time, we recognised that while many organisations wanted to help make women and girls safer, there wasn't a simple framework to bring everyone together to do so.

"Businesses, venues, councils, police and community groups were often doing good work individually but not always in a coordinated way, and this charter gave us that framework.

"[The charter] asks organisations to make a clear commitment to four principles which are recognise, respond, report and re-educate. It has provided training, guidance and accountability, and it has encouraged practical measures such as Ask For Angela…. awareness around drinks spiking and staff training on how to respond when someone needs help.

"There are many licensed venues where staff simply haven't been trained and don't know how to help someone who is clearly in need.

"What we found was that businesses and community organisations wanted to be involved, and people appreciated having clear standards and practical tools that they can put in place straight away.

"This approach is working in one part of the county. Why wouldn't it work across the whole of Hertfordshire?"

Cllr Ajanta Hilton, chair of the committee, said: "Just to say, this isn't an approval process. We are noting what the response has been and we're really pleased that you're raising awareness and ensuring we're all working together and we're all working with the same aims to improve violence against women and girls."

Cllr Richard Roberts (Conservative, King's Langley), said: "Some of you will know there was cross-party support for tackling domestic abuse three years ago. We put an extra £1 million for domestic abuse services. It's kind of like saying, 'This is really important', and this statement around violence against women and girls is also in that.

"Where I'm ever so slightly nervous is that you start to lose the coherence around exactly who you're supporting and how you're supporting them. Women and girls in particular…are the most vulnerable in terms of the percentage of those suffering domestic abuse."

Cllr Roberts said the "scourge" of domestic abuse was a problem across Hertfordshire as well as the rest of the country, and was being tackled with "relatively thin resources". He called for "real coherence about how best to support those at risk".

Cllr Sean Prendergast (Lib Dem, Letchworth South) added he supported the motion but added he was "absolutely clear" he also supported the county-wide Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) strategy which is currently being developed.