Equally Safe: final report

COVID 19 – Responding to Violence Against Women and Girls

The COVID-19 pandemic, and the measures necessary to maintain public health by controlling the spread of the coronavirus, are no excuse for the perpetration of violence against women and girls (VAWG). National and local government, public bodies and the third sector worked hard to understand the impact of the pandemic on women and children and to adapt their services in an unprecedented and challenging climate. From the outset of the pandemic, tackling domestic abuse in particular has been recognised as a continued priority. Across Scotland, professionals within local authorities and other key community planning organisations worked incredibly hard to reduce risks to, and help safeguard, people within their local communities. Front line third sector organisations worked rapidly to redesign their services to ensure that women and children could continue to be supported and new referrals accepted.

Although reports and evidence suggested that initial referral rates dropped during the first few weeks of lockdown, reports from services suggest that referral rates have gradually increased in later weeks.[2] Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, a number of relevant impacts and risks have emerged, including greater risk of domestic abuse due to lockdown and challenges in access to safe housing, constraints in terms of safe spaces, challenges for front line services in offering support, increased risk of sexual exploitation, and perpetrators being more hidden. Justice Analytical Services (JAS) have published regular reports on the impact of COVID-19 on people experiencing domestic abuse and other forms of violence against women/girls during phases 1,2 and 3 of Scotland's routemap. The most recent update was published in November 2020.

Throughout the pandemic, national and local government have instigated arrangements to help co-ordinate a strategic and measured response to the pandemic. The Scottish Government chairs a fortnightly catch up with victim support organisations, public bodies and local government to ensure bodies are aware of important developments across the sector and to provide a forum for discussion on how to respond to these. The Equally Safe Joint Strategic Board met virtually on 22 April to discuss the Covid-19 response.

Guidance has been produced. Although measures necessary to prevent the spread of the virus were introduced, these rules have not prevented women and children leaving their home to escape domestic abuse. Guidance[3] was intended to highlight that advice or rules do not prevent anyone from taking measures to escape or keep themselves safe from domestic abuse.

Coronavirus Supplementary National Violence Against Women Guidance

At the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, COSLA Leaders instructed the development of Supplementary National Violence Against Women Guidance for local authorities and other key community planning partners. The guidance aims to help ensure that a sustainable, joined-up approach to safeguarding the needs of women, children and young people experiencing VAWG during COVID-19 is embedded at a local strategic level. It is intended to support the strong leadership already being demonstrated by Local Government and other key community planning partners across Scotland in ensuring effective protection and provision of support for people experiencing VAWG. The Guidance was published in May 2020, and updated in September 2020, by the Scottish Government and COSLA with support from Public Health Scotland and the Improvement Service.

A Covid-19 Children and Families Collective Leadership Group involving senior leaders across the children's sector was established in May to review intelligence about the impacts on children, young people and families and to provide local and national leadership in delivering a response. The intelligence includes weekly data reports from the 32 Chief Officer Groups and Police Scotland and broader evidence reports. The Leadership Group held a 'deep dive' on domestic abuse and children and young people in June involving key stakeholders, and officials have formed a cross-governmental domestic abuse group to consider explore and take forward subsequent recommendations. On 31 March, the Scottish Government issued supplementary National Child Protection Guidance. This was in recognition of the likelihood of a rise in child protection concerns due to the impacts of the pandemic on families including increased likelihood of domestic abuse. We also know that child contact presented an issue for many families and we have therefore reflected current guidance and advice on Scotland's Parentclub website.[4]

The Scottish Government and COSLA have refocused work on commercial sexual exploitation (CSE) to support those at risk. This includes raising awareness of the needs of women engaged in CSE and ensuring that professional working in housing, health and mental health services are able to identify and respond to women engaged in CSE in an effective way, including signposting them to specialist

support services where available. Officials have engaged with the Encompass Network to monitor the situation on the ground, and COSLA have established a short life working group to bring together key partners to explore how Scotland can better support vulnerable women engaged in CSE, including support for women, where they seek it, to exit from CSE.

Work has been taken forward to ensure women and children's access to housing. Already a leading cause of homelessness in Scotland, we are cognisant of the increased vulnerability of women and children living with an abuser. Scottish Women's Aid and the Chartered Institute for Housing Scotland published guidance[5] for social landlords on housing, domestic abuse and Covid-19 to help ensure social landlords respond in an informed way to domestic abuse in order to prevent women's and children's homelessness; support victims of domestic abuse effectively; and hold perpetrators to account. The Scottish Government and COSLA wrote in May[6] to all Local Authorities Chief Housing officers, Chief Executives of Registered Social Landlords and the Scottish Association of Landlords to highlight the importance of landlords using best endeavours to bring empty properties (voids) back into use where they can safely do so and also the importance of developing and reviewing domestic abuse housing policies to help support victims of domestic abuse both during and after the pandemic. An updated Ending Homelessness Together Action Plan[7] has been published with a renewed focus on tackling domestic abuse, and work continues to develop a domestic abuse prevention pathway.

Women who have no recourse to public funds (NRPF) are particularly vulnerable as access to support is limited. To provide guidance for local decision-makers on supporting people in this category, COSLA have published a framework[8] to support local authorities and their partners in local decision making. Local authorities have statutory safeguarding duties towards all people in Scotland, regardless of their immigration status. The updated homelessness action plan includes commitments to develop and implement human rights-based accommodation pathways for women and children with no recourse to public funds who are experiencing domestic abuse; explore alternative routes through which to provide accommodation to people with no recourse to public funds; and extend funding for projects that provide advocacy and legal advice to destitute asylum seekers and people with no recourse to public funds.

To ensure services were equipped to respond and offer crucial help and support to women and children affected by gender based violence, additional funding has been allocated. At the end of March, over £1.5 million was allocated to Scottish Women's Aid, ASSIST and Rape Crisis Scotland from the Scottish Government's immediate priorities fund to ensure they could continue to provide much needed support to survivors and adapt service provision to take into account the restrictions.[9] £60,000 was provided to the Encompass Network to enable Covid-focussed services for destitution support, trauma counselling, advocacy and to provide a bridge to national mainstream support. The Network established themselves as a central point for updated information for women, and staff in key services. At the end of September, an additional £4.25m in funding was also announced to help projects and services across Scotland respond to the increase in demand for services during the pandemic.[10]

Examples of good practice locally

• Across Scotland, local Cedar (Children Experiencing Domestic Abuse Recovery) projects have been unable to offer their regular model of in-person group work. During spring and summer 2020, Cedar Projects engaged with service users to identify what support was required by families and what support could be offered within the restrictions. In response to this feedback, coordinators began offering a suite of virtual support, including phone and virtual 1-1 support for mothers and children, virtual wellbeing support groups for different age ranges of children, helped mothers access emergency support around food, finances and the courts, and provided activity/craft packs for children, developed virtual activities and resources for mothers and children to complete, and provided wellbeing packs for mothers. While this support focused on wellbeing, mental health and practical support, rather than therapeutic recovery, it remained based on the ethos of the Cedar model by continuing to be trauma informed, focused on supporting mothers to support their children, and provided weekly structured support for families where required. Evaluation from projects has been positive in terms of the impact on children and their families.

• Fife Council Housing Services have a close working relationship with Fife Women's Aid. At the start of lockdown it was evident that there would be a significant pressure on women living with abusive partners and increased pressure on Women's Aid refuge. In response to this, the Council quickly identified six additional properties to be managed by Women's Aid. Cedar, Women's Aid and Educational Psychology also worked closely together to support schools prepare for children returning after living with domestic abuse during lockdown. This included preparing and disseminating information about what to look out for, highlighting available support services and signposting to other support resources. The Council also supported negotiations to enable specialist services to safely link with schools.
• In order to ensure that women experiencing domestic abuse who are at the highest risk of harm continued to receive high quality support during the pandemic, local authorities have moved their Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conference (MARAC) meetings from face-to-face to virtual meetings. Consultation with professionals across Inverclyde has highlighted that this shift has allowed action planning for high risk victims to take place more regularly and has supported multi-agency partners to work more effectively and efficiently together to meet women and children's safety needs. Within Glasgow, processes were put in place to support Education Services to provide immediate feedback to schools following MARAC to ensure a Hub Education place was offered to children who had been noted as aligned to either the client or the perpetrator.
• Throughout the pandemic, NHS Ayrshire & Arran have continued to help mitigate the effects of VAWG by engaging and supporting those affected by abuse who engage with local health services. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, NHS Ayrshire & Arran has developed a suite of resources to support self-isolation for those at risk of domestic abuse as well as guidance and resources to support staff to identify and respond effectively to domestic abuse and other forms of VAWG during periods where women and children are at heightened risk locally.
• Local authorities have also supported communication and awareness raising activities during the pandemic. For example, Western Isles VAW Partnership ran a social media and community engagement campaign during lockdown to ensure women were aware of the local and national support services available to them during this period of heightened risk, and the pathways to accessing the services.

Looking forward

Covid-19 will be with us for some time to come, and the population will continue to feel the economic and social impact. Both the Scottish Government and COSLA will continue to prioritise tackling violence against women and girls, and we will explore how future iterations of the Equally Safe strategy reflect the context of the pandemic as well as the direction of travel around recovery and renewal.