Equally Safe: final report

Key Achievements: Priority Three

Achievements in Relation to Priority Three

Interventions are early and effective, preventing violence and maximising the safety and wellbeing of women, children and young people.

Objectives

• Justice responses are robust, swift, consistent and coordinated.
• Women, children and young people access relevant, effective and integrated services.
• Service providers competently identify violence against women and girls, and respond effectively to women, children and young people affected.

We recognise the importance of ensuring that women and children are supported and that service providers identify violence against women and girls and respond effectively. Key highlights are summarised in this chapter.

Improving the Justice response and changing the law

• On 19 March 2020, the Scottish Parliament unanimously passed the Female Genital Mutilation (Protection and Guidance) (Scotland) Act, and this received Royal Assent on 22 April 2020. This new Act will strengthen the existing legislative framework for the protection of women and girls from FGM, through making provision for Female Genital Mutilation Protection Orders and a power for Ministers to issue statutory guidance in relation to FGM.
• Underpinning the work of the Scottish Government's Chief Medical Officer Rape and Sexual Assault Taskforce is the Forensic Medical Services (Victims of Sexual Offences) (Scotland) Bill, introduced by the Scottish Government to the Scottish Parliament on 26 November 2019. This will enshrine in law a holistic healthcare and recovery focused model and will provide a legal framework for consistent access to self‑referral services across Scotland. The Bill passed Stage 1 on 1 October 2020.
• The justice system should always take a victim‑centred perspective in addressing sexual crime, and we are working with all partners to ensure this happens across the board. The Scottish Government has worked with partners (Police Scotland, Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) and Rape Crisis Scotland) to support a pilot to visually record rape complainers' initial statement to the police and consider the potential for these to be used in appropriate cases as evidence in chief in any subsequent trial. Applications to use these visually recorded interviews as evidence in chief could be combined with applications to take the witness' evidence by commissioner which, if granted, would avoid the need for the complainer to give evidence in person during any subsequent trial. The pilot launched in November 2019 and is being trialled in three areas of Scotland which have rural and city locations, including one health care setting to embed a holistic response for the victim. A bespoke 3-week enhanced training course was designed and delivered to 22 specially trained Sexual Offences Liaison Officers (SOLOs). Rape Crisis Scotland is providing valuable advocacy support for victims with additional funding from the Scottish Government.
• On 5 October 2020, the Domestic Abuse (Protection) (Scotland) Bill was published by the Scottish Parliament.
  If passed, it will provide the police and courts with powers to make emergency notices and orders to protect people at risk of domestic abuse. These powers are intended to provide protection for people at risk of domestic abuse and remove some of the barriers to a victim staying in their own home.
• The Children (Scotland) Act gained Royal Assent on 2 October 2020. In cases involving domestic abuse, the Scottish Government wants to ensure that victims and children are protected appropriately during the family court process. Development of the Bill has been informed by views and experiences of children and young people through Power Up Power Down^[16] and the views of children and young people remain at the heart of the Scottish Government's policy approach and development.

Improving Services

• The Scottish Government is funding a partnership project led by Scottish Women's Aid with Engender and the Improvement Service to develop a sustainable framework to strengthen and scale up training on gender based violence at local, regional and national levels. This framework will support effective implementation of Equally Safe in everyday practice across public services. Initial stages of the project have focus focussed on attitudinal research and looking at core concepts around gender and how to translate these into workforce development and training.
• As a result of work done by the aforementioned CMO Taskforce on Rape and Sexual Assault on the improvement of healthcare and forensic medical examination services for people who have experienced rape, sexual assault or child sexual abuse, examinations no longer take place in a police station. The Taskforce is continuing its work to create Sexual Assault Response Coordination Services (SARCS) in each territorial Health Board, supported by Scottish Government funding towards infrastructure and workforce.
• The Scottish Government reiterated their commitment to exploring how the Barnahus concept could operate in the context of Scotland's child protection, health and justice systems in Programme for Government 2019-20. Progress is being made on the development of Scotland-specific standards for Barnahus. The Scottish Government has asked Healthcare
  Improvement Scotland, in partnership with the Care Inspectorate, to develop such standards, based on the European PROMISE quality standards which outline best practice for countries who wish to develop the model. The impact of Covid-19 interrupted the development phase of work and decisions were made to pause this whilst frontline services prioritised immediate responses required to respond to the pandemic.
• The Scottish Government has worked in partnership with Young Scot to launch the online resource 'That's not Ok'.^[17] The resource was developed with Rape Crisis Scotland, Scottish Women's Aid and young people themselves and contains important information for children and young people on gender based violence and where to go for advice and support.
• In March 2020, the Improvement Service and the Scottish Government organised a joint event to bring together VAW Partnership leads and Alcohol and Drug Partnership (ADP) leads to explore the benefits of adopting a whole systems approach to improving outcomes for women and children affected by both gender-based violence and problem alcohol and drug use and identifying actions needed at a local and national level to ensure a joined-up, person- centred approach is taken to supporting women and children with these multiple needs.

Dr Marsha Scott CEO of SWA describes the Bill as “a milestone moment for women, children and young people experiencing domestic abuse, who for years have asked us why it should be them rather than their abusers, who have to leave their homes, pets and belongings to seek safety”.

Conference: Violence Against Women is a Public Health Issue

Public health reform has provided a valuable opportunity to ensure that violence against women and girls (VAWG) is recognised as a public health issue at a local and national level. To help support this work, in November 2019, the Improvement Service, COSLA and Public Health Scotland held a national conference, with support from the Scottish Government and National Violence Against Women Network. The conference featured inputs from VAWG and Public Health experts who highlighted the links between VAWG and each Public Health priority. It also supported delegates to identify the key steps needed in order to ensure VAWG is embedded in each Public Health Priority going forward.

Examples of good practice locally

• Argyll and Bute Health and Social Care Partnership is currently rolling out training in Trauma Informed Practice to all relevant staff, with the aim of improving outcomes for women and children with complex needs. The local authority is also exploring the potential to roll out Routine Enquiry Training to teachers, social workers, social care workers and others key professionals to help ensure people experiencing domestic abuse are identified at the earliest possible stage.
• Clackmannanshire Council have adopted the Safe and Together model which is in the process of being rolled out to staff in all departments and is made available to all partners. As part of the new domestic abuse policy all staff are to receive basic domestic abuse training. Fire service staff have domestic abuse training to spot the signs of domestic abuse when they are carrying out fire safety visits.
• Western Isles have recently put together a training sub group who are working to roll-out training opportunities to public sector partners and identify training gaps across different policy agendas. They are currently working in partnership with the VAWP Highland Training officer and the Highlands and Islands MARAC co-ordinator to establish an annual training programme for all partners. This training programme is currently being adapted for delivering through digital platforms in order to meet current COVID-19 training guidelines.
• East Renfrewshire has strengthened its MARAC arrangements to ensure there is a consistent and structured multi-agency process in place across the local authority area to managing the risk posed by perpetrators of domestic abuse. Domestic Abuse Awareness Raising and MARAC Briefings, initially commissioned from Safe Lives, are now delivered in house by the Domestic Abuse Co-ordinator in partnership with Women's Aid/ Health Visiting and School Nursing colleagues. The local authority has undertaken a review of the training opportunities offered to partners which has led to specific courses being developed for Home Care and Telecare Staff in response to an identified need.
• Dumfries and Galloway is working to ensure that a joined-up, person- centred approach is taken to supporting women with multiple, complex needs across the local authority area. A conference was held in early 2020 to bring together local leads with responsibilities for gender based violence, community justice, suicide prevention and problem drug and alcohol use to identify shared outcomes that different policy areas are working towards and opportunities to develop joined-up pathways for women and children affected by these issues.
• Dundee has developed the ASPEN project which is an innovative collaboration between NHS Tayside and the third sector. The project has funded a consultant clinical psychologist to be based within Dundee Women's Aid in order to offer psychological assessment and treatment interventions to vulnerable women across the violence against women partnership organisations.