Equally Safe delivery plan: year one update

Foreword

We are pleased to present the first annual progress report for Equally Safe, our strategy to prevent and eradicate violence against women and girls. This strategy was developed by the Scottish Government and COSLA in association with a wide range of partners from public and third sector organisations. It was first published in June 2014, with an updated version published in March 2016. Whilst the strategy provides an overarching framework for change, we recognise that we must take forward specific actions to realise our ambitions. In order to achieve this, and in partnership with a range of organisations, we developed our Equally Safe Delivery Plan. The Delivery Plan was published in November 2017 and promotes a collaborative approach that recognises the different roles and expertise of organisations from the public, private and third sectors. It contains a clear outcomes framework with indicators to demonstrate progress nationally and locally towards preventing and reducing this violence and tackling the pervasive inequalities that create the conditions for it.

There has been significant activity and progress in relation to a number of actions contained within the Delivery Plan and we are pleased with the progress that has been made. Some key pieces of work are highlighted within this report and we
are confident we will continue to build upon our success during the coming year. However, let us be clear that there remains much to do if we are to realise our ambitions to make Scotland truly Equally Safe.

There is no doubt that our Equally Safe strategy demands major and sustained change but we firmly believe that, by continuing to work together to deliver on our shared commitments, we can realise our ambition of preventing and eradicating violence against women and girls. We can create a Scotland to be proud of, where all of our citizens are Equally Safe and violence against women and girls is consigned to history.

Councillor Kelly Parry
COSLA
Spokespeson for Community Wellbeing

Christina McKelvie, MSP
Minister for Older People and Equalities

“Until we end violence against women, we cannot have true gender equality, either here in Scotland, or elsewhere around the world.”

Nicola Sturgeon, First Minister of Scotland