Woman's Aid funding streams: FOI Review

Information requested

"a list of all funding streams from the Scottish Government to Womans Aid from 1st April 2014 until present date".

Response

I have now completed my review of our response, dated 25 March, to your request, dated 11 March, under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA) for "a list of all funding streams from the Scottish Government to Womans Aid from 1st April 2014 until present date".

I have concluded that a different decision should be substituted. My reasoning is set out below.

In our initial response we refused your request under section 14(2) of FOISA as we considered it was identical or substantially similar to your request reference 202000016737, to which we have already provided a response. You asked for a review of this decision, because you had not received a list of funding streams for Woman’s Aid as you had not previously asked for it. In carrying out my review, I considered whether your request for a list of all funding streams from the Scottish Government to Women’s Aid from 1st April 2014 to the present date was a ‘substantially similar’ request to which you had already received a response, and I have determined that it was not. It is also my view that it would not have been possible for you, from the information supplied to you in 11 March in the form of payments from the Scottish Government Equality Budget to Scottish Women’s Aid, to discern whether this represented all funding streams from the Scottish Government to Scottish Women’s Aid.. I have therefore concluded that we were not entitled to apply section 14(2) in this instance.

I have now identified the ‘funding streams’ from the Scottish Government to Scottish Women’s Aid in the period from 1st April 2014 to the present date, and have provided details of these below. I apologise for not providing these sooner.

The Housing Voluntary Grant Scheme
The Housing Voluntary Grant Scheme is a competitive grant funding stream which supports third sector organisations to deliver housing related services and projects, including those aimed at tackling homelessness.
Since 1 April 2014, Scottish Women’s Aid has received funding of approx. £436,000 to prevent and tackle homelessness for women who are victims of domestic abuse.

The Children, Young People and Families Early Intervention and Adult Learning and Empowering Communities Fund
The Children, Young People and Families Early Intervention and Adult Learning and Empowering Communities Fund is a competitive grant funding stream which is intended to help children, families and communities across Scotland by supporting third sector organisations to tackle inequality and poverty. This fund replaced the Third Sector Early Intervention Fund from April 2016.

Since 1 April 2014, Scottish Women’s Aid has received funding of just over £600,000 from the Third Sector Early Intervention Fund and its successor fund.

Justice Funding
Since 1 April 2014, Scottish Women’s Aid has received funding from the Scottish Government Justice Budget for its Building Equality Project. It received £189,783 for the project in 2016-17, £152,558 in 2017-18 and £209,625 in 2018-19.
In 2018-19, £166,493 was paid to Scottish Women’s Aid from the Scottish Government Justice Budget to enable it to provide training on coercion and control to the Women’s Aid network following the passage of the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018.

COVID-19 Communities Fund
In the current 2020-2021 financial year, £1.350 million will be paid to Scottish Women’s Aid from the Scottish Government Communities Fund to cover a range of costs, including additional staff during the COVID-19 pandemic

Equality Budget
I note that a list of payments since 1 April 2014 from the Scottish Government Equality Budget to Scottish Women’s Aid was provided to you on 11 March in response to your FOI request of 18 February.
This funding includes payments to Scottish Women’s Aid for: the operation of the Scottish Domestic Abuse and Forced Marriage Helpline; core funding, otherwise referred to as the ‘Ending Domestic Abuse’ project, a project focussed on training of Independent Domestic Violence Advocates, and its Building Capacity Project.

About FOI

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