Independent Strategic Review of Funding and Commissioning of Violence Against Women and Girls Services: call for evidence

Independent Strategic Review of Funding and Commissioning of Violence Against Women and Girls Services : Call for Evidence

A call for evidence to inform the development of a new funding model for violence against women and girls services in Scotland.

The independent Strategic Review of Funding and Commissioning of Violence Against Women and Girls services is seeking written views from individuals and organisations to aid its work in developing a new funding model that will ensure high quality, accessible specialist services across Scotland to support those who have experienced any form of violence against women and girls.

The call for evidence will run for 8 weeks and seeks views on the following topics in line with the Terms of Reference for the review:

• The types of services that should be available for women, children and young people experiencing any form of violence against women and girls
• Who should provide these services
• Whether access to services for those experiencing violence against women and girls should be a right in law
• How barriers to services can be removed
• How the quality of services can be ensured across Scotland
• Whether services and providers should be based on local need
• Action that should be taken to address unmet need and regional disparities
• How to include those who have experienced violence against women and girls in the co-design/evaluation of services
• The optimum length of funding periods to ensure sustainability of services
• Requirements around funding application processes
• Action that should be taken to reduce/mitigate the impacts of violence against women and girls in Scotland

The call for evidence does not include the provision of services for perpetrators since the remit of the review is to focus on services for women, children and young people who are victims.

We know that discussing aspects of gender based violence can be difficult; please see below for a list of resources for support:

• Scotland's Domestic Abuse and Forced Marriage Helpline - provides confidential information and support to anyone affected by forced marriage or domestic abuse. The Helpline is available 24/7, 365 days a year on 0800 0271234. For information on your local Women's Aid group or on refuge accommodation, please visit Scottish Women's Aid.
• Rape Crisis Scotland – The helpline can be contacted on 08088 01 03 02 and is available daily from 5pm- midnight offering free and confidential support and information to survivors of sexual violence, their friends, relatives and workers.
• NSPCC Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) Helpline – The FGM Helpline is available 24/7 on 0800 028 3550 and offers a free and anonymous service for anyone who is worried about a child who is at risk of or has had FGM.
• Amina– The helpline offers free and confidential support for Muslim and BME women across Scotland. It can be contacted on 0808 801 0301 and is available between 10am-4pm Monday to Friday.
• LGBT Helpline Scotland – provides information and emotional support to the entire diversity of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community across Scotland, including queer, intersex, asexual people and all identities under the LGBTQIA+ umbrella.The helpline can be contacted on 0300 123 2523 and is available Tuesdays and Wednesdays 12-9pm and Thursdays and Sundays 1-6pm.
• The Scottish Women's Rights Centre – provides free advice and support to women aged 16 years and over who have been affected by violence or abuse and workers and others services working with women affected by gender-based violence. The helpline can be contacted on 08088 010 789 and is available every Thursday between 1.30-4.30pm.

Responding to this Call For Evidence

We are inviting responses to this call for evidence by 1 August 2022.

Please respond to this call for evidence using the Scottish Government's consultation hub, Citizen Space. Access and respond to this call for evidence online at independent strategic review of funding and commissioning of violence against women and girls services: call for evidence. You can save and return to your responses while the call for evidence is still open. Please ensure that call for evidence responses are submitted before the closing date of 1 August 2022.

If you are unable to respond using our consultation hub, please complete and return the Respondent Information Form to:

VAWG Funding Review Secretariat
Scottish Government
150 Broomielaw
5 Atlantic Quay
Glasgow
G2 8LU

Handling your response

If you respond using the consultation hub, you will be directed to the About You page before submitting your response. Please indicate how you wish your response to be handled and, in particular, whether you are content for your response to published. If you ask for your response not to be published, we will regard it as confidential, and we will treat it accordingly.

All respondents should be aware that the Scottish Government is subject to the provisions of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 and would therefore have to consider any request made to it under the Act for information relating to responses made to this consultation exercise.

If you are unable to respond via Citizen Space, please complete and return the Respondent Information Form included in this document.

To find out how we handle your personal data, please see our privacy policy.

Next steps in the process

Where respondents have given permission for their response to be made public, and after we have checked that they contain no potentially defamatory material, responses will be made available to the public at Citizen Space. If you use the consultation hub to respond, you will receive a copy of your response via email.

Following the closing date, all responses will be analysed and considered along with any other available evidence to help us. Responses will be published where we have been given permission to do so. An analysis report will also be made available.

Comments and complaints

If you have any comments about how this consultation exercise has been conducted,

please send them to the contact address above or at VAWGfundingreview@gov.scot.

Scottish Government consultation process

Consultation is an essential part of the policymaking process. It gives us the opportunity to consider your opinion and expertise on a proposed area of work.

You can find all our consultations online: Citizen Space. Each consultation details the issues under consideration, as well as a way for you to give us your views, either online, by email or by post.

Responses will be analysed and used as part of the decision making process, along with a range of other available information and evidence. We will publish a report of this analysis for every consultation. Depending on the nature of the consultation exercise the responses received may:

• indicate the need for policy development or review
• inform the development of a particular policy
• help decisions to be made between alternative policy proposals
• be used to finalise legislation before it is implemented

While details of particular circumstances described in a response to a consultation exercise may usefully inform the policy process, consultation exercises cannot address individual concerns and comments, which should be directed to the relevant public body.