Violence Against Women and Girls - Independent Strategic Review of Funding and Commissioning of Services minutes: August 2022

Attendees and apologies

Chair

• Lesley Irving

Advisory group attendees

• Professor Angela O’Hagan
• Katie Cosgrove 
• Katie Kelly (online)
• Malcolm Chisholm
• Mukami McCrum 
• Professor Philomena De Lima 
• Dr Claire Houghton

Secretariat

• Jane McAteer
• Eleanor Horne
• Johanna Davidson (online)

Items and actions

Welcome and introductions

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting, followed by a review of minutes from the last meeting. The advisory group (AG) accepted these as an accurate record of meeting three.

Actions

• Secretariat to upload minutes to the review’s webpage
• Secretariat to arrange meeting with AG member to discuss policy/spend analysis exercise

Call for evidence and engagement update

The AG reflected on modes of communication over the past few months and considered what methods to use to enable quick decisions to be agreed out with meetings. 

The Chair provided a breakdown of responses to the call for evidence and confirmed that she was pleased with the responses and outcome. It was noted that, whilst this did not represent the totality of the evidence that will be considered, it would still provide a good body of evidence to back up recommendations and interim findings would be available during the first week of September. It was further confirmed that responses had been received from a range of organisations and sectors but disappointment was expressed at the low local authority response. The Chair clarified that there would be wider engagement with local government professional families over the next few months, and a separate COSLA landscape report would be submitted later in the year to inform the recommendations.

The group had an in-depth discussion on the spread of responses to the call for evidence. The discussion confirmed the independence of the AG and that in its approach to analysing the range of evidence, the group is aware of and open to the breadth of perspectives raised within the call for evidence and engagement activities which will be reflected in the recommendations.

Members agreed that the review, in keeping with its intersectional focus, will adopt a pragmatic human rights based approach centred on inclusive and proportionate services – rooted in non-discrimination and non-regression - rather than one based on universal services and equal treatment. Equality is not about treating everyone the same and the review will consider the diversity of provision needed to reflect diversity of experiences and need.

The meeting ended at this point due to a fire alarm which led to the building being evacuated.

Actions

• the AG will consider a range of ways of communicating

Agenda for next meeting

• the suggested future meeting dates are Tuesday 13 September (online) 10:00 to 13:00 and Wednesday 26 October (Ayrshire) 13:00 to 14:00

Any other business

• N/A