Violence Against Women and Girls: Strategic Review of Funding and Commissioning of Services Minutes: February 2023

Attendees and apologies

Chair

• Lesley Irving

Advisory Group attendees

• Dr Claire Houghton  
• Katie Cosgrove
• Malcolm Chisholm
• Professor Philomena De Lima (Online)
• Professor Angela O’Hagan (Online)

Secretariat

• Jane McAteer
• Rhona Gowans 

Apologies

• Mukami McCrum
• Katie Kelly

Items and actions

Welcome

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting, followed by a review of the minutes from the previous meeting. The advisory group (AG) accepted these as an accurate record of Meeting 8.

Actions:

• Secretariat to upload minutes to the review’s webpage.

Chair update: participation and engagement

The Chair gave an overview of the engagements undertaken since the January AG meeting and the key messages which were conveyed in these meetings. The Review met with a variety of organisations and stakeholders, including Rona MacKay, Convener of the Cross Party Group on Men’s Violence Against Women and Children and the Equality and Human Rights Budget Advisory Group. In addition, the chair participated in two lived experience engagements with the Scottish Women’s Aid Survivor Reference group and a roundtable with women of faith in Glasgow.

The Review also convened a roundtable event with the Scottish Government’s (SG) Equally Safe policy network and also met individually with policy officials who are currently working on the Ending Destitution Together strategy, and with the Minister for Equalities and Older People to provide an update on the work of the Review.

The Chair discussed the remaining meetings planned before the Review concludes its programme of engagement. This will include follow-up meetings with various SG policy officials to discuss third sector funding; the Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan, work on Mentors in Violence Prevention and equality and human rights. Roundtable sessions with individuals with lived experience will form the final engagements conducted for the purpose of gathering evidence for the Review.  

Development of recommendations

The Chair thanked the AG members for their contributions in reviewing some of the evidence gathered by the Review and facilitated a discussion around the preferred language for key groups and terms which will be used in the final report.

The Chair also shared initial thoughts for the Review’s recommendations and invited the AG to provide comments and suggestions on these. A wide-ranging discussion ensued in which it was agreed that there should be further exploration of some of the topics at the next AG meeting in March and to produce a set of underpinning principles in order to confirm the final recommendations.

The group reviewed the allocation of drafting responsibilities for the report which had been agreed at the previous AG meeting in January and agreed assignment of further sections to AG members.

Actions:

• Chair to draft principles for the recommendations and share with the group

Agenda for next meeting

The group agreed to change the March meeting date to avoid coinciding with planned strike action.

Actions:

• Secretariat to send out alternative dates for the March session

Any other business

An AG member informed the group that the Domestic Abuse Court Experiences report had been submitted to the Scottish Parliament and will be discussed at committee in March. The member will keep the group informed of this as it progresses.