Violence Against Women and Girls - Independent Strategic Review of Funding and Commissioning of Services: report

List of Recommendations

1. Legislation

Meeting the needs of women, children and young people in relation to VAWG requires legislative change that encompasses:

• The rights of women, children and young people to the full range of services set out in Chapter 4 of this report. This should include public duties on service providers to ensure that the full range of minimum core services are provided, and on prevention which could be included in the new suite of public sector equalityn duties developed as a result of the current review.
• Identifying children and young people experiencing domestic abuse as co-victims in relation to domestic abuse.
• Placing Violence Against Women Partnerships on a statutory footing, included in Public Protection arrangements at local authority level.
• Placing Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conferences and Multi Agency Tasking and Co-ordination on a statutory footing.
• Actioning the recommendation from the NACWG for a statutory underpinning for intersectional gender budget analysis, which could be secured through ensuring a commitment to human rights budgeting (as recommended in SNAP 2) through the forthcoming Human Rights Incorporation Bill.

2. Minimum core services to be funded

Chapter 4 sets out the minimum core services which must be funded for all women, children and young people who require them. The following specific recommendations are in addition to the above.

For women

3. Access to services should not be place or demand based, but rather provision made to ensure women can access services beyond their own local authority area if none are available locally.

4. 'By and for' services should be developed for women with a range of protected characteristics, prioritising minority ethnic women.

5. Women subject to NRPF who do not fall under the Destitute Domestic Violence Concession, should automatically be regarded as vulnerable if they have experienced any form of VAWG.

6. For women who sell or exchange sex, there may be other services required, and there is a need to progress work on a Scottish model to identify the range of responses.

7. Ensure the Istanbul Convention requirements for a 24/7 helpline for victims/survivors of all forms of VAWG are met, starting with a review of both national helplines and the development of single provision.

8. Services to support victims/survivors of rape and sexual assault, of any age, should be available in every local authority in Scotland, to meet different needs, while remaining driven by an intersectional gendered analysis and consistent with the aims of Equally Safe and service standards. This should be needs-led, and the provision should be structured in such a way as to meet the needs appropriately in different areas reflecting local needs and population/demographics. It could include co-location to improve signposting to services.

9. Develop a new model for refuge provision and safe accommodation, including a new programme of refuge development/upgrading to ensure the replacement of shared refuge provision and to meet the current target of 1 refuge space per 20,000 of the population.

For children and young people

10. Review with children and young people how to ensure we meet Istanbul and CRC requirements for 24/7 online/telephone help for child victims of VAWG.

11. Provision for children and young people experiencing rape and sexual assault or childhood sexual abuse should be reviewed by the Scottish Government and identified gaps addressed.

Immediate priorities

We have identified a small number of priorities which should be addressed immediately in order to establish the conditions for the new models of services and funding to be implemented.

12. Address and reduce waiting lists for VAWG support services to ensure that victims/survivors can get help to recover when they need it.

13. Different ways of managing waiting lists should be examined, which may include a trigger point mechanism whereby additional funds are released if waiting lists reach a certain point.

14. The Scottish Government and COSLA should develop and publish by December 2023 a timeline for full implementation of our recommendations over a reasonable period, setting out short, medium and longer term goals and setting out how survivors will be involved in the implementation process.

15. The SG and COSLA should work together to produce an accurate assessment of the current costs of VAWCYP nationally and locally (VAWPs should also be included in the local element).

16. Funding should be provided to support the development of VAWPs as a matter of urgency to create the infrastructure required to implement the new model and to enable them to undertake local needs assessments in partnership with Public Health.

17. Funding should be provided to ensure CEDAR is available in every local authority.

18. National co-ordination of CEDAR/MARACs/MATACs/MVP rollout and other national prevention work should be established.

19. A national VAWCYP core dataset and evaluation methodology should be developed.

20. A standing committee for minority ethnic women and girls should be established to scrutinise, inform and advise on policies and practice on all matters relating to VAWG.

Participation

All of the participants in our engagement events wanted an opportunity to participate. This needs to be adequately resourced to ensure it is done meaningfully and respectfully.

21. Include participation of women, children and young people in the development and implementation of the new model and the needs of all victims/survivors of VAWGCYP.

Mainstream services

As only a minority of victims/survivors use specialist services, mainstream services have a crucuial role to play to responding to VAWCYP.

22. Develop a whole system, intersectional, gendered, child rights response to VAWGCYP as a prerequisite to achieving the transformational shift required, including training for staff in mainstream services, delivered through a national training strategy. On the evidence gathered by the Review, specific attention needs to be given to training on advocacy for sheriffs, and on disability, particularly learning disability.

23. Safe & Together training should be mandatory for all staff working with children and families.

24. Local investment in leadership and management to support a whole systems approach to VAWG.

Proposed model of funding

Our proposed model of funding restores decision making about local services to local authorities and their local partners.

25. There will be no national, competitive fund for essential services, as currently in place provided by the SG. Funding for VAWG will be provided through collaborative commissioning arrangements as described in Chapter 10. The current national, competitive fund for essential services provided by the SG will be replaced by ring fenced, devolved funding for VAWG minimum core services to local authorities and their statutory partners.

26. VAWG services should be agreed for at least an initial three year period, with the option of two further years thereafter.

27. Local investment is required to support the shift from crisis services to prevention and early intervention.

28. VAWG funding should increase in line with increased costs linked to the retail price index year on year.

Note - Longer term recommendations on sustainable funding, embedded into the structure of spend across government will take some time to realise. In the interim, we recommend that specific VAWG funding is identified across key portfolios of health, education, justice etc. We also recommend that there are resources identified to support the development of a whole systems approach, service improvement and workforce development.

29. The Scottish Government will continue to fund national work and services eg helpline/s and will run a competitive fund for innovation.

30. The SG will fund national prevention work, including campaigns and the establishment of the Istanbul Convention Implementation Observatory and a VAWG Commissioner.

Future funding

Issues with recruitment and retention of experienced staff were raised with us frequently. We also gave thought to how funding might be provided in the much longer term.

31. Pay scales which offer progression and are matched with the responsibilities of each post, should be established across VAWG funding, and work undertaken to ensure that experienced staff have opportunities to progress to jobs with higher skills. Starting salaries should be commensurate with the skilled nature of the posts, and match relevant local authority pay scales.

32. In the longer term, self-directed support could be explored as an alternative or complementary means of funding VAWG services.

Budgeting for VAWG

We found significant difficulties in trying to establish how much is being spent at present on VAWCYP in Scotland and the following recommendations are aimed at addressing that.

33. Scotland should aim to work towards meeting Women Against Violence Europe's call for 10% of the annual cost of VAWG to be provided in funding for services to tackle it, from the Scottish budget as a whole,and should develop an action plan towards a minimum of 10% of estimated costs of VAWG as a baseline for funding commitments from the Scottish Government.

34. A gender analysis of Scottish Government spend should be conducted including intersectional data, local government and other public service spend in order to meet reporting and timescale requirements of GREVIO.

35. Map spending on prevention and support for VAWG on to international human rights conventions: CRC; CEDAW; ICESCR; Istanbul Convention.

36. Conduct analysis to assess whether the rights of women, children and young people are being respected, protected and fulfilled in the spending commitments, allocations, and spend of public finance in Scotland and identify key next steps.

37. Improve transparency of allocations, spend, and outcomes in relation to VAWG in Scottish budget documentation, evaluation of outcomes, and indicators informing National Performance Framework.

Violence against women partnerships

VAWPs should have a key role in the new model of funding and we have therefore made a number of recommendations to ensure they are supported and developed to rise to that challenge.

38. Investment in developing the infrastructure of VAWPs is essential and should include appropriate levels of resource for coordination and administration, and capacity building to support monitoring and evaluation.

39. VAWPs should have an independent Chair.

40. Resources should be provided to support VAWPs to undertake a strategic commissioning role within their local areas to meet local needs and circumstances and to carry out local needs assessments.

41. VAWPs should be resourced to ensure that the experience of women, children and young people informs their local strategy and that their work and is informed by and grounded in an intersectional understanding of VAWG.

Governance and Standards

Governance will be an important aspect of ensuring that our recommendations are implemented and progress is maintained. Ensuring high quality services are available in every part of Scotland was part of our remit, and our recommendations on standards will support this.

42. A Violence Against Women and Girls Commissioner should be appointed covering all aspects of VAWCYP, along with the establishment of an Istanbul Implementation Observatory which will assess progress against international standards set by GREVIO.

43. Scottish Government oversight and drive for implementation should always sit at Cabinet Secretary level and not be delegated to ministers. The eradication of VAWCYP, as a transversal policy issue, is the responsbility of the full cabinet, and should be driven by a nominated Cabinet Secretary and visible across all portfolios. At civil service level, all Directors General should have an accountability and delivery responsibility for VAWG included in their role.

44. Scottish Women's Aid and Rape Crisis Scotland's national service standards should be used to form the initial basis of ensuring a consistent quality of services throughout Scotland.

45. Standards for specialist services should include training on e.g. intersectional approaches and disability/learning disability.

46. Standards around accessibility should also be developed.

47. The Improvement Service Equally Safe Quality Standards and Performance Framework for VAWPs should be reviewed and amended to take the new statutory footing circumstances into account.

48. Standards for domestic abuse court advocacy for children and young people should be developed.

49. A bespoke inspection regime for Women's Aid refuge services should be developed and implemented.

50. The Scottish Government and COSLA should provide a report to the Scottish Parliament on implementation of the new model by December 2024 and annually thereafter.

Prevention

A major increase in our support for prevention will be required to enable us to meet the aspirations of Equally Safe.

51. Led by partners including the Observatory, Public Health, SG and COSLA, there should be allocation of dedicated resources to develop a national programme on prevention that will identify the actions required at the individual, interpersonal, community and societal level as set out in the UN framework. This should include national awareness raising campaigns by the Scottish Government and in partnership with others and a training programme for all professionals.

52. A public health model should be utilised to identify, test and upscale interventions that address the limitations to progressing work on prevention, and that adopts an explicitly intersectional approach.

53. The national rollout of MVP, alongside other schools based prevention approaches, should continue until it is available in every high school.