National Developments

In recent years there has been increased public awareness of the nature, extent and impact of violence against women. In the UK, both the Westminster Government and Scottish Executive have recognised the role and responsibility of public services to tackle violence against women and have sought to promote a multi-agency partnership approach to this work at national and local levels.

In Scotland, the Executive developed a National Strategy to Address Domestic Abuse and established a National Working Group on Domestic Abuse to take forward this work.

The National Strategy to Address Domestic Abuse is underpinned by three key themes:

Prevention: Active prevention of domestic abuse of both women and children
Protection: Appropriate legal protection for women or children who experience domestic abuse
Provision: Adequate provision of support services for women and children

The National Group has undertaken a range of initiatives to further this work including public awareness campaigns, commissioning of research to further knowledge of the issue and managing the process of funding action at a local authority level.

In 2003, a Prevention National Strategy was published, followed by a Domestic Abuse National Training Strategy in 2004. Together these strategies have bolstered plans and activities to tackle violence against women.

In addition the Executive has published guidance aimed at improving responses of front-line health service providers, and more recently guidance to local services to support planning and development of responses to children affected by domestic abuse.

Since November 2003 the Executive has broadened the scope of its work on violence against women from beyond its initial focus on domestic abuse. The Executive has recently established an Expert Working Group to propose a working definition of violence against women and suggestions on how this might be incorporated into national strategies. The Group is also working to develop a strategy that takes into account the continuum of violence against women. Together these strategies and initiatives send a clear message that national government is serious in it’s commitment to ending violence against women.