Working in partnership with Public Health Scotland, Zero Tolerance and the Scottish Women’s Budget Group, the Improvement Service is supporting work to support local authorities to adopt a public health approach to preventing Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) by progressing activities that aim to tackle its root cause – women’s inequality.
Background
Equally Safe: Scotland’s Strategy for Preventing and Eradicating Violence Against Women and Girls recognises VAWG as a major public health and human rights issue that causes serious harm to not only the women, children and young people who are directly affected by it, but to Scotland’s population as a whole. While noting the need to ensure that victims and survivors of VAWG receive the support they need at the times they need it, Equally Safe sets out a commitment to work to prevent VAWG from occurring wherever possible by tackling its root cause, women’s inequality. In order to achieve this goal, Equally Safe highlights the importance of adopting a public health approach.
Aims and Overview
To support this vision, the Improvement Service, in collaboration with Zero Tolerance, Public Health Scotland, and Scottish Women’s Budget Group, have developed a practical guidance that aims to support practitioners and policy-makers to adopt a preventative approach to tackling VAWG through prioritising actions that the evidence-base suggests are most likely to tackle its root cause- gender inequality.
The practical guidance comes with a number of appendixes, which include a template for designing, implementing and evaluating policies or interventions, a theory of change for primary prevention and examples of good practice.
Read the full guidance.
Appendix 1 – A template for Designing, Implementing and Evaluating Policies or Interventions
Appendix 2 - Primary Prevention Theory of Change
Appendix 3 - Examples of Good Practice
Next Steps
To support the implementation of the Guidance, Expressions of Interest are currently open for local authorities who are interested in participating in an Action Learning Programme during 2026/27 to apply a gendered lens to a policy area that can play a key role in promoting women’s equality.
For more information, please contact VAW@ImprovementService.org.uk