The Government’s VAWG strategy risks ambition without the investment to match

But will the long-awaited Strategy really deliver the lasting, systemic change that women and girls deserve?

As the CEO of Refuge, the UK’s largest specialist domestic abuse charity, I am confronted daily by the sheer scale of VAWG. At the root of this epidemic is misogyny, which permeates every aspect of our society, from our institutions to our everyday interactions.

To truly tackle VAWG, every government department must act in coordinated concert to dismantle the systemic misogyny that endangers women and girls. This is where the VAWG Strategy holds real potential.

In a positive step forward, the Strategy marks a significant shift in how the Government addresses VAWG by adopting a wide-reaching, cross-government approach. It rightly engages departments and sectors that have long been absent from this agenda, and with sustained accountability, this moment could represent the beginning of meaningful change.

The Strategy also takes an important step in explicitly acknowledging misogyny’s role in driving VAWG, setting out steps to address it in key systems such as schools and policing. As a mum myself, I welcome the Strategy’s emphasis on prevention and education, particularly its plans to engage boys and men in these conversations to help build a society in which all young people feel safe and respected.

However, we cannot forget about the services providing lifesaving support to thousands of survivors every year. As much as the Strategy could make a difference to women and girls, Refuge is concerned that it will not go far enough in rectifying long-standing weaknesses in the systems that support survivors.

Encouraging survivors to come forward must be matched by increasing services' capacity to respond. Yet, the Strategy fails to meaningfully address the deep and ongoing underfunding of specialist support services.

While the Government’s new commitment of an additional £19 million for safe accommodation over the next three years is welcome, it represents only a drop in the ocean compared to the number of survivors for whom safe housing could be the difference between life and death.

Without vital investment, the Strategy risks directing survivors to a system already stretched beyond capacity.

Looking ahead, the VAWG Strategy’s impact will rely on sustained leadership and robust accountability across government – and on urgently addressing the chronic underfunding of specialist services.

Without this, women and girls will continue to pay the price.

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Gemma Sherrington is CEO of Refuge.

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