VAWG Strategy sets ambition, but lacks critical investment

The government has published its long-awaited Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Strategy, setting out an ambition to halve violence against women and girls within a decade through a stronger focus on prevention, early intervention and cross-government coordination.

While the strategy outlines wide-ranging reforms affecting schools, policing and social care, charities and specialist services have cautioned that its success will depend on whether ambitions are matched by sufficient investment and capacity on the ground.

Recently announced by Prime Minister Keir Starmer, the strategy places particular emphasis on addressing harmful attitudes and behaviours in childhood and adolescence. Ministers cite evidence that nearly 40 per cent of teenagers in relationships experience relationship abuse, and that a significant proportion of young men report positive views of misogynistic online influencers, as justification for intervening earlier to tackle root causes.

The strategy is backed by £20 million and includes new requirements for schools, enhanced guidance for police and social services, and the introduction of a helpline for young people concerned about their own behaviour. It forms part of a broader commitment by the government, which has for the first time declared violence against women and girls a national emergency.

A central pillar of the strategy is prevention through education. All secondary schools in England will be expected to provide a strong offer on healthy and respectful relationships by the end of the current Parliament, building on existing relationships, sex and health education (RSHE). Teachers will receive specialist training on topics including consent, online harms and the sharing of intimate images, supported by research into effective approaches for changing attitudes.

Schools will also be encouraged to identify young people considered at higher risk of adopting or acting on misogynistic views, with referrals for additional support and behaviour change interventions where appropriate. A new helpline will be launched to support young people worried about their own behaviour, reflecting a preventative approach that sits alongside safeguarding and criminal justice responses.

Alongside the education and early intervention measures and work to support frontline professionals, the Government says it will take forward a dedicated programme of work to tackle all forms of child sexual abuse and exploitation, including developing improved training for social workers, new practice guides for practitioners and improved support for CSA victims within relevant health settings.

The Government says it will also invest tens of millions a year from 2025 to bolster child and family social workers’ capacity and skills, including to better identify risk and intervene early on VAWG.

The strategy also proposes enrolling children who display harmful behaviours towards siblings, parents or caregivers into behaviour change programmes, signalling an increased role for children’s social care and early help services in responding to intra-familial harm.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the measures were intended to stop harm before it starts, arguing that toxic ideas are taking hold too early and going unchallenged. Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson highlighted the importance of early intervention, drawing on her experience working in a women’s refuge and stressing that systems should not wait until harm has already occurred.

The strategy includes a renewed focus on teenage relationship abuse, following several high-profile cases in which young women were killed by former partners while still adolescents. New guidance will be developed for police and social services on responding to abuse in teenage relationships, and the domestic abuse legal framework will be reviewed to better reflect young people’s experiences.

A major research programme will examine how police, schools and social care currently approach teenage relationship abuse, with findings intended to inform future policy and practice. For social workers, this signals increased expectations around identification, assessment and multi-agency collaboration in cases involving adolescents, as well as greater scrutiny of how thresholds and responses are applied across agencies.

Safeguarding Minister Jess Phillips described the strategy as a shift away from treating violence against women and girls as inevitable, stating that prevention, accountability and early action must operate together if lives are to be saved.

Victim-campaigners whose families have been affected by domestic abuse, stalking and homicide broadly welcomed the strategy’s ambition and its emphasis on prevention, accountability and joined-up working. Several highlighted that their campaigning efforts had focused on closing gaps in policing, risk assessment and information sharing, and said the strategy’s coherence across these areas was a positive development.

However, national charities working directly with survivors have offered a more cautious assessment, warning that without significant additional funding the strategy risks raising expectations that frontline services cannot meet.

Gemma Sherrington, Chief Executive of Refuge, said the strategy set out an important ambition and welcomed its cross-government approach, protections for migrant survivors, stronger regulation of some forms of technology-facilitated abuse, and new requirements around police vetting and suspension. She also supported the emphasis on prevention and education, including engaging boys and men in challenging harmful attitudes.

At the same time, Refuge warned that the strategy does not adequately address what it described as long-standing and severe underfunding of specialist support services. The charity estimates an annual shortfall of £307 million across specialist VAWG services, including refuge and community-based provision. While the government has committed an additional £19 million for safe accommodation over three years, Refuge described this as insufficient relative to need, cautioning that encouraging survivors to seek help must be matched by the capacity of services to respond.

Refuge also raised concerns that without urgent investment, survivors may be directed into systems already stretched beyond capacity, limiting the strategy’s ability to deliver tangible improvements. While welcoming proposals to review commissioning arrangements and clarify responsibilities for funding specialist services, the charity called for robust consultation with the sector to ensure reforms are workable and survivor-centred.