UK’s New Strategy to Combat Violence Against Women and Girls Faces Funding Concerns
Despite being hailed as a significant step forward, the UK government’s new strategy to address violence against women and girls (VAWG) is drawing criticism for insufficient funding, leaving frontline services struggling and raising doubts about its long-term effectiveness.
The strategy, presented in the House of Commons on Thursday, aims to prevent abuse and tackle harmful behaviors, particularly among young boys, through education on healthy relationships and the dangers of pornography. Safeguarding Minister Jess Phillips described the £1 billion initiative as “more than a document,” asserting it represents “a call from a government that recognises this as a national emergency.” She emphasized that ending violence against women and girls is “the work of us all.”
The plan outlines cross-governmental efforts focused on prevention, including sending experts to secondary schools to educate students about consent and the risks of sharing explicit images. The strategy also proposes behavioral courses for young people identified as potentially at risk of causing harm, alongside measures to support victims and hold perpetrators accountable.
However, campaigners warn that the allocated funding falls drastically short of what is needed to realize the government’s ambitions. Andrea Simon, director of the End Violence Against Women coalition, acknowledged the strategy as a “welcome milestone” but pointed out that the £3 million earmarked for a teacher training pilot program would “barely touch the surface” of the required infrastructure investment. She highlighted a critical funding crisis facing organizations supporting abused women, a situation the strategy offers limited relief for. “The delays to this strategy’s publication have only made this worse,” Simon stated.
Concerns extend beyond overall funding levels. The domestic abuse commissioner for England and Wales echoed these anxieties, stating that while the strategy appropriately recognizes the scale of the challenge and the need to address underlying misogynistic attitudes, “the level of investment to achieve this falls seriously short.” She warned that without sustainable funding for specialist services, increased referrals resulting from the new measures could overwhelm the system.
A source within the sector expressed disappointment with the strategy’s lack of clarity and tangible support for frontline services. “It’s all very kind of top level and vague,” the source said. “All of the initiatives do nothing to alleviate the enormous strain on frontline services. The announcements are actually an investment into education and health, not into the sector.”
Despite these concerns, some aspects of the strategy have been positively received. Karen Ingala Smith, co-founder of the Femicide Census, welcomed the strategy’s explicit recognition of femicide – the killing of women by men – as the most severe form of violence against women and girls.
The strategy has also sparked controversy surrounding comments made by Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch. Badenoch suggested that plans to address misogyny in schools were prompted by the Netflix drama Adolescence and argued the focus should be on preventing individuals “from cultures that don’t respect women” from entering the country.
Ghadah Alnasseri, co-executive director at Imkaan, a charity supporting women from minority ethnic backgrounds, condemned Badenoch’s remarks as “very dangerous,” “deeply inaccurate,” and “spreading racism.” Alnasseri emphasized that the majority of victims of sexual and domestic abuse know their abusers, undermining the suggestion that the issue is primarily linked to immigration.
The debate surrounding the strategy underscores the complex challenges in addressing VAWG and the critical need for sustained, targeted investment in both prevention and support services. While the government’s commitment to tackling this national emergency is acknowledged, campaigners remain skeptical that the current funding levels will be sufficient to deliver meaningful change.
