Councils can’t deliver on VAWG alone
The Government’s pledge to halve violence against women and girls within a decade is the kind of ambition the country needs.
But women and girls will not be made safer by mission statements.
They will be made safer by what changes on the ground – in services, in schools, on our streets, and in the systems that too often let perpetrators repeat their harm.
Councils have been doing that work for years.
We support survivors, commission specialist services, provide safe accommodation, lead safeguarding arrangements, convene community safety partnerships and drive prevention through public health and education.
Local government is where national policy becomes real – or fails.
That is why the new cross-government strategy must be judged by its deliverability, not its rhetoric.
There is much to welcome in the strategy’s recognition that violence and abuse are preventable harms. The focus on prevention and early intervention is right. The emphasis on perpetrator accountability is overdue. And the commitment to trauma-informed support reflects what councils and specialist providers have long argued.
However, the strategy still falls short in a basic respect: it does not treat local government as the key delivery partner it depends upon.
“The new cross-government strategy must be judged by its deliverability, not its rhetoric”
The document sets expectations for joined-up local action yet overlooks the very partnership infrastructure that makes that action possible.
Community safety partnerships are barely visible. Safeguarding, housing and public health are central to delivery, but too often spoken about as if they will simply absorb new demands.
While headline funding figures are cited, it remains unclear how much is genuinely new, how much is recycled, and how much will reach the services facing the greatest pressure.
We also cannot ignore the context in which this strategy will land.
Councils are being asked to deliver long-term reform while coping with severe financial constraints, workforce shortages and major structural change across the public sector – including shifts in local government structures, policing governance and NHS arrangements.
If implementation guidance is slow to arrive, funding is short-term, or accountability is muddled, ambition will dissipate into fragmentation.
The Government has acknowledged that reporting of incidents of violence against women and girls may rise before it falls.
That should be seen as progress – but it will increase demand for local services immediately.
Ministers must be honest about what that means and back councils and specialist providers with sustainable, multi-year funding and clear delivery frameworks.
If we are serious about prevention, we must be serious about men and boys – about tackling misogyny, challenging harmful norms and reducing reoffending through coordinated local and national action.
Halving violence against women and girls is achievable. But it will not be delivered by central government alone.
It will be delivered in villages, towns and cities by councils, partners, communities and people, and only if government matches its ambition with clarity, trust and the resources to act.