The Men and Boys Coalition has written to all Police and Crime Commissioners in England to notify them of a £15m fund to support victims of domestic, sexual and honour-based violence and urge them to consider placing bids for work to support male victims.
The fund is part of £80m pledged by the Government as part of its Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) strategy, which aims to tackle crimes categorised as crimes against women and girls, such as domestic, sexual and honour-based violence.
Despite the name of the strategy, and the Government’s categorisation of these crimes as “crimes against women and girls”, the Government also acknowledges that there are male victims of domestic, sexual and honour-based violence and has said that its VAWG strategy and funding is intended to help all victims of these crimes.
This month, as part of the £80m pledge, the Home Office put out a call for applications to “a £15million, three-year VAWG Service Transformation Fund to aid, promote and embed the best local practice and ensure that early intervention and prevention become the norm”.
The call for bids states: “We will make sure victims get the help they need when they need it, and that no victim is turned away. We know that these crimes are disproportionately gendered, which is why our approach is framed within a violence against women and girls strategy. However, we intend to benefit all victims of these crimes, and so proposals supporting men’s services will not be excluded from consideration.”
Because VAWG services are mainly commissioned at a local level by Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs), local authorities and health commissioners, the grants will be awarded to these bodies across England and Wales.
In response to the announcement of the fund, the Men and Boys Coalition, in consultation with key Coalition members working with male victims of domestic and sexual violence, has written to all Police and Crime Commissioners in England to notify them of the fund and urge them to consider placing a bid for services to support male victims.
The letter states:
“We would be grateful that if you are considering expressing an interest in bidding (either as a standalone bid, or in collaboration with other partners such as local authorities or health commissioners), that you consider:
- Including support for male victims of these crimes in an overall service bid
- A parallel bid for male victims of these crimes (if you are bidding for a womenonly service), or,
- A standalone bid to support male victims of these crimes in your community
The Coalition is clear that it does not believe that there should be a competition under the VAWG umbrella between funding for men/boys and women/girls services as it is not helpful with regard to gender relations, commissioning, service provision/provider, and, ultimately victims of these crimes. In the long term, we would rather see a parallel funding stream for male victims of these crimes which would then go some way in avoiding this situation.”
The full letter is available here: police-and-crime-commissioners-vawg-fund-letter