Three year funding under the Equality Budget

Three year rolling funding is being made available to third sector equality and violence against women and girls organisations for the first time, providing security to vital services.

All funding under the Scottish Government’s Equality Budget will move from one year to three years, providing vital reassurance to organisations that prevent violence against women and girls, as well as those who work to tackle hate crime and discrimination, increase representation and enhance community cohesion.

The Scottish Government is currently investing £20.3 million over 2016-17 through the Equality Budget to support a range of projects and initiatives. This includes £11.8 million investment over 2016-17 for a range of front line specialist services working with women and children who have experienced domestic abuse.  

Equalities Secretary Angela Constance announced the move to three-year funding while visiting Women’s Aid Stirling, where she met with staff and volunteers.

She said:

“We are committed to tackling all forms of violence against women and girls, and to supporting the organisations that provide this vital support.

“I’m delighted to announce we will be moving to a three year funding programme, in particular for projects supporting women and girls affected by violence. This will provide greater clarity and reassurance for this sector, allowing them to plan for the longer term.

“These organisations do a huge amount of work in supporting those affected by violence against women and girls, and we want to enable them to plan and function as well as possible. Enabling and empowering women to leave violent situations requires long term work and planning, and so we know longer-term reassurance, and preventative action, is important to this sector in particular.”

Marsha Scott, Chair of Scottish Women’s Aid, said:

“We are delighted to hear contracts funded from the Equality Budget will span 3 years.  It is hard to overstate how important a more stable and efficient funding environment is to our Women’s Aid groups, our women’s sector partners who do such important work to address the causes of domestic abuse and other forms of violence against women and girls, and to ourselves.  

“Three-year contracts allow us all to spend more time on service provision, and investment in early intervention.  Most important, perhaps, the government’s announcement sends the signal to other funders and to women and children experiencing domestic abuse that Women’s Aid services are stable and sustainable and Scotland’s eyes are on the prize of ending domestic abuse.”

Sandy Brindley, National Coordinator of Rape Crisis Scotland, said:

“Equality organisations throughout Scotland play a vital role in protecting and promoting the human rights of different groups of people within Scottish society. Security of funding is crucial for organisations such as rape crisis centres. 

“We are delighted to hear that a three year funding package is going to be made available. This will give organisations such as ours some security moving forward.  Crucially, it means that we can dedicate more resources to our work supporting survivors of sexual violence, rather than filling out yearly application forms.”