Highland Council adopts "inclusive" domestic violence policy, against nationally agreed approach

[IwantToRetire]

Highland Council announced last month that a new all-inclusive approach to domestic abuse has been adopted by the region.

It now includes men, non-binary and trans people - a move away from the nationally agreed policy of “equally safe” which focuses on the protection of women and girls.

This sparked concern from Women’s Aid organisations across the Highlands fearing their services could be cut.

Questions were raised at the full council meeting about the decision-making behind the new policy, which according to Councillor Angela MacLean (Dingwall and Seaforth, Liberal Democrats) was “not a council decision”.

Her question was answered by Councillor David Fraser, chairman of the health, social care and wellbeing committee, who said that a report and review was "considered at a health and social care committee meeting in November 2024”.

He added that the “direction of travel was approved at a members Teams briefing on December 11, 2024”.

“It wasn't a decision by me, personally,” he added.

But Cllr MacLean responded: “From my recollection, that workshop was not a decision that was taken by council for changing direction.”

^https://www.ross-shirejournal.co.uk/news/how-confused-must-the-woman-be-council-to-hold-special-421900/^

Well, men, non-binary and trans women will presumably not be housed in the same refuges as women .... or will they? Even the council members don't seem to know. What a mess.

This has been looming for a while.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c98ezp4p55yo.amp

It's also looking like refuge funding will be cut

news.stv.tv/highlands-islands/cut-to-inverness-womens-aid-funding-would-put-lives-at-risk-amid-closure-fears

It's also looking like refuge funding will be cut

I think most of the loss of women's services throughout the UK have been based on cuts, taken by financial people. And they, like most of whichever Council, never even think what does this mean for women.

On one level this is why the TRAs are so sucessful. The existing long established MRA establishment never recognised women's rights, and of course would empathise with other men. At the expense of women.

Just to add I partly posted because there are stories like this every day all round the UK, but was pleased to see that someone had pointed out it is against agreed national policy. ie it is more than being a bean counter.

Is it UK National policy or Scottish though?

From my POV the Scottish powers that be don't seem to give a shit about women.

My daughter was assaulted by a Glaswegian bloke in our English home town 18 months ago resulting in not insignificant facial injuries. He promptly hopped on the first train over the border.

They knew who he was from the get go but had to invite him for questioning over the border in Durham...quelle surprise he didn't attend.

We've recently been informed that he's since been arrested twice in Scotland but they still can't do anything about DDs case because he's not set foot in England since.

The Scottish legal/political system is a fucking joke so this latest bullshit doesn't surprise me in the slightest.

This is Scotland's policy. I mentioned it more that anyone in Scotland was able to speak up for it, even if only something written on paper. As we know in practice even when saying that are women only some groups in Scotland aren't.

But good to know someone is prepared to speak up for it.

Cant find the latest version of this police by according to AI:

Policy on Women-Only Services:

• Framework, Not Mandate: Equally Safe provides a strategic framework, not a rigid rulebook for every service, requiring collaborative interpretation with partners.
• Funding & Implementation: Funding criteria, particularly for specialist services (like those for domestic abuse), have evolved to require consideration of inclusion plans for trans women, while also aiming to uphold single-sex provisions under the Equality Act.
• Balancing Inclusion & Single-Sex Needs: This has led to tension, with advocacy groups like For Women Scotland pointing out that funding guidance often pushes for self-identification inclusion, potentially conflicting with the legal right for single-sex services in certain contexts.
• Scottish Government Stance: Assurances have been given that organizations can utilize single-sex exceptions, but the implementation and clarity in funding criteria remain points of contention and ongoing discussion.

And assuming AI is right good to know that FWS have impacted on policy.

But as ever the gap between policy and practice is always huge.

Does anyone have a link fo the national policies? In NI VAWAG is including men too.

It seems like if you were so minded you could/should be able to trawl the Council meeting details and potentially access the briefing referred to. There really isn't enough to go on with this article, and it doesn't seem to be clear on what it's trying to report on, nor provide the necessary context to even extrapolate from.

On first glance, I think why shouldn't a local authority DV policy include men? Men also suffer from it. However, that's not to say that Women's Aid need to take men in, that's a different thing altogether and we should challenge funding criteria where it demands services deliver "inclusive" services, which are to the detriment of the core user. So in the case of Women's Aid, the clue is in the name. However, there should still be a policy and a process for supporting a man who reports DV.

as mentioned up thread, just google Equally Safe

On first glance, I think why shouldn't a local authority DV policy include men?

I think you have missed the point. Nobody is saying men shouldn't get support.

But this council has totally stopped the provision of women only services.

And there is loads of information about this as the local refuges have been campaigning.

In the past feminism was about for instance being part of a local women's group so that when instance like this happened women could campaign together.

Now we are all on the internet, and dont check our local news sources many women's services are being lost.

The campaign by these particular DV services in Scotland has been onoing for a least a month.

In fact it is quite strange and FWR doesn't have a core thread as it were, so that when news of a women's service being threatened with closure happens it can be posted on that thread.

Nobody should experience DV and every victim should get support, but funding and resources should be proportionate. Fewer men experience domestic abuse, fact. It's women who are the majority of victims so women's service should attract the majority of funding. Also the pattern and types of abuse women face are different, they are sustained, more violent, more pervasive, and ultimately women are far more likely to end up murdered by their (usually male) perpetrator. Even where men are victims of abuse the perpetrator is still more likely to be male (same sex relationships).

By only funding 'inclusive' services they are by default de-funding Women's Aid. As Women's Aid do not provide services for men.

The point being made is that decisions being made a local authority level to de-fund women's services flies in the face of Scotlands national VAWG strategy.

https://www.gov.scot/publications/equally-safe-scotlands-strategy-preventing-eradicating-violence-against-women-girls/

A thread to keep track of all women's services under threat is an excellent suggestion. This is all being done incrementally in small pockets in a hope we don't notice, until the services are so far dismantled there's nothing left to save.