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| In Beijing in 1995, the fourth world conference on women focused on violence against women giving the issue international prominence and urging action. The conference adopted a "Global Platform for Action" to improve the status of women world-wide, calling on all governments to "take action to tackle the causes of violence against women" and suggesting a combination of legislation, improved service responses and awareness-raising to do this. The UK Government is a signatory to the Global Platform. As part of the Government response, the Scottish Office Central Research Unit commissioned a piece of research which took place from October 1996 - October 1997, to examine current service provision to women experiencing domestic violence in Scotland. The research involved both questionnaire and interview studies of service providers and service users, and identified a number of gaps in both the quantity and quality of services, all of which were seen to constrain their availability to women experiencing domestic violence. The report contains recommendations for action to address these issues. |
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| Main Findings |
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- Access to services is constrained by a lack of knowledge and information on the part of both service providers and women themselves about services available to meet the needs of women experiencing domestic violence. This lack of information relates both to the role of the relevant service providers and the means of using the services;
- Physical provision of services is spread unevenly throughout Scotland with a concentration of services in city and urban areas and women in rural communities having the lowest levels of provision overall, as well as the greatest barriers to gaining access to services. Service providers in these areas also experience difficulties in meeting their needs;
- Service responses to women seeking support vary widely, in terms of service providers' understanding of the issues and their actual practice. Although there were some examples of good practice, a range of inappropriate responses from individual service providers were identified in the research;
- There are few multi-agency responses to domestic violence at a local level in Scotland and little monitoring of the use of services by women experiencing domestic violence and the nature of the services provided;
- Overall, services to women experiencing domestic violence were found to be inconsistent across Scotland, with little co-ordination of strategic responses to domestic violence either at a national or local level.
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| Domestic Violence |
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| The issue of domestic violence has, over the past two decades, been recognised as affecting a large number of women across a range of social groups and communities, with estimates varying but prevalence studies suggesting figures of at least 25%. Although there are well-documented difficulties in the availability of statistics, (with, for example, the 'private' nature of domestic violence, differences in definition, under-reporting for a range of reasons and lack of recording by agencies), there has been an overall increase in the reporting of domestic violence and in the demand for services over the past 10 years, recognised by organisations such as Women's Aid, dealing directly on a daily basis with women experiencing domestic violence. |
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| There has also been a growing number of initiatives and developments in this area at international, national and local levels, with, for example, a series of recommendations and resolutions being produced by the Council of Europe. Domestic violence has also been the focus of much work by the United Nations in the 1980s and 1990s. Individual countries have also made legislative changes to recognise domestic violence, or have developed support to women through the provision of a range of services and awareness-raising work. |
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| It is, however, recognised that there remain problems in both the level and the quality of provision, with variations between different organisations in their recognition of the issues, their levels of understanding and their responses, both at a service level and to individual women seeking help. Although, therefore, progress has been made, much domestic violence remains unrecognised and many services to women remain underdeveloped. |
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| The main aim of the research, in this context, was therefore to examine in more detail the services available in Scotland to women experiencing domestic violence, to identify gaps in the type, quality or geographical location of service provision and to suggest improvements based on these findings. |
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| Services Available |
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| It was found that women experiencing domestic violence may seek support from a wide range of service providers to meet a range of needs, with the average number of services contacted by individual women being 8. Those involved in providing support included informal sources such as friends, relatives and neighbours, and more formal providers such as, for example, the police, housing organisations, Women's Aid, Social Work Departments, health services, Education Departments, Benefits Agency, solicitors and a variety of other voluntary organisations. |
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| In terms of the availability of these services, it was found that, although many issues affect the ability of women to gain access to services, a number of geographical issues were particularly relevant to this. It was found that, with the concentration of services in cities and population centres, women in rural authorities faced problems with the availability of services (e.g. the absence or lack of office bases or of organisations such as Women's Aid), the distances to services, the lack of transport and the lack of childcare. There was also a lack of access to housing on leaving, and difficulties for some women in terms of lack of privacy, 'tolerance' of domestic violence and their consequent isolation. |
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| These issues also affected some women living in rural parts of the more urban authorities, and service providers themselves also faced difficulties in provision to rural areas, with a lack of staff, lack of resources to undertake outreach work and difficulties in providing emergency services. Women with disabilities and women from ethnic minority groups were also found to face particular barriers to their access to services. Although, therefore, the more urban authorities were not without problems, the rural areas faced the most severe geographical difficulties. |
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| Service Providers' Views |
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| In the questionnaires and interviews, service providers highlighted a range of issues which affected the quality of their services to women experiencing domestic violence, with a range of specific problems seen to be relevant to individual services, such as, for example, the lack of housing available, the time and resources available to deal with the issue, constraints of legislation, variations in individual staff attitudes and constraints in the actual nature of the services being provided. Within and across services there were also found to be major common issues, such as problems in defining domestic violence, variations in levels of understanding of the issue and confusion in the nature of the roles of different services and the translation of their expressed roles into practice. With the exception of the police, Housing Departments and Women's Aid, there was little evidence of a policy framework or operational guidance for service providers' involvement in domestic violence, and there were variations in actual practice even where this was the case. |
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| Many organisations did not have staff with specific responsibility for domestic violence or specific budgetary provision, with most staff in most organisations having received no training in relation to the issue, and any existing training focusing on service issues rather than more general awareness-raising. There was found to be little monitoring, statistics-gathering or joint-working, with few multi-agency groups and little evidence of area-based strategies. |
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| Service Users' Views |
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| Women in the study were found to have contacted a wide range of services for a wide range of types of support, with the most common contacts found to be with Women's Aid, Housing Departments, solicitors, Benefits Agency, friends, relatives, neighbours, the police and GPs. In terms of services sought, the commonest were found to be refuge/accommodation and emotional support from informal contacts; the removal of a partner, protection and safety from the police; rehousing from housing organisations; support with mental health issues and emotional support from GPs and Health Visitors; support for children from Education Departments, financial support from the Benefits Agency, legal services from solicitors and advice/support from other voluntary organisations. |
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| There were, however, wide variations in whether or not the service which was sought was provided and in whether or not women found the service which they received to be helpful. For example, although 67% of women interviewed using the support of friends, relatives and neighbours found this to be helpful, as did 91% of those using Women's Aid, only 33% found the police response helpful. In addition, only 48% of those interviewed using Housing or Social Work Departments found their response to be helpful. A range of issues were highlighted in relation to problems with the specific responses of individual service providers. |
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| In addition, common issues across services included examples of service providers taking no action, failing to provide the services sought, failing to understand the issues and providing inappropriate responses. Women also pointed to a lack of information and lack of publicity about the services, and a lack of knowledge or inappropriate attitudes by staff, the daunting nature of the help-seeking process and fear of discovery, the range of service providers involved, the lack of services to children and the lack of follow-up support. |
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| The Recommendations |
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| On the basis of all of the findings, recommendations were made at both a national and local level. A lead role for central government, via the Scottish Office was envisaged in raising the profile of domestic violence and in involving service providers at the highest level in identifying and implementing service changes. The development of legislation and policy guidance were also seen to be required to promote understanding of the issues and the role of services, along with a public awareness role to challenge myths and stereotypes surrounding domestic violence and to make information available. Finally, the provision of support to service providers is seen to be required from central government, in order to help to ensure their ability to meet the needs identified. |
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| In terms of service providers, it is recommended that they should address the issue of domestic violence on a local basis, particularly in the areas of policy and strategy issues, monitoring and quality, information and awareness-raising, multi-agency work, the development of training and the general development of services, including addressing the service-specific problems identified within the report. It is also recommended that service providers undertake regular monitoring of the quality of their services, and examine the views of women using these services. The need to address the provision of access to services for all women is also stressed, in order to tackle some of the physical / geographical barriers which have been identified. |
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| The report concludes that these developments are required in order to address domestic violence in a co-ordinated and coherent way, to ensure that women in Scotland have access to a range of services and support which can begin to address their needs and enable and empower them to live free from domestic violence. |
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| At a national level, there was seen to be a need for national co-ordination of responses to domestic violence, production of legislation and guidelines, public awareness-raising and development of services. Agreement on a common definition of domestic violence would be an important step towards ensuring a consistent approach by policy makers and service providers. |
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Copies of the full research report, by Sheila Henderson of Reid - Howie Associates, are also available, priced £10, from:
The Stationery Office,
South Gyle Crescent,
EDINBURGH EH12 9EB
Tel: 0131 479 3141 The report can also be ordered online from:www.thestationeryoffice.co.uk |
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Further copies of this research findings or copies of a summary paper may be obtained, free of charge, from:
The Scottish Office Central Research Unit
Room J1-0 Saughton House
Broomhouse Drive
EDINBURGH EH11 3XA
Tel: 0131 244 2114 Fax: 0131 244 2109 |