Abuse
Preventing Domestic Abuse
A National Strategy
MINISTERIAL FOREWORD
We are now entering the second term of the Scottish Parliament. Tackling domestic abuse was a priority for the Scottish Executive in its first term and it will be no less of one in the second. In the past 4 years, the Scottish Executive has worked, with its partners, to raise awareness of the issue and to bring about improvements in the protection and in the provision of appropriate support services available to women and their children who experience abuse.
We have achieved a great deal in our first term. All local authority areas now have active multi-agency domestic abuse groups. Membership includes a "core group" of police, Women's Aid, Victim Support, Health Boards and social work, housing, education and community safety council departments. In addition some groups have members representing Procurators Fiscal, Benefits Agency, Family Mediation, Barnardos, Children First and other voluntary action groups. These are our partners and stakeholders.
I am delighted to take over the domestic abuse portfolio and I offer my personal commitment that I will work with all our partners to bring about the kind of society we want in Scotland - one where women and children can live free from the fear of abuse.
We are committed to implementing the National Strategy to Address Domestic Abuse and we are steadily working our way through the Action Plan it contains. Our most notable successes have been the 10 million Refuge Development Programme and the Domestic Abuse Service Development Fund. We also have our ground breaking awareness raising campaigns, the latest of which, "Dolls House" focuses on the effect that domestic abuse has on the children in the family.
While it is very important that women who experience domestic abuse should receive all the help and support they need, our ultimate goal must be to stop it from ever happening in the first place. The National Strategy requires us to develop a national prevention strategy rooted in primary prevention. And that is exactly what we have done. This Strategy has been produced by a Working Group set up by the National Group to Address Violence Against Women. It has been circulated for consultation and revised in the light of the comments we received. I hope that it will be a useful resource.
Mary Mulligan MSP
Deputy Minister for Communities