1. Background
Context
The Violence Against Women National Training Strategy Phase II, 2009-2011, evolved from the National Training Strategy on Domestic Abuse (2004). The strategy is directed by the National Group to Address Violence Against Women. It is aligned with various national policy documents on violence against women including:
- Safer Lives: Changed Lives, A shared approach to tackling violence against women in Scotland, Scottish Government, 2009
- Guidance to Multi-Agency Partnerships, Scottish Government, 2009
- Domestic Abuse Delivery Plan for Children and Young People, Scottish Government, 2008
- Chief Executive's Letter ( CEL 41) on Gender-Based Violence, NHS Scotland, 2008
This guidance should be read together with the training strategy and the above documents.
The Guidance to Multi-Agency Partnerships contains detailed information on partnership working and linking to local structures which is mentioned but not replicated in full below. It is, therefore, an important companion document to this one.
Funding and infrastructure for the strategy
The government has allocated funding for two years from 2009 to implement the phase II training strategy. The infrastructure to support this continues from phase 1 as follows:
- Three national staff to coordinate work nationally and to develop national standards and materials
- 15 training consortia roughly corresponding to health board boundaries responsible for implementing the strategy locally
- Cross-government group to provide assistance and advice in linking across government directorates and public agencies nationally; and a national training development group to oversee standards, materials, resources and support to training consortia
This guidance concerns the role of local training consortia.