Latest news with #ScottishWomen'sAid
The National
04-06-2025
- General
- The National
Clydebank Women's Aid announces closure after 40 years
Staff at the service say they are devastated, as they announce the closure of the charity, which has been running for more than 40 years. In a statement released this morning, the organisation say they are "no longer in a position to provide the support women, children, and young people in our community need and, more importantly, deserve." It continues: "For over four decades, Clydebank Women's Aid has been more than just a service — it has been our passion, our purpose, our identity, and our lives. This decision has not been made lightly, and we are devastated that it has come to this. "Despite the hardships faced in recent years, we have worked relentlessly to keep the service running, driven by an unwavering belief in the value and necessity of Women's Aid services. "We feel privileged that women, children and young people have trusted us with their experiences at a time when they were most vulnerable." In the statement, staff reflect on the current rate of domestic violence within West Dunbartonshire, with the area having the second-highest in Scotland. They are calling for ringfenced funding to be available for Women's Aid groups across Scotland. The organisation said: "We hope this stark reality is recognised and reflected in the way Women's Aid services are funded and supported. Women, children, and young people in Clydebank deserve fully funded, specialist Women's Aid services that recognise the scale and impact of domestic abuse has on their lives. "They deserve support that is consistent, not services struggling to survive on insecure funding. No woman should be left without support because a vital service couldn't afford to continue. Sustainable investment isn't optional — it's a necessity. "This is a call to action: for sustainable, ring-fenced funding for Women's Aid groups across the country, for recognition of the scale and impact of domestic abuse, and for the right of every woman, child, and young person to live free from fear of violence and abuse." Phone lines for the charity are to remain open until July 17, where women can access crisis support and information. The organisation is in the process of creating a document that will signpost women to other agencies depending on their situation. You can contact Scottish Women's Aid on 0800 027 1234
The National
11-05-2025
- The National
How has Scotland's ‘gold standard' law supported victims?
Dr Marsha Scott, CEO of Scottish Women's Aid, sums up the feelings of leading victims' advocates on how the criminal court system is working for domestic abuse survivors, six years after the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018 (DASA) came into force. The legislation, lauded by campaigners as the 'gold standard', created a new criminal offence of coercive control, defined as 'engaging in a course of behaviour which is abusive of a partner or ex-partner'. READ MORE: Charities blame cost-cutting for lack of specialist domestic abuse courts Despite progress, Scott feels the criminal justice system continues to demonstrate long-standing misconceptions. 'It is difficult to overcome this notion of domestic abuse as physical violence, and of physical violence being more serious than coercive and controlling behaviours – which is not what women and children have said for decades.' While the concept of 'coercive control' is now broadly understood, Scott says the problem lies with a perception that this is somehow distinct from 'domestic abuse', whereas 'pretty much every domestic abuse case includes coercion'. 'Another myth in the system' which Scott says has persisted is that if a father 'wasn't physically abusive to the children, then he must be a safe enough father'. This, she argues, is why child aggravators on domestic abuse convictions remain underused. This is despite the fact that one of the achievements of DASA was that harsher sentences can be applied where a 'reasonable person' would consider that the behaviour would cause a child to suffer harm, even where the child is not the focus of the abuse. In the face of gaps in both understanding and resources, experts in victims' experiences paint a picture of a system which has yet to catch up with the legislation at its disposal. Gemma Gall of domestic abuse charity SafeLives points to the statistics which underline this issue: 'If you look at the number of charges there were last year that were domestic abuse in nature, there were more than 30,000 charges and less than 2000 of those were DASA charges. 'That leads me to question: are there other cases where that could have been applied? We're still falling back into laws that would have been used before 2018 – assaults, sexual violence, threatening and abusive behaviour – but we're not tying it all together as well.' Gall was a Domestic Abuse Court Advocacy (DACA) worker before and after the introduction of the legislation, supporting victims to navigate the criminal court process. Now, she's leading on a programme of standards and accreditation for DACA workers, with a view to ensuring everyone who needs this kind of support is able to access it. Currently, 13 of Scotland's 32 local authorities don't have an established DACA service. Without someone to advise and advocate for them, Gall says survivors can find the process 'disempowering, like you're being treated as a piece of evidence or as a witness in a case that's very personal to you'. Positively, Gall stresses that, since the introduction of DASA, there has been a recognition from the Scottish Government that court advocacy is needed, backed by funding to 'look at ways to really centre victims', like SafeLives's work. That being said, she notes that much of the funding for advocacy services is part of the time-limited Victim Centred Approach Fund and Equally Safe Fund, so questions remain about 'what's beyond that'. According to Cynthia Gimenez, team leader of the Edinburgh Domestic Abuse Court Service (EDDACS), run by Edinburgh Women's Aid, the need for advocacy services is accentuated by the fact that 'the majority of women that go through court for domestic abuse find it re-traumatising'. READ MORE: Wildfire 'bigger than five football pitches' near Scottish town This is the result of a variety of factors. For one, while there are special measures that can be provided by courts to keep vulnerable witnesses safe during the process – such as the ability to provide evidence from a remote location or from a separate room – Gimenez says these are 'not always available' because of a 'lack of resources'. One of EDDACS's roles is to ensure victims are informed of the outcomes of hearings, however, Gimenez says the court doesn't always provide that information on the same day, resulting in situations where the victim 'might not feel safe to leave the house'. 'You don't know if the bail conditions have changed. You don't know if someone was in custody and has been released that day. You don't know if the case hasn't been taken forward because of a lack of evidence. If you are going to be trauma-informed, you would think that's essential,' she says. Ultimately, the fact that cases can take years to be prosecuted only exacerbates these issues. 'The delays are what increases that feeling of, what's the point? Why did I go through all of this – this horrific process where I was feeling unsafe and which might have potentially caused the situation to escalate – if I wasn't going to get anything out of it, if I wasn't going to feel safer at the end of it?' she says. Fiona McMullen, operations manager at Assist, a domestic abuse court advocacy service which serves 13 local authorities, echoes these concerns, while stressing that she 'would always encourage victims to report'. She adds: 'We have to acknowledge how far we've come.' One of the key achievements of DASA, McMullen says, was that it is now mandatory for sheriffs to consider non-harassment orders (NHOs) in domestic abuse cases. 'That was huge to us,' she recalls. However, sheriffs do not grant NHOs after every conviction, even where this has been requested by the victim. 'This is the biggest letdown for our clients. They've been through that journey, they've often had to give evidence – because perpetrators of domestic abuse will often not plead guilty – then they don't get a non-harassment order,' McMullen says. Another positive development which McMullen highlights is the introduction of case management pilots which are rolling out across Scotland in summary (non-jury) cases. This effectively means that the defence and prosecution can see the evidence 'earlier in the process and can better inform the plea being made', she explains. 'It reduces the need for the victim and witnesses to give evidence in court,' McMullen says, and the aim is to 'bring about early resolutions'. While this is 'very helpful', McMullen warns of a need to ensure that sheriffs 'are still sentencing robustly', which is not always the case. 'We need to make sure we're not just saying, well, they pled guilty early, so we'll admonish them, or it's a fine – and fines are inappropriate in domestic abuse cases, because you're putting a financial cost on someone's abuse,' she says. In McMullen's experience, what domestic abuse victims are looking for from the criminal justice system is 'protection' and 'something to stop the abuse'. She adds: 'If a sheriff isn't putting in a sentence that does any of that, that's when victims might begin to lose faith in the system.' Still, each of these advocates for survivors believe a better system is in reach. Gall emphasises that 'there are so many motivated people within these systems trying to make that change'. One example she highlights is that the Crown Office and Prosecution Service (COPFS) has accepted all recommendations of a recent inspection report on domestic abuse. Another is the Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill, which aims to improve victims' experiences with a particular focus on sexual violence cases. Gimenez feels that an important step the courts and prosecution service could take is to ensure that training in domestic abuse for all staff is made 'mandatory and embedded into their usual practice, because it constitutes a lot of the cases that are going through court'. READ MORE: Scottish musician releases single condemning Israel's war crimes in Gaza For Scott – having contributed to the training for sheriffs in the Domestic Abuse Scotland Act and observing 'no sign of improvement in sheriffs' judgements in the context of domestic abuse' – the key to change is 'accountability'. Scott says: 'The critical thing which is missing is a system that says, in order to uphold the law in Scotland, you need to be able to do these things – and if you're not doing these things in your courtroom, or in your police call, or prosecution, then you're not doing your job competently.' A recurring theme, which McMullen articulates, is that the knowledge is already there on how to deliver a system that works for victims: 'That's court advocacy, it's police resource, it's resource within COPFS to make sure that victims are engaged, and it's robust sentencing and perpetrator programmes available across Scotland which address the offending.' In many areas, McMullen says, what's missing is the resource: 'We know what good looks like – but we need the resources to deliver it.'
The National
11-05-2025
- General
- The National
Cost-cutting to blame for lack of specialist domestic abuse courts
Scotland's first dedicated domestic abuse court was set up in Glasgow in 2004, followed by Edinburgh in 2012. Although the Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service – responsible for the judiciary – still describes these courts as 'dedicated domestic abuse courts', charities advocating for victims have argued that the original model for specialist courts has been 'abandoned'. These courts, and several others around Scotland, schedule domestic abuse cases to take place together in 'clusters'. However, campaigners say that specialist sheriffs and prosecutors – originally a core feature of the specialist courts – are no longer in place and that this has had an adverse impact on victims. Scottish Women's Aid CEO Dr Marsha Scott told the Sunday National: 'The regression in access to a specialist court, which has happened as a result of cost-cutting in the courts, is absolutely shameful. Marsha Scott, CEO of Scottish Women's Aid'Because of cost-cutting, some local sheriffdoms now call all their courts that deal with domestic abuse 'specialist domestic abuse courts', but they are not. 'They might cluster the domestic abuse cases in some places but they certainly aren't getting them to court in eight to 10 weeks, and they're not being operated by people with specialist training.' The purpose of setting up specialist courts was to better manage the complexity of domestic abuse cases and the risks to victims and to take account of those factors throughout the process, including at the sentencing stage. READ MORE: Scottish council gives update after 'phishing attack' on schools In 2007, an evaluation was carried out into Glasgow's domestic abuse court which, according to Scott, demonstrated that the model 'worked brilliantly' but 'was a little more expensive'. Scottish Women's Aid has called for this model to be rolled out to other parts of Scotland. Scott said the key elements essential to a specialist court, which were in place at the time of the evaluation, are 'specially trained sheriffs and judges, specially trained fiscals [prosecutors], an independent service that supports victims, and you need to have cases to court in a certain window in order to reduce witness attrition'. She added: 'The original model, which evaluated so positively for domestic abuse victim-survivors, has been abandoned. 'We hear lots of very positive discussion about the case management pilots the courts have been running, but we are not confident that the outcomes of those cases have improved victim-survivors' experience of the criminal justice system, as there hasn't been any serious evaluation with victim-survivors. 'The court process, convictions and sentencing in domestic abuse cases all affect the safety of women and children involved and influence whether they feel confident about reporting domestic abuse ever again. 'We need a system that consistently offers responses that reflect specialist expertise about domestic abuse and trauma. We are farther away now than some years ago, in part because commitment to good specialist courts has disappeared.' Domestic abuse charity SafeLives, which is currently developing a national accreditation programme for Domestic Abuse Court Advocacy (DACA) workers in Scotland, also raised concerns about a step backwards in specialist domestic abuse courts. Gemma Gall, DACA accreditation lead at SafeLives, said: 'Over the past five or so years, possibly slightly more, there has been a move away from specialist domestic abuse courts. 'We had specialist domestic abuse courts in parts of Scotland where sheriffs and prosecutors were specially trained and focused on domestic abuse cases, so they really had a buy-in to understanding domestic abuse. We've moved away from that. 'If this is just a general part of your work, that's really different to 'this is something that I'm invested in that I do day to day, that I do additional training on'. I think that's a real challenge.' All members of the judiciary, including sheriffs and judges, undertake training in relation to domestic abuse. However, organisations supporting victims have argued that this training is 'generic' and distinct from the kind of specialist training they feel is required. A spokesperson for the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service said: 'Domestic abuse cases continue to be prioritised, accounting for around a third of all evidence-led trials called in summary courts, with dedicated domestic abuse courts continuing to operate in Glasgow and Edinburgh. 'Domestic abuse cases receive earlier trial diets and with the Summary Case Management (SCM) initiative being rolled out across Scotland, many cases are being resolved early without the need to go to trial, minimising trauma, inconvenience and delay for complainers, and witnesses. READ MORE: Israel 'sending soldiers to commit war crimes in Gaza', says former army chief 'SCM involves early disclosure of evidence, early engagement between the defence and the Crown and pro-active judicial case management. During the SCM pilot, 530 summary trials did not require to be fixed and 18,000 witnesses were not cited or recited. 'In addition, Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service and justice partners continue to work together on developing a more trauma-informed approach for domestic abuse cases, and the use of remote evidence where appropriate. 'The number of scheduled domestic abuse trials has fallen from nearly 7500 at its peak to under 3000 despite an increase in the number of complaints registered.' The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS), which is responsible for the prosecution of cases, has a joint protocol with Police Scotland with the aim of ensuring a consistent approach when dealing with criminal conduct arising from domestic abuse. Scotland's Procurator Fiscal for Domestic Abuse, Dr Emma Forbes, is the COPFS lead on these crimes. She said: 'We are committed to tackling domestic abuse. It is a priority for Scotland's prosecutors. If you have experienced domestic abuse, please know that reporting it means you will be listened to and taken seriously. 'Ground-breaking Scottish legislation has improved how domestic abuse is understood and prosecuted by recognising a much wider range of abusive and controlling behaviour. 'Our prosecutors have specialist training in both domestic abuse and in understanding trauma. 'The SCM initiative being rolled out across Scotland has enhanced our engagement with victims and improved our understanding of their views and needs. As a result, many cases are being resolved early without the need to go to trial. We hope this minimises trauma for victims and witnesses of domestic abuse. 'Improving their experiences is a focus of our work. No-one should have to live in fear of a partner or former partner.'
