Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 17
17
Accepted
Government lacks comprehensive understanding of effective VAWG interventions and mechanisms to share good practice.
Recommendation
Government departments have a limited understanding of what works to tackle violence against women and girls (VAWG). Since 2021–22, the Home Office has spent at least £4.2 million on new research into what works, but the projects funded are not complete and have yet to provide significant insights to inform future interventions.39 Written evidence submitted to the Committee highlighted some examples of successfully run local interventions.40 The NAO found that, under the implementation of the 2021 strategy, the Home Office did not have a formal mechanism for identifying and sharing good practice with these organisations.41
Government Response Summary
The government agrees the recommendation is implemented, stating it has conducted extensive evidence reviews, engaged with stakeholders and academics, and is using the Safer Streets Mission to collate and share successful initiatives. It commits to publishing this work alongside the new VAWG Strategy and continuing to grow the evidence base, evaluate interventions, and trial innovative local solutions to improve understanding of what works.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
4.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented 4.2 The recommendation is being implemented through work undertaken to support the VAWG Strategy and any ongoing analytical work on tackling VAWG. 4.3 The Home Office regularly reviews emerging evidence at both national and local levels to ensure its approach to tackling VAWG is based on the best available evidence. To provide a comprehensive assessment of the existing evidence base and support the development of the VAWG Strategy, the government conducted in-depth reviews on the evidence of what works to reduce VAWG. Four evidence reviews, focused on evaluation evidence, were undertaken to align as closely as possible to the themes of the VAWG Strategy. In addition, information on promising national and local initiatives was shared by a range of stakeholders, including 8 government departments, 23 VAWG sector organisations and 10 international countries and devolved administrations. As part of the evidence review work, 2 workshops on the evidence base and interventions were also held with 12 leading UK academics on VAWG. This work has been used to inform the government response to VAWG outlined in the Strategy; the output will be published alongside the VAWG Strategy. 4.4 The Safer Streets Mission provides the infrastructure needed to ensure all departments are collating and sharing evidence on successful initiatives. The government will continue to grow the evidence base, recognising that there are evidence gaps, to feed into the mission approach, and where feasible will evaluate new and existing initiatives and approaches over the course of their lifecycle. The government will also seize ‘test-and-learn’ opportunities to design and trial small, innovative local solutions, exploring the potential for national implementation. The overall progress of the Strategy will be measured through a suite of metrics that form the Performance Framework.