Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 18
18
Accepted
Home Office seeks to encourage local VAWG innovation by funding evaluations and test-and-learn initiatives.
Recommendation
We asked the departments how they planned to learn from these local initiatives to support government’s understanding of what works. The Home Office recognised there was local variation, but said it did not wish to mandate a single approach to tackling VAWG nationally, as it felt this would stifle local innovation and assume that every community is identical.42 The Home Office told us that it wants to continue to encourage local variation by continuing to fund small local charities to carry out evaluations effectively. This includes bidding into the £100 million Cabinet Office fund for test–and–learn initiatives to help support these evaluations.43
Government Response Summary
The government agrees the recommendation is implemented, detailing its work to review evidence and engage stakeholders for the VAWG Strategy. It specifically commits to "test-and-learn" opportunities to trial innovative local solutions and will continue to grow the evidence base, evaluate initiatives, and share successful approaches via the Safer Streets Mission.
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.