Country Profile United Kingdom

General Country Information

A separate profile is available for each constituent country (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales).

England

Summary

There is a national helpline in England which is free of charge, available 24/7, and offers multilingual support. Additionally, there are 181 local domestic abuse services that run helpline services. There are 280 shelters available to women survivors of violence, 221 of which are women-only, with a total of 4,551 bed spaces. England has 308 women’s centres for all survivors of violence, 116 of which are only for women. There are services for survivors of sexualised violence including 35 rape crisis centres, 48 sexual assault referral centres, several specialised helplines, and other services offered by women’s centres and women-led services. There is no official document in England detailing data collection on, or strategic plans for, primary prevention specifically. There is also no specific budget allocated to primary prevention activities. The state collects data on women’s specialist support services, as outlined in the Domestic Abuse Act (2021), and this information is publicly available. However, data collection is not comprehensive and consistent.

Women’s Specialist Services

There is one national women’s helpline in England called the National Domestic Abuse Helpline (tel.: +44 8082000247). This helpline is specifically for survivors of domestic violence and is run by the organisation Refuge. The helpline is free of charge, available 24/7, and offers multilingual support in all languages, including British Sign Language interpretation (available weekdays 10:00 to 18:00). Funding for the helpline comes from the state as well as donations. The most common forms of violence reported by callers in 2024 were domestic violence, psychological or emotional violence, controlling behaviour, as well as threatening/intimidating behaviour. In 2024, the helpline received a total of 135,986 callers. England therefore does meet the Istanbul Convention minimum standards for the provision of a national women’s helpline.

There are 181 local domestic abuse services that run helpline services for survivors of violence in England. These will usually be for local residents and callers will receive support over the phone, sometimes before accessing other support services. There are also national helplines supporting survivors of specific forms of violence including the National Stalking helpline (tel.: +44 808 8020300, available Monday to Friday from 9:30 to 16:00 and Wednesday until 20:00), the modern slavery and exploitation helpline (tel.: +44 8000121700, available 24/7), the 24-hour FGM helpline (tel.: +44 8000283550) for survivors of female genital mutilation, the Karma Nirvana helpline for those affected by honour-based violence (tel.: +44 8005999247, available Monday to Friday from 9:00 to 17:00), and the Galop’s free helpline (tel.: +44 8009995428, available Monday to Thursday from 10:00 to 20:30 and Friday from 10:00 to 16:30) for LGBTQI+ people experiencing abuse or violence.

In England, there are a total of 280 shelters available to women survivors of violence, of which 221 are women-only. They include 4,551 bed spaces available for women, 4,177 of which are for women-only. Reports by Women’s Aid consistently show that demand outweighs the availability of bed spaces across the country. The most common reason why referrals into shelters are declined is that the service does not have the capacity, space or resources to accept the survivor into the shelter. Since 2022, some shelters which were previously women-only became shelters accessible to all survivors. Some women-only shelters offer 24/7 access. The types of in-house services most often provided by women-only shelters are casework, referrals/collaboration with other services, and practical advice.
Most survivors are able to access benefits from the welfare security system to pay for their stay in a shelter. However, some women are unable to access these benefits, such as women with certain types of immigration status and who have no recourse to public funds, or those who own their own homes and/or have savings. In some of these cases funding can be accessed by other sources, such as children’s services, to enable women without access to benefits to stay in a shelter. However, this isn’t always possible, and the cost of shelters continues to be a barrier for some women. There is no limit to how long women can stay in shelters. The overall average length of stay is around seven months, but this has increased significantly over the past five years due to the lack of available accommodation that women can move into when they are ready to leave the shelter. From Women’s Aid research, frontline workers have reported some of the women they support stay in services for up to two years because of the lack of available permanent housing, and this is significantly disrupting women’s ability to recover and move-on from violence and further reduces the capacity of shelters to meet the demand for their service.

All women-only shelters can accommodate homeless women, and most are equipped to support older women (65 years and above). Most women-only shelters can be accessed by and are accessible to women with uncertain residence permits/undocumented women, refugee women, women with physical or cognitive disabilities, women with substance abuse issues, transgender women, and women with older sons (14 years and above). In practice, space for some women can be very limited. For example, less than 0.7% of shelter spaces made available from 2023 to 2024 were suitable for a woman requiring wheelchair access.

There are 51 shelters for specific groups of women or survivors (at risk of) specific forms of violence. Availability of these services is very low and spaces in these dedicated services make up just 18.2% of all beds in shelters in England. This is however an increase from 2022 where 11.8% of beds were in dedicated services for specific groups of women. Not all these services are ‘by and for’ expert organisations, meaning they are not led by women from the group they support. There are 34 shelters run specifically for Black and minoritised women and three shelters for refugee women, trafficked women or women with insecure immigration status. There are three shelters for women with substance use support needs, three shelters for young women and two shelters for older women. There are also two shelters for women with learning disabilities and three shelters for LGBTQ+ individuals.

Funding for women-only shelters comes from the state as well as donations. Women’s NGOs with a gender-specific and feminist approach run 160 women-only shelters; 52 shelters are run by housing associations; eight by other NGOs; and one by the state. Women-only shelters are located in all regions of England. The most common forms of violence reported by survivors to shelters in 2024 were domestic violence, physical violence and psychological violence.

There are 59 other shelters which can provide support to all survivors of violence with 374 bed spaces for women, men, non-binary people and transgender women and men. Some shelters (including women-only shelters) can accommodate transgender individuals. This can be in shared accommodation or dispersed accommodation. Some of these other shelters offer 24/7 access.

There are 308 women’s centres for survivors of violence in England, 116 of which are only for women. All women’s centres provide legal advice, financial and social welfare support/advocacy, housing advice, employment, referrals/collaboration with other services, and representation at court/police/social services. Counselling and psychological support is provided by 145 women’s centres. In total, 218 women’s centres are run by women’s NGOs, 79 by other NGOs, and 11 are run by the state. Most women’s centres will offer some level of support around sexualised violence, and some run specific initiatives, such as a sexual violence advocacy project. Such centres provide specialist forensic and medical care, needs assessment, specialist psychological care, and specialist sexualised violence advocacy services along with community awareness, and education for prevention. Women’s centres are more commonly referred to as “community-based services” and usually also offer services such as outreach, domestic abuse advocacy, floating support services, and prevention/education work.

Some women’s centres can be accessed by and are accessible to women with uncertain residence permits/undocumented women, refugee women, women with physical, cognitive, or sensory disabilities, older women (65 years and above), transgender women, and unaccompanied girls under the age of 18. There are 27 women’s centres providing specialised support to Black and minority ethnic women. Even though they are not exclusively supporting this group of survivors, some centres also offer specialist support for Black and minority ethnic women, by, for example, having a dedicated specialist worker. Additionally, three centres provide specialised support to LGBTQ+ survivors, two centres to women with uncertain residence permits/undocumented women and refugee women, one centre to women with physical disabilities and one centre provides specialised support to women with cognitive disabilities.

Women’s centres are funded by the state as well as through donations. They are located in all regions of England. However, geographical coverage is uneven. In 2024, a total of 138,955 women were supported by women’s centres in England.

There are services for survivors of sexualised violence in England, including 35 rape crisis centres and 48 sexual assault referral centres (SARCs). Some women’s centres and women-led services also provide support to survivors of sexualised violence, but they may not be members of the network Rape Crisis England & Wales. Forensic evidence is collected by the SARCs which are funded by the Department of Health and have links with the police and women’s services for onward support referrals. Support provided by sexualised violence services includes forensic and medical care, needs assessment, specialist psychological care, specialist sexualised violence advocacy services, community awareness and education for prevention, as well as legal advice. These are provided in varying degrees, in some parts of the country. Due to funding arrangements, access to services varies widely across areas, creating a ‘postcode lottery’ for survivors, meaning that survivors only have access to sexualised violence services in their local area. Specialist services for survivors of sexualised violence are funded by the state and through donations and are located in most regions of England. Some rape crisis centres cover rural areas, but it is very dependent on local population and funding arrangements. Services may be commissioned by state or local authorities and receive funding and grants from charitable organisations and trusts. Many sexualised violence services are mixed sex, that is, they have provisions for men and boys within a wider service which is focused on women and girls. Additionally, many centres have services for young people, but support for children remains limited due to funding and commissioning arrangements.

The 24/7 Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Line (tel.: +44 8085002222) is free of charge and offers support for all those above 16 years who have been affected by rape, child sexual abuse, sexual assault, sexual harassment or any other form of sexualised violence. The helpline was opened in December 2022 and is run by Rape Crisis England & Wales. Other specialised helplines include The Survivors Trust helpline (tel.: +44 8088010818) which is free and confidential but has limited opening hours; the National Association for People Abused in Childhood helpline (tel.: +44 8088010331) which also has limited opening hours, for all survivors of all child abuse, including sexual abuse; and the Revenge Porn helpline (tel.: +44 3456000459) available Monday to Friday from 10:00 to 16:00, for adults subjected to image-based abuse.

There is no official document in England detailing data collection on, or strategic plans for, primary prevention specifically. Since coming into office in July 2024, the Labour Government has been developing a violence against women and girls (VAWG) Strategy which is expected to be published before August 2025. A VAWG Advisory Board has been established to advise on the development of the Strategy and the content/provisions which should support the government’s plan. While activities supporting primary prevention objectives are set out in the pre-existing Tackling VAWG Strategy, authored by the previous government, there is currently no definition of primary prevention in any official government document. Prevention more broadly, in the context of violence against women, is predominantly described as delivering long-term cultural and societal change. Available primary prevention activities include school-based primary prevention programmes, training for primary prevention practitioners, and awareness-raising campaigns or programmes.

There is no specific budget allocated to primary prevention activities, however a portion of the available funding for tackling violence against women will be committed to ‘prevention’ in its entirety, some of which will be specifically focused on primary prevention. There has also been limited progress in developing measures to prevent violence against women or establishing an understanding of what works to prevent violence, and its root causes. The existing VAWG Strategy states that while some initiatives, such as awareness-raising activities, showed promise, there was limited evidence on their effectiveness at reducing violence or changing perpetrator behaviour. Since 2021–2022, the Home Office has spent at least £4.2 million (€4.8 million) on new research into what works to prevent violence, but the projects funded have yet to be completed or to provide significant insights to inform any future interventions. Additionally, between 2021–22 and 2023–24, the Home Office underspent its own budget allocated to the VAWG strategy by an average of around 15%. This underspend came to around £22 million (€25.3 million), against a total £149 million (€171.6 million) budget for that period. It has also been noted that currently, the majority of the Home Office’s VAWG-specific prevention activity focuses on addressing re-offending rather than preventing VAWG in the first instance.

The vast majority of prevention work in England, and the United Kingdom more generally, is focused on early intervention in schools and awareness campaign. A quarter of commitments relating to prevention were allocated to the Department for Education (DfE), however DfE spent £0.52 million (€0.60 million) across all activities relating to the VAWG Strategy and Domestic Abuse Plan between 2021-22 and 2023–24, with much of its work on supporting survivors rather than prevention. Efforts to address primary prevention also occur at a local and regional level, with statutory agencies like Police and Crime Commissioners using funding at their discretion (allocated by national government) to implement prevention activities as they see fit. This can lead to variation in regional approaches to tackling violence against women. Examples of activities include funding allocated by the Mayor of West Yorkshire to programmes for young people on cybercrime awareness and education to target and stop exploitation and abuse facilitated online. The Mayor of London also implemented a region-wide campaign targeted at men and boys aimed at dismantling misogynist behaviours and attitudes.

Northern Ireland

Summary

There is one national domestic and sexual abuse helpline in Northern Ireland open to all genders that is free of charge, available 24/7, and provides multilingual support. There are 14 women-only shelters in Northern Ireland with 340 beds as well as 11 women’s centres that provide support to all survivors of violence and one sexual violence referral centre. Measures related to primary prevention are included in official documents such as National Action Plans, and there is a specific budget allocated to such activities. The state does collect data on women’s specialist services, including primary prevention activities, and this data is available upon request.

Women’s Specialist Services

There is one national helpline in Northern Ireland called the Domestic and Sexual Abuse Helpline (tel.: +44 8088021414). Northern Ireland therefore does meet the Istanbul Convention standards for the provision of a standalone national women’s helpline. It offers support to survivors of all genders affected by domestic abuse such as psychological abuse, sexual abuse, physical abuse, coercive control, financial abuse and technological abuse. The helpline is run by Nexus Northern Ireland and is funded by the state. Previously, the helpline was established and run by the Women’s Aid Federation Northern Ireland until 2019. The helpline is free of charge, available 24/7, and multilingual support is available on request for any language.

There is no other state or regional women’s helpline supporting survivors of violence against women in Northern Ireland, although women survivors routinely contact Women’s Aid services directly.

There are 14 women-only shelters in Northern Ireland with 340 beds in total. Northern Ireland is a small region with only two major cities, Belfast and Derry, both of which have 24/7 shelters and most other women-only shelters offer 24/7 access. The types of in-house services most often provided by women-only shelters are casework, referrals/collaboration with other services, practical advice, and legal advice. Women do not pay for their accommodation in a women-only shelter, they are asked to contribute a small donation if they can or wish to do so, but this is not expected of them. Women who have recourse to public funds have their shelter place funded through housing benefits covered by the state. For women with no recourse to public funds, women-only shelters try to cover the costs through specific pots of funding or swallow the cost of their stay in the shelter.

The average stay in women-only shelters varies from three months to one year, although very few women stay up to one year. The length of stay is determined on a case-by-case basis and depends on the area of the country the women-only shelter is in as well as access to safe housing after leaving the shelter. Northern Ireland has a housing shortage meaning that women sometimes have to stay longer in a shelter than expected.

All women-only shelters in Northern Ireland can be accessed by and are accessible to women with uncertain residence permits/undocumented women, refugee women, women with physical, cognitive or sensory disabilities, older women (65 years and above), as well as women with children with disabilities. Some shelters can be accessed by women with substance abuse issues, transgender women, and women with older sons (14 years and above). No women-only shelters can accommodate homeless women and unaccompanied girls under the age of 18. There are no specialised shelters supporting particular groups of survivors nor women survivors or those at risk of specific forms of violence in Northern Ireland.

All women-only shelters are run by women’s NGOs with a gender-specific and feminist approach and are funded by the state. Women-only shelters are located in all regions of Northern Ireland. The main reasons for having to decline referrals to women-only shelters were no space/capacity to support the survivor and the survivor being ineligible for support. The three most common forms of violence reported by clients to the women-only shelters in 2024 were domestic violence, physical violence, and sexualised violence. A total of 528 women and 293 children were accommodated in women-only shelters in 2024.

There are no other shelters in Northern Ireland, besides the women-only shelters, which can provide support to survivors of violence against women.

Northern Ireland has 11 women’s centres for all survivors which are run by Women’s Aid Services. Women’s centres offer counselling/psychological support, financial and social welfare support and advocacy, housing advice, employment, referrals and collaboration with other services, representation at court/police/social services, and residential support. Women’s centres only provide non-residential support services; however, all centres are linked to shelters run by the same organisation. Therefore, if women need a place in a shelter, the necessary arrangements can be made. Additionally, all centres also offer specialised support for survivors of sexualised violence in the form of community awareness and education for prevention.

All women’s centres in Northern Ireland can be accessed by and are accessible to women with disabilities and women with children with disabilities. Some centres are equipped to support transgender women, but there are no centres available to unaccompanied girls under the age of 18. Additionally, all women’s centres provide specialised support to women with uncertain residence permits/undocumented women, refugee women, Black and minority ethnic women, women with physical or sensory disabilities as well as older women (65 years and above). Furthermore, there are two women’s centres specialised in supporting survivors of trafficking.

All women’s centres are run by women’s NGOs and are funded by the state as well as through donations. Women’s centres are located in all regions of Northern Ireland. A total of 7,318 women were supported by women’s centres in Northern Ireland in 2024.

Northern Ireland has one sexual violence referral centre, the Rowan Sexual Assault Referral Centre, which is located in Antrim. The Rowan Sexual Assault Referral Centre supports all survivors of sexualised violence, regardless of age. The centre provides specialist forensic and medical care and operates a specialised helpline (tel.: +44 8003894424). It is funded by the state and services the whole of Northern Ireland.

Public authorities in Northern Ireland do collect data on primary prevention activities. Official documents such as the Strategic Framework to End Violence Against Women and Girls 2024–2031³ and Domestic and Sexual Abuse Strategy 2023–2030 do include provisions on primary prevention.⁴ The Strategic Framework to End Violence Against Women and Girls also includes a definition of primary prevention focusing on changing attitudes, behaviours, and culture, building knowledge and skills of individuals to form healthy relationships, and ensuring that women and girls are and feel safe everywhere. There is a specific budget allocated to primary prevention activities in Northern Ireland; this amounted to approximately £3.2 million (€3.66 million) from September 2024 to March 2026. Activities include empowerment activities for girls and women, primary prevention activities specifically targeted to men and boys, school-based primary prevention programmes, training for primary prevention practitioners, bystander intervention training, and awareness-raising campaigns or programmes. The Strategic Framework to End Violence Against Women and Girls will be evaluated in late 2025.

Scotland

Summary

Scotland has one national women’s helpline which is free of charge, operates 24/7 and provides multilingual support. There are 34 women-only shelters with a total of 425 beds, as well as other shelters accessible to women survivors of violence. There are 37 women’s centres, most of which are part of the Scottish Women’s Aid and Rape Crisis Scotland networks. Scotland has services for survivors of sexualised violence, including 15 rape crisis centres, one sexual violence referral centre and a specialised helpline. Measures related to primary prevention are included in the Equally Safe national strategy, and there is a specific budget allocated to such activities. The state does collect data on women’s specialist services, including primary prevention activities, and this data is available upon request. Local authorities require data collection from all Women’s Aid groups, though the data submitted does not include any sensitive or personally identifying information about clients. However, one limitation is that the data requested typically only reflects support provided under the local authority’s funded services and therefore does not capture the full scope of support delivered through other funding streams.

Women’s Specialist Services

There is one national women’s helpline in Scotland called Scotland’s Domestic Abuse and Forced Marriage Helpline (tel.: +44 8000271234, text: +44 7401288595) which is run by Scottish Women’s Aid. The helpline is free of charge, available 24/7 and offers support to survivors of domestic abuse and forced marriage. The helpline also offers multilingual support via Language Line (a telephone interpreting service) and Google Translate (via web chat, text service, and email). Scotland therefore does meet the Istanbul Convention minimum standards for the provision of a national women’s helpline. The helpline is funded by the government as well as through donations and received 13,923 calls in 2024. Fifty percent of callers contacted the state-wide women’s helpline for the first time. The three most common forms of violence reported by callers were psychological, economic violence and violence directly/indirectly affecting children.

There are other helplines supporting survivors of violence in Scotland, including Shakti Women’s Aid (tel.: +44 1314752399) and Hemat Gryffe Women’s Aid (tel.: +44 1413530859), which provides specialised support to Black and Minority Ethnic women, as well as the National LGBT Helpline for LGBTQI+ survivors (tel.: +44 8009995428), Shelter Scotland for housing advise if fleeing domestic violence (tel.: +44 8088004444), Childline for children and young people experiencing or witnessing domestic violence (tel.: +44 8001111), and NSPCC Helpline for adults concerned about children experiencing domestic violence (tel.: +44 8088005000). The Scottish Women’s Rights Centre (tel.: +44 8088010789), run by Rape Crisis Scotland and Just Right Scotland, also provides legal support and advocacy services around all forms of violence against women including domestic violence, stalking, forced marriage, honour-based violence, and sexualised violence. Additionally, local Women’s Aid groups all provide local support and often offer local helplines.

There are 34 women-only shelters in Scotland offering approximately 425 bed spaces, which are run by Women’s Aid groups, and all apply a gender-specific and feminist approach. Since 2022, two women-only shelters had to close but they have been absorbed by other services. When women and families are in a shelter, they have 24/7 access to their accommodation. Otherwise, only three women-only shelters are able to offer shelter access outside their normal service hours. The number of available beds does not fully meet the needs of women, children and young people fleeing domestic violence. There is also an increasing demand as domestic violence reports have risen, especially since COVID-19, and cost of living pressures makes it harder for survivors to secure housing outside of shelters. Women are expected to pay for their accommodation in shelters, however most of them receive housing benefit payments that are used to cover the accommodation costs. Those who are not recipients of state benefits need to pay. On average, women are allowed to stay in a shelter more than one year which is assessed based on shelter availability, while some shelters either have longer-term residents or a consistent waiting list. The types of in-house services most often provided by women-only shelters are casework, counselling/psychological support, referrals/collaboration with other services, practical advice, and legal advice. Casework is the most predominant service offered. Other services include crisis support and emergency response, children and young people’s support services, group work for women, parenting support, confidence and self-esteem building workshops, domestic abuse educational programmes, housing and homelessness prevention, financial inclusion and welfare advice as well as preventative work and public awareness raising. The focus of all in-house services is to provide long-term stability, safety, and empowerment.

All women-only shelters can accommodate homeless women, older women, women with older sons (14 years and above, although fewer options past the age of 18) and unaccompanied girls under the age of 18. Most women-only shelters are equipped to support women with uncertain residence permit/ undocumented women, such as support on seeking leave to remain and receiving funding from social work. Some shelters can be accessed by and are accessible to women with physical disabilities (18 shelters with full wheelchair access and 25 ground floor accommodation/support services), sensory disabilities (eight shelters with support such as flashing lights alarm system, induction loop, and/or British Sign Language-using staff) or cognitive disabilities (five shelters), women with substance abuse issues, transgender women (five shelters), and women with children with disabilities. Additionally, two women-only shelters are specifically for women of black and minority ethnic background (Shakti Women’s Aid and Hemat Gryffe Women’s Aid).

Women-only shelters are funded by the state as well as housing benefit payments received by the survivors. All 34 women-only shelters are run by women’s NGOs with a gender-specific and feminist approach. There are women-only shelters in most regions of Scotland and are varied across cities, smaller urban areas and more remote locations. There are however geographical gaps, where some rural, island and remote communities have no shelters at all. The main reasons why women-only shelters had to decline referrals were no space/capacity to support the survivor and shelters not being adequately equipped to support the needs of the women/children. Shelters also had to decline referrals from women with pets, due to the conditions of the letting agreement that does not allow pets on the shelter property. In 2024, the most common forms of violence reported by the survivors to the women-only shelters were domestic, psychological and economic violence.
Besides the women-only shelters, there are other shelters that provide support to women survivors of violence, although the exact number of shelters and beds is not known. These services can support women survivors of violence, but they do not offer specialised domestic violence support.

There are 37 women’s centres located in Scotland, 36 of which are only for women survivors of violence and part of the Scottish Women’s Aid and Rape Crisis Scotland networks. The remaining one is for all survivors of violence, including women. Since 2022, three Women’s Aid services have either closed or merged with other Women’s Aid services locally. Additionally, one other service outside of the Women’s Aid network had to close. A range of services are offered by women’s centres. All 37 centres provide counselling/psychological support, housing advice and referrals/collaborations with other services. Thirty-four women’s centres provide residential support services, 32 provide advocacy services, and 30 provide support with financial and social welfare advocacy. Additionally, 20 women’s centres provide access to legal advice services and 18 offer court support. Women’s centres also offer coffee mornings, activities for mother and children, access to courses and trainings, access to pet fostering, and planning home security/ access to community alarms. Women’s Aid is not allowed to represent survivors in court as they are considered biased in favour of survivors but can provide court advocates who can support women. In total, 34 centres also provide shelter accommodation in addition to non-residential services. Women’s centres also provide support for survivors of sexualised violence. The services include forensic and medical care, needs assessment, specialist psychological care, specialist advocacy services, community awareness and education for prevention, and legal advice.

All women’s centres can be accessed by and are accessible to women with uncertain residence permits/undocumented women, women with physical, cognitive or sensory disabilities, older women (65 years and above) and unaccompanied girls under the age of 18. Some centres can support refugee women and transgender women. Women’s centres also provide specialised support to survivors (at risk) of the following forms of violence: forced marriage (29 centres), honour-based violence (17 centres), and female genital mutilation (12 centres). Most centres that are part of the Scottish Women’s Aid network can offer support around forced marriage and honour-based abuse. Some can offer support around female genital mutilation and trafficking, without necessarily having this as their specialism. There are two groups, between them covering approximately 10 areas of the country, who are specifically for black and minority ethnic women and more likely to have specialism around language and immigration needs; however ethnicity and religion are not barriers for women to access support from any centre.

Women’s NGOs and are located in all regions of Scotland, including the North, Southwest, Southeast, Central Belt, Highlands and Islands. They are funded by the state as well as through donations and independent charitable funds and grants, for example Robertson Trust, National Lottery, Children in Need and Lloyds TSB. Thirty-two women’s centres are run by women’s NGOs, and the rest are run by other services such as housing services and local authorities.

In Scotland there are specialised services for survivors of sexualised violence including 15 rape crisis centres, and one sexual violence referral centre. Rape Crisis Centres (RCCs) are specialist, community-based NGOs which operate within a set of quality standards shared with Rape Crisis England & Wales. A range of services are offered by these centres, including needs assessment, specialist psychological care (including emotional and therapeutic support), specialist sexualised violence advocacy services, community awareness and education for prevention, and legal advice. Forensic evidence is primarily carried out within the public health service and in recent years, a specialised national referral pathway has been set up to facilitate this. Funding for sexualised violence services comes primarily from a national fund from the Scottish Government as well as private donations. However, the funding model is under threat, since the government is considering moving to localised, commission-based funding. RCCs are based in all regions of Scotland, covering three island archipelagos (Western Isles, Orkney and Shetland), as well as rural and remote Scottish Highlands. Furthermore, centres offer outreach and digital support services. Twelve centres support survivors of all genders, and three centres provide support only to women survivors of sexualised violence. Age ranges vary, however most rape crisis centres support survivors from the age of 13.

The National Advocacy Service is a network of specialist Rape Crisis Advocacy Workers across Scotland who help survivors to access justice. It was launched by Rape Crisis Scotland (RCS) in 2016 with financial support from the Scottish Government. This service provides dedicated advocacy support from RCS-trained advocacy workers to survivors of rape and sexualised violence throughout the criminal justice process. There is also a specialised helpline for survivors of sexualised violence, the Rape Crisis Scotland Helpline (+44 8088010302). It provides telephone advice, support and sign posting for all survivors of rape and sexual assault. The helpline is free of charge and offers multilingual support, although it is not available 24/7 (available every day 17:00 to midnight).

Public authorities in Scotland actively collect data on primary prevention activities aimed at reducing domestic violence. Scotland has an official national strategy that includes specific provisions on primary prevention: “Equally Safe: Scotland’s strategy for preventing and eradicating violence against women and girls”. This strategy, published in 2018, is developed by the Scottish Government and COSLA (the councillor-led, cross-party organisation that represents all 32 local authorities in Scotland) and includes a definition of primary prevention.⁵ One of the main priorities of the strategy is intervening early and effectively to prevent violence and maximising the safety and wellbeing of women, children and young people.

Scotland allocates specific funding for primary prevention activities through the Delivering Equally Safe (DES) Fund. As of the 2024–25 period, the fund has allocated approximately £19 million (€22 million) per year, supporting over 120 projects delivered by more than 100 organisations across Scotland. The Equally Safe strategy allocated approximately £5.2 million (€6 million) over two years to prevention-focused activities. The total DES Fund allocation over 3.5 years was £67 million (€77.7 million), and the proportion dedicated to primary prevention is approximately 7.8% of this amount. The DES Fund prioritises projects that prevent violence before it occurs by addressing the underlying causes of violence against women, support early intervention to stop violence at the earliest possible stage, and provide direct support to survivors, ensuring their safety and well-being. These initiatives cover a variety of activities, including educational programmes, community outreach, and support services, all aimed at creating a society free from violence. Furthermore, the initiative supports school-based primary prevention programmes, primary prevention activities targeted to men and boys, training for primary prevention practitioners and awareness-raising campaigns. Primary prevention initiatives are evaluated, and these evaluations are financed by public authorities, primarily through the Scottish Government.

Wales

Summary

There is one women’s helpline in Wales which is free of charge, available 24/7, and offers multilingual support, as well as other helplines supporting survivors of gender-based violence. There are 20 women-only shelters offering an estimated 272 beds, all of which also offer non-resident support services. There are different services supporting survivors of sexualised violence, including one rape crisis centre, sexual violence referral centres, crisis and medical services and a specialised helpline. Primary prevention is addressed in the national strategy to counter violence against women, and the Welsh Government does fund prevention work through specific budgets. Data on women’s specialist services is collected by Welsh Women’s Aid on behalf of the state, and it is available to the public. National data collection is addressed by the state in the Violence Against Women, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence: Blueprint High Level Action Plan.

Women’s Specialist Services

There is one national women’s helpline in Wales called Live Fear Free Helpline (Llinell Gymorth Byw Heb Ofn, tel.: +44 8088010800) which is run by Welsh Women’s Aid. The helpline is free of charge, available 24/7, and offers multilingual support in English and Welsh, while other languages are available via a translation service. Therefore, the helpline meets the standards of the Istanbul Convention. It provides support for all types of violence against women and received a total of 18,421 calls in 2024. The most common forms of violence reported by callers were domestic, physical and psychological violence. Funding for the Live Fear Free Helpline comes from the Welsh Government and from donations.

Additionally, there are other helplines available to survivors of violence in Wales. The BAWSO helpline provides practical and emotional prevention, protection and support services to Black Minority Ethnic and migrant survivors of domestic abuse, sexualised violence, female genital mutilation, forced marriage, honour-based violence, modern slavery and human trafficking (tel.: +44 8007318147). Other helplines covering both England and Wales include the National Domestic Abuse Helpline (tel.: +44 8082000247) run by Refuge, Galop, the national helpline for LGBTQI+ victims and survivors of abuse and violence (tel.: +44 8009995428), the National Stalking Helpline (+44 8088020300), and Revenge Porn Helpline (+44 3456000459).

There are 20 specialist organisations which are part of Welsh Women’s Aid and provide emergency women-only shelter services to survivors of violence against women, with an estimated 272 beds (according to data from 2022). This figure includes shared refuge accommodation and dispersed housing units that are classed as Emergency Supported Accommodation, most of which offer 24/7 access. The number of beds available is not sufficient to cover the demand across Wales. While the majority of the accommodation cost is met by Housing Benefit, survivors also pay a minimal weekly service charge. On average, women are allowed to stay in the shelters between three and six months, but this period can be extended until they find a new accommodation. There is a significant housing shortage in Wales, which means that while the planned maximum stay is six months, some shelters will allow women to stay for up to twelve months. The types of in-house services most often provided by the women-only shelters in Wales are casework, counselling and psychological support, referrals and collaboration with other services, and practical advice. Legal advice is regulated, so the services may signpost to solicitors but may not have the capacity to give legal advice.

All women-only shelters in Wales are equipped to support homeless women, women with sensory disabilities and older women, while most shelters can accommodate transgender women. Some women-only shelters can be accessed by and are accessible to women with uncertain residence permits, undocumented women, refugee women, women with physical and cognitive disabilities, women with substance abuse issues, women with older sons and with children with disabilities, and to unaccompanied girls under the age of 18. There is also a shelter specialised in supporting Black and Minority Ethnic women who may also have experienced honour-based violence, forced marriage and/or female genital mutilation.

Women’s shelters are funded by the state, and the majority are run by women’s NGOs with a feminist and gender-specific approach, while a few Housing Associations also have refuge provision. There is shelter provision in each county, including rural areas. If shelters had to decline referrals, the main reasons were the lack of space and capacity to support the survivors, or the shelter being unable to meet the complex needs of the survivors, often relating to mental health or drug dependency. The most common forms of violence reported by survivors to the women-only shelters in 2024 were domestic, physical and psychological violence. During this year, a minimum of 600 women and 560 children and young people were accommodated in women-only shelters in Wales.

There are other shelters in Wales besides women-only shelters which can provide support to survivors of violence, offering various forms of temporary and emergency accommodation, but the total number is not known. Such shelters include mental health crisis houses, probation-approved premises, residential women’s centres (criminal justice related), and young people’s supported accommodation. None of these services are provided because a client is a survivor of violence against women, but if a client has experienced such violence, they will be supported in a coordinated community response.

There are 20 women’s centres in Wales supporting women survivors of violence. Women’s centres provide financial and social welfare support, housing advice, referrals and collaboration with other services, counselling and psychological support, legal advice, representation at courts and other institutions, and residential support services. Additionally, women’s centres also provide specialist support for survivors of sexualised violence, including specialist forensic and medical care, needs assessment, specialist psychological care, specialist advocacy services and community awareness and education for prevention.

All centres are equipped to support women with uncertain residence permits and undocumented women, refugee women, women with sensory disabilities, older women and unaccompanied girls. Most centres can be accessed by and are accessible to women with physical and cognitive disabilities and transgender women. Additionally, all centres are specialised in supporting survivors (at risk) of forced marriage, honour-based violence, female genital mutilation, as well as refugee women and Black and Minority Ethnic women. There are also centres specialised in supporting survivors (at risk) of trafficking in persons, women with uncertain residence permit and undocumented women, women with sensory disabilities, older women, girls under the age of 18, transgender women and non-binary people.

Women’s centres are run thanks to donations as well as private and public fundraising and are available in most counties. In 2024, they supported a minimum of 8,000 survivors.

There are services for women and girls who have experienced sexualised violence in Wales, including one rape crisis centre, at least nine sexual violence referral centres, at least eight crisis and medical services and one specialised helpline. Support provided by such services includes specialist forensic and medical care, needs assessment, specialist psychological care, specialist advocacy services, and community awareness and education for prevention. Services may signpost to solicitors for legal advice. Services are run thanks to jointly commissioned funding from the Health Service and the Police and Crime Commissioners, as well as through private and public fundraising. They are available in most regions and support all survivors of sexualised violence, including women. The 24/7 Rape & Sexual Abuse Support Line run by Rape Crisis England & Wales (+44 8085002222) provides specialised helpline support to survivors of sexualised violence.

Public authorities do not collect data on primary prevention in Wales. The Violence Against Women, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence: Strategy 2022-2026 details how the Welsh Government plans to tackle such forms of violence and lists prevention as a priority. However, there is no official definition of primary prevention nor a dedicated budget for such activities in Wales. The Welsh Government does fund prevention work through specific budgets, but the total amount allocated to prevention is not known. Different primary prevention activities are conducted in the country: feminist self-defence trainings, empowerment activities for girls and women, primary prevention activities specifically targeted to men and boys, school-based primary prevention programmes, training for primary prevention practitioners, bystander intervention training, self-care activities and awareness-raising campaigns or programmes. Public authorities do not conduct evaluations of primary prevention activities, and organisations that provide primary prevention do their own analysis and evaluation.

Welsh Women’s Aid conducts training and activities relating to bystander Intervention and its ‘Ask Me’ programmes.⁷ Additionally, Welsh Women’s Aid’s blueprint for prevention acknowledges that violence against women and girls is preventable.⁸ With a healthcare approach, it looks at the role of primary prevention, secondary prevention and tertiary prevention in stopping violence before it occurs. But more widely, Welsh Women’s Aid promotes the Change That Lasts approach which looks at what role we can all play in preventing violence against women and girls. Programmes like Trusted Professionals support all professionals in ensuring that they can tackle violence properly and appropriately.

1. Office for National Statistics (ONS), Estimates of the population for the UK, England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, mid-2024 edition, https://www.ons.gov.uk peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationestimates/datasets/populationestimatesforukenglandandwalesscotlan-dandnorthernireland ↩︎
2. Ibid. ↩︎
3. Strategic Framework to End Violence Against Women and Girls (EVAWG) 2024–2031, https://www.executiveoffice-ni.gov.uk/topics/ending-violence-against-women-and-girls ↩︎
4. Domestic and Sexual Abuse Strategy 2023–2030, https://www.health-ni.gov.uk/consultations/domestic-and-sexual-abuse-strategy-2023-2030 ↩︎
5. “Equally Safe: Scotland’s strategy for preventing and eradicating violence against women and girls”, https://www.gov.scot/policies/violence-against-women-and-girls/equally-safe-strategy/ ↩︎
6. This figure is from the WAVE Country Report 2023. ↩︎
7. Further information available here: https://welshwomensaid.org.uk/change-that-lasts/ask-me-project/. ↩︎
8. Available here: https://welshwomensaid.org.uk/news/a-blueprint-for-the-prevention-of-violence-against-women-domestic-abuse-and-sexual-violence/. ↩︎