Background and Aims of the Testing Phase
In 2025, the Scottish Government and COSLA announced that work would commence to develop a VAWG Needs Assessment Tool, which can support local multi-agency Violence Against Women (VAW) Partnerships and/or other relevant strategic partnerships, committees and decision-making groups to:
- develop a shared understanding of the specific needs of women, children and young people who are experiencing, or are at risk of experiencing, violence, abuse and exploitation in local communities across Scotland;
- identify, and build on, examples of good practice in place locally in terms of how systems and services are currently identifying and responding to women, children and young people’s needs;
- identify and respond to any areas for improvement the partners collectively find, including any areas of unmet need and/ or gaps in local systems and services; and
- explore any opportunities to maximise the use and impact of collective resources.
In 2025/ 26, 10 local authority areas received funding to participate in an initial Testing Phase of the Tool between September 2025 and June 2026, to help identify improvements that were needed to the draft Needs Assessment Tool and create a suite of templates and resources to support its use.
Expressing your interest in Participating in the Testing Phase
To develop the Tool further ahead of its roll-out across Scotland in 2027/28, there is now an opportunity for an additional 10 local authorities to participate in a second testing phase between October 2026 and May 2027.
To ensure this second testing phase builds on, and adds value to, the work that has been undertaken to date, this second (and final) testing phase will specifically aim to :
- support VAW Partnerships and/ or other strategic groups to generate learning on hidden harm, including the needs of women, children and young people experiencing less visible types of VAWG and/ or who face additional barriers to accessing support; and
- capture learning on how local authority areas with lower levels of readiness/ capacity can be best supported to use the Needs Assessment Tool in the longer term.
Local VAW Partnerships and/ or other local strategic partnerships/ committees who are interested in participating in the Testing Phase are invited to complete the short expression of interest form below by Friday the 4th of September 2026.
Grants of up to £32,000 are available to VAW Partnerships and/ or other local strategic partnerships/ committees to support them to participate in the Testing Phase between October 2026 and May 2027, and you will be asked to provide information below on how you would intend to use that budget. However, please note that all funding must be spent within the current financial year.
Please contact vaw@improvementservice.org.uk with any questions.