Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what formal communications her Department has had with local authorities on the planned changes to funding arrangements for independent domestic violence advisers and multi-agency risk assessment conference coordinators from March 2017.

The Government's Violence against Women and Girls Strategy (VAWG) published in March 2016 committed increased funding of £80 million for VAWG services and announced that from April 2017 we would move from a model of direct national funding to a model of supporting community-based services through a new VAWG Service Transformation Fund. This was confirmed in writing to local areas in July 2016.

We have also set out a clear blueprint for local action though our new National Statement of Expectations (NSE) and Commissioning Toolkit, which is available to local commissioning bodies and groups. Our move to support through the VAWG Service Transformation Fund will encourage better collaboration and new, joined-up approaches between local commissioners, and with specialist VAWG service providers. This will help promote better collaboration and joint leadership, encourage new approaches incorporating early intervention, and establish and embed the best ways to help victims, survivors and their families.

We have consulted widely with the voluntary and community sector and statutory stakeholders in the development of the strategy, the NSE and the Transformation Fund and we will continue to work with the women’s sector and local areas to monitor the level of Independent Domestic Violence Advisers and Multi Agency Risk Assessment Conference provision.