Children's Services Women's Aid Fund 2008-11
In 2006, the Children's Services - Women's Aid Fund was established and £6m invested (2006-08) to fund specialist workers offering direct support to children and young people experiencing domestic abuse, in addition to approximately £1.5 million per year invested by local authorities. This funding allocation was made in direct response to the Listen Louder campaign organised by Scottish Women's Aid, which gave children and young people experiencing domestic abuse the opportunity to tell Scottish Ministers what their needs were. Their priority was the need for dedicated children's workers. The children's services are mainly provided through the network of Women's Aid groups in Scotland and this funding ensures that each Women's Aid group has a minimum of 3 full time workers to offer refuge/follow on support and a specific worker to provide outreach support to children in the wider community. The overall aims of the Children's Services Women's Aid Fund were to:
- Increase the access of children and young people to Women's Aid services
- Provide a wide range of specialist support services that meet the diverse needs of children and young people experiencing domestic abuse
- Ensure that Women's Aid services for children and young people meet recommended practice standards
- Ensure that children and young people are able to inform service developments and that they have opportunities to participate in the ongoing evaluation of services provided
- Work in partnership with other professionals and services.
Children's Services Women's Aid Fund 2008-11
In November 2007, the Scottish Government announced its intention to continue to fund this work over the next 3 years. The text and documents below only apply to those services who have received a grant offer letter from the Violence Against Women Team for 2008-11.
There are four documents the Scottish Government requires you to complete in the course of one financial year. For example, in 2009-10, the following documents and when they should be submitted to the Violence Against Women Team as follows:
1. 2008-09 Breakdown of Expenditure Reporting Template (deadline end of April 09).
2. Application for payment of grant form (Annex A) - to be submitted quarterly in April 09, July 09, October 09 and January 2010. This will be the second year that the current application for payment of grant form will be used.
Quarter 1 (14 April 2009)
Quarter 2 (1 July 2009)
Quarter 3 (1 October 2009)
Quarter 4 (1 January 2010)
TIP - print the application for payment of grant form and have a blank copy in front of you which may help you when completing the electronic version. The advantage of using the electronic version is that formulae have been incorporated into the form, so there is no need for you to calculate expenditure, underspend etc., as this will be done for you.
Guidance to aid completion of the application for payment of grant is attached as Annex B.
3. As with last year, the Scottish Government has moved to an annual monitoring and evaluation reporting cycle for the Children's Services Women's Aid Fund.
The yearly Monitoring and Evaluation Reporting Template (Annex C) to be submitted by 26 June 2009, can be accessed here.
The Scottish Government, in conjunction with Scottish Women's Aid and Children's Services Planners, will revise the current CSWAF Monitoring and Evaluation Framework to reflect the Scottish Government/CoSLA Concordat and introduction of local Single Outcome Agreements. This form is currently being developed and will be available in the next few months.
In addition to the CSWAF Monitoring and Evaluation Framework, a Project Update form has been created for all projects to complete and send to the Violence Against Women Team to notify them of progress, significant developments or issues in the organisation. This form should be completed as necessary and forwarded to Eileen Flanagan at the address below.
4. Breakdown of expenditure report (Annex D) - to be submitted in April 2010.
If you have any problems, please do not hesitate to contact Eileen Flanagan at Eileen.Flanagan@scotland.gsi.gov.uk or on 0131 244 5209.