As we settle into a new year, the women’s charity sector feels caught between two strings: the long‑awaited national ambition, and the question of whether that ambition will truly be matched by delivery.
In December, the Government produced it’s vision and actions to meet the ambition of halving violence against women and girls within a decade—a whole‑of‑government and whole‑of‑society mission. The intent is bold. But as ever, the real test will be whether the funding and infrastructure will follow.
Some of the actions include establishing an Innovation Council on VAWG and launching a national summit on men and boys in 2026—a recognition that the root causes of violence stretch from misogyny in schools to online harms at home, and from intergenerational trauma to peer‑on‑peer abuse. These acknowledgements matter.
There have been positive steps.
The roll‑out of Raneem’s Law across England and Wales aims for a significant shift in how police respond to victims of domestic abuse. Specialist rape teams within forces are hoping to reshape the investigative landscape. And the government’s pledge of £550 million for victim support services over the next three years could—if channelled well—bring stability to organisations who have run on shoestring budgets for far too long.
But as SafeLives put it:
“Ambition is welcome, but delivery is the test.”
Across the country, we’re seeing a mixture of progress and precarity. Lincolnshire Police, for example, have been hosting promising events that bring together organisations who support victims of crime. This has resulted in easier signposting and more appropriate referrals being made. These gatherings are strengthening local networks—but their future is already uncertain due to funding cuts in the police.
There are bright spots of advocacy too. The End Violence Against Women Coalition successfully campaigned to prevent police from routinely accessing survivors’ private counselling notes. Survivors should never have had to choose between healing or seeking justice, and now, thankfully, strict criteria must be met before such deeply personal information can be requested.
Meanwhile, GP practices are being equipped with better training to identify and support patients experiencing domestic or sexual violence—something that, quietly, could transform thousands of lives at the earliest point of disclosure.
And within our own Lamplight community, our customers are seeing growth. New refuges are opening. New services are emerging. Partnerships are strengthening rather than fracturing.
Despite the challenges, organisations are expanding, collaborating, and innovating in ways that make us hopeful. But are these organisations being stretched too thin with the resources and funding that they have?
Photo by Priscilla Du Preez 🇨🇦 on Unsplash
