Terms of reference

The National Partnership Board provides a collaborative oversight to support the progression and delivery of the National VAWDASV Strategy 2022 to 2026 at pace and with momentum.

The National Partnership Board will align scrutiny of performance to the activities driven by the VAWDASV Programme Board and associated workstreams, seeking to ensure that work with survivors is at the heart of the accountability.

The forum for key agencies engaged in the delivery of the Violence against Women, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence National Strategy for 2022 to 2026. It exists to ensure effective partnership working in the development and delivery of the strategy.

The Board’s vision is to end violence against women and girls, domestic abuse and sexual violence in Wales. The Board will achieve this ambition through a shared commitment delivering the objectives of the National Strategy collaboratively.

The National Strategy objectives are to:

• challenge the public attitude to violence against women, domestic abuse and sexual violence across the Welsh population through awareness raising and space for public discussion with the aim to prevent it
• increase awareness in children, young people and adults of the importance of safe, equal and healthy relationships and empowering them to positive personal choices
• hold those who commit abuse to account and support those who perpetrate VAWDASV to change their behaviour and avoid offending
• make early intervention and prevention a priority as part of a public health approach
• relevant professionals are trained to provide effective, timely and appropriate responses to victims and survivors 
• provide all victims with access to support and justice through appropriately resourced, high quality, needs-led, strength-based, inter-sectional and responsive services across Wales

The Board will contribute to these objectives through multi-agency co-operation and commitment to each other. Multi-agency includes both devolved and non-devolved public bodies, it includes third sector delivery agencies, it involves representative voices and it involves survivors. 

The role of the Board is to:

• hold partners to account
• secure buy in and commitment of partners including cross Government departments
• foster effective partnership working between key partners
• ensure engagement and involvement of all partners in the development and delivery of the National Strategy
• ensure that all stakeholder, including survivor, views are understood and considered as part of the development and delivery of the approach to VAWDASV
• provide a regular forum for partners to discuss and advise on policy development and proposals for the delivery of the strategy

In the Board meetings, the group will:

• adopt a collaborative and constructive approach to ending VAWDASV recognising the roll of all parties in achieving that aim
• represent the views of their organisation in relation to development and delivery of the Strategy, offer mutual accountability through the open sharing of information including performance measures and make commitments for action to be delivered by their organisation
• provide oversight to an agreed programme of work (conducted by working groups) in order to deliver the shared objectives and aim to end VAWDASV in Wales

The Board does not mandate partners with any specific decision. Each organisation has its own accountability mechanism. However, there remains considerable space for collaborative agreement to be achieved through common purpose and commitment. It is in agreeing and delivering on shared approaches that the Board will optimise the collective contribution to the aim to end VAWDASV.

The Partnership Board will oversee a series of workstreams, which will report to the Partnership Board, to take forward and oversee work on key actions. These workstreams may change over time as progress is made and priorities develop. However, initially these workstreams will address:

1. Gender-based harassment in all public spaces
2. Workplace harassment
3. Tackling perpetration
4. Sustainable whole system approach 
5. Older people’s needs
6. Children and young people’s needs

The Chairs of each of these workstreams will be members of the National Partnership Board. The working groups will develop workplans, which will be subject to approval by the Board.

The Survivor Voice Scrutiny and Involvement panel will be made up of those with lived experience across the range of VAWDASV. The panel will be able to develop policy advice for the National Partnership Board on user involvement in decision-making and engagement. However, their key role will be to work as a scrutiny panel to which the policy advice of other working groups will be referred for consideration and comment. Advice referred up to the National Partnership Board will therefore have a survivor perspective included.

Within its core, the strategy is promoting equality and understanding and is addressing intersectionality. The experience of VAWDASV is intrinsically linked to factors that relate to equality characteristics. Understanding the equality impact of VAWDASV on an intersectional basis and taking an equalities approach will be vital if we are to address the problem for everyone in Wales and recognise the cumulative impact intersecting disadvantage can have. Looking through the lens of intersectionality will also help us develop our comprehensive understanding of VAWDASV to include the needs of all those affected including children, older people, Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic people, disabled people and LGBTQ+ communities. The impact of VAWDASV is not uniform, affecting different people in different ways, and so we will be focused in our response through every workstream, to ensure our outcomes promote equality.

The Board meetings will be co-chaired by the Welsh Government and Policing in Wales. Membership should be at a sufficiently senior level that they are able to make commitments on behalf of their agency.

Co-chairs

• Welsh Government
• Policing in Wales

Senior responsible officers

• South Wales PCC
• Welsh Government

Core members

• WLGA
• BAWSO
• New Pathways
• HMPPS
• CPS
• HMCTS
• North Wales Police
• North Wales OPCC
• Domestic Abuse Commissioner
• Older People's Commissioner
• Older People’s Commissioners for Wales Office
• Public Health Wales
• NHS Wales
• Aneurin Bevan University Health Board
• Welsh Government
• Welsh Refugee Council

Workstream leads

• VAWDASV National Advisers, Welsh Government
• Pembrokeshire County Council
• Gwent Police
• Wales TUC
• Public Health Wales
• Safer Wales
• Welsh Women’s Aid
• HMPPS
• Age Cymru
• Gwent OPCC
• NHS Wales Health Collaborative

Meetings will convene every 3 months and will last for 2 hours.