Experts by Experience Panel

To ensure the Scottish Government was able to make fully informed decisions on how funding was distributed we created an “Experts by Experience” step in the decision making process where people with lived experience of gender based violence and abuse could share their perspective to help inform what work was funded.

There were two stages to this feedback – an online survey that women could complete and we also held 4 online discussion groups.

It was really valuable to hear the thoughts, experience and perspective of the women that are, or have been supported by organisations in this sector.

The feedback gathered via the survey and the online discussion groups formed a key part of the information used by Scottish Government as they made decisions on funding through the Delivering Equally Safe fund.

Clinical Review

For any applications that included an element of counselling or psychological support, we included an additional review by approved clinical psychologists. We had three clinical psychologists involved in this step who gave feedback on the suitability of the specific counselling or therapeutic support to be engaged by applicants.

Violence Against Women Partnership

Information from VAWP (Violence Against Women Partnership) Chairs was gathered through 2 steps. These steps were:
• Online questionnaire asking for feedback on local priorities and challenges.
• Feedback on anonymized applications to their local area.
This information was intended to provide local context to enhance the range of information available to the panel.

Assessment of the application

A team of assessors pulled together by Inspiring Scotland reviewed all applications and scored them using the agreed assessment and scoring guide. This guide has been submitted as reference as part of the pre-reading pack.

Within the guide and during training for assessors, there was clear guidance on key areas such as considering the whole application when scoring a question; recognising that costs will vary dependent on area being delivered and to take account that organisations may not have professional fundraisers submitting application.

The principles used to recruit assessors were:
• Strong preference for experienced assessors.
• All needed to have experience/knowledge of the sector.
• Ideally have diversity in the assessor pool.