Publications

Webinar 5-Changes to the Delivering Equally Safe Fund

This webinar covers recent changes to the Delivering Equally Safe Fund.

This is part of a series of five webinars which are available to support you as you develop your application to the fund.

Transcript

Slide 1: Welcome

Welcome to this Webinar where we will be discussing recent changes to the Delivering Equally Safe Fund.

This is part of a series of five webinars which are available to support you as you develop your application to the fund.

Slide 2: Meet the Team

My name is Allison Crawford and I am a part of the Delivering Equally Safe team here at Inspiring Scotland. we are working on behalf of the Scottish Government to manage the Delivering Equally Safe Fund.

Slide 3: What we’ll cover

In this webinar I will give you an overview of key changes that were recently made to the fund and how these changes may affect your application. We will then discuss some of the changes in more detail including changes to the length of the fund, funding protected for frontline services, the eligibility of local authorities in partnership applications and the involvement of Violence against women partnerships in decision making.

Slide 4: Announcement

On the 24^th March 2021 the Scottish Government and COSLA issued a joint statement on Delivering Equally Safe which outlined a number of changes to the fund.

The Scottish Government have listened to feedback from potential recipients and changes were announced based on ongoing learning from the sector.

Slide 5: Key Updates

The update included the following changes to the fund:

• An additional £5m was allocated to the fund annually, meaning the total funding available in year 1 will now be £18m.
• A minimum of £14m will be secured for frontline specialist services to support their ongoing work
• The fund will now run in 2021/22 and 2022/23 with a replacement fund launching in 2023 following a joint strategic review of sustainability funding for frontline services.
• Local authorities can now act as a lead applicant on a partnership application

Slide 6: Application Timeline

Given the changes to the fund, the Scottish Government were keen to allow organisations to absorb the information provided, raise any queries and have a reasonable time beyond that to finalise their application.

The deadline for completed application has been extended to midday on the 28^th May.

Announcements about funding decisions will now be made by the end of July 2021 (instead of June).

There have been no changes to the intended start date of the fund. Successful applications will see funding commence from 1^st October 2021.

Slide 7: Your Application

We know that many organisations had started to work on applications to the fund when these changes were announced. To minimise the impact of these changes the application form itself will not change.

However, as the fund will now run in 2021/22 and 2022/23 as opposed to running over 3 years you will have to reframe your application to detail activity, participant numbers and costs for 2021/22 and 2022/23 only.

We have amended the budget template to allow you to detail costs over two years and it is available on our website alongside updated Application Guidance and FAQ documents.

The announcement on 24^th March also made clear that the decision-making process will take account of what an organisation has applied for, both as a single applicant and as a partnership. To support us with this we will ask you to submit an additional document with your application which clearly lists the applications – both single and partnership that your organisation is part of.

Slide 8: Why will the fund now run until 2023?

Since the launch of the fund the Scottish Government have been listening to feedback from potential recipients of funding and sector leaders about the long-term sustainability of services.

As referenced, the fund will now run in 2021/22 and 2022/23 only. This is because the Scottish Government are working in partnership with COSLA and other stakeholders to take forward a joint strategic review of the funding and plan to move to a longer term and more sustainable funding model by the end of this two year period.

By shortening the DES Fund whilst accelerating the joint strategic review, they expect to deliver an improved outcome for the sector.

Slide 9: Commitment to frontline specialist work

In the announcement on the 24^th March the Scottish Government committed an additional £5m to the fund and confirmed that a minimum of £14m of the total funding would be secured for ‘frontline specialist services.’

Slide 10: Definition of frontline specialist work

This announcement was followed by clarification, found in our FAQs document, on what a ‘frontline specialist services’ includes.

For the purposes of the Delivering Equally Safe assessment of applications frontline specialist services are defined as:

“Those whose core purpose is the provision of specialist support to survivors of gender-based violence either by

• Direct provision of specialist services (including any national helpline), or
• A national specialist response supporting front line services”

Slide 11: How will this work?

Over the past year the sector has played a vital role in supporting those most in need throughout the pandemic – by protecting at least £14m for delivery of frontline work these vital services can be maintained.

We understand that both local and national organisations carry out important work that directly supports survivors of gender-based violence and during assessment we will not see these organisations as competing with each other for funding.

The Equally Safe strategy is focused on both eradication and prevention of violence against women and girls. While £14m has been secured for frontline work we are still keen to support work focused on prevention, as well as new and innovative projects.

Slide 12: Partnership Applications Eligibility

Previously guidance around partnership applications stated that only a third sector organisation could be a lead partner however, following the update on 24^th March local authorities are now eligible to act as the lead partner in a partnership application.

This change was made based on feedback from local partnerships and potential applicants who highlighted that, in some areas, third sector organisations didn’t have the capacity to lead on partnership projects and that sometimes local authorities were best placed to act as lead partner.

Slide 14: Thank you

Thanks for using this webinar.

For more details on announced changes you can access our updated Application Guidance and FAQ documents on our website.

If you have any specific questions please get in touch with the team on DESenquiries@inspiringscotland.org.