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<p>The Government published a new Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy on 8 March
and committed funding of £80 million between 2016 and 2020 to protect women and girls
from violence. This increased funding will help to deliver our goal to work with local
commissioners to deliver a secure future for rape support centres, refuges and FGM
and Forced Marriage Units, whilst driving a major change across all services which
promotes early intervention and prevention.</p><p>The Strategy identifies that some
sectors of society can experience multiple forms of discrimination and disadvantage
or additional barriers to accessing support. These include women and girls from Black
and Minority Ethnic (BME) communities and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGB&T)
victims. The increased funding of £80 million, and our support for local areas to
improve local commissioning, will help to ensure that the needs for LGBT and BME victims
are met through specialist support.</p><p>The new Strategy also recognises that a
sustainable approach to preventing abuse is dependent on changing the attitudes and
behaviours of perpetrators. As part our renewed focus on early intervention and breaking
the cycle of violence, the Government will work with local areas on changing the attitudes
and behaviours of perpetrators, to make sure rehabilitation, mental health interventions
and other appropriate perpetrator programmes are in place.</p><p>In recent years there
has been a step change in the number of domestic abuse crimes recorded by the police.
The new Strategy sets out that we will continue to drive a culture change in the police
response to recognise domestic abuse as the serious crime that it is, and encourage
more victims, including BME victims of domestic abuse, to report to the police. We
will also ensure that women can seek help in a range of settings as they go about
their daily lives and have easy access to community based support at the earliest
opportunity.</p>
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