Violence against women, domestic abuse and sexual violence: annual progress report 2024 to 2025

This annual report focuses on progress made between 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025 against the 6 objectives of the National Strategy on Violence Against Women, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence (VAWDASV) for 2022 to 2026 and the achieving the purpose of the Violence Against Women, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence (Wales) Act (‘the Act). 

This report is published under section 12 of the Act’.

Much of the progress made in 2024 to 2025 has been undertaken through the VAWDASV Blueprint in partnership with our partners and stakeholders across the Welsh public and specialist sector and this report therefore includes reference to progress made within the Blueprint. 

The VAWDASV Blueprint is the collaborative mechanism for delivering the National VAWDASV Strategy. Working in partnership with Policing in Wales and public and specialist sector partners across Wales, the Blueprint is a multi-agency approach to working and demonstrates a whole-of-Wales approach to tackling violence against women.  The establishment of the Blueprint recognises that the Act sets out duties not just for Welsh Government but for devolved public authorities across Wales. Local health boards and local authorities are duty bound to work in partnership to develop public local strategies which support the purpose of the Act. 

Tackling violence against women, domestic abuse and sexual violence remains a priority, and the Welsh Government Programme for Government commits to ‘strengthening the Violence against Women, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence Strategy to include a focus on violence against women in the street and workplace as well as the home’. 

In February 2025, a full public appointments recruitment process was initiated to appoint the next statutory VAWDASV National Adviser as required by the Act.  

In July 2025 the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Trefnydd and Chief Whip appointed Johanna Robinson was successfully appointed for a second term as National Adviser until 2028. 

Live Fear Free Campaigns

The Live Fear Free social media channels play a vital role in raising awareness of all forms of abuse. Through a strong partnership with Welsh Women’s Aid, impactful campaigns were delivered in 2024 to 2025 to help individuals recognise the signs of abuse, understand how to access support via the Live Fear Free helpline, and promote safety, respect, and equality in relationships.

This ongoing collaboration ensures that all content is informed by the real-life experiences of survivors and victims and helping to reduce stigma around domestic abuse and sexual violence. By encouraging open and honest conversations, the campaigns empower individuals to seek help without fear or shame.

Further information about the delivery of the helpline can be found below. 

Workplace harassment

In order to achieve the VAWDASV Strategy’s commitment to build an effective response to the abuse of trust in public bodies, the VAWDASV Blueprints workplace harassment workstream prioritised delivering a series of 3 all day conferences in Cardiff, Wrexham and Aberystwyth which brought together public sector leaders and professionals to focus on the pervasive and unacceptable issue of workplace sexual harassment. The conferences promoted the critical need and requirement for all employers to take practical action to prevent workplace sexual harassment and respond appropriately to victims and survivors.

The conference series successfully raised awareness of the prevalence and impact of workplace sexual harassment, engaging a breadth of organisations from across the public sector, embedding discussions on legal compliance, sharing guidance and promising practice being developed across the sector, and emphasising the importance of leadership accountability in addressing and preventing workplace sexual harassment. The conference series was completed in July 2025 and was achieved through successful co-production from workstream partnerships and was driven by the powerful lived experiences boldly shared by victims and survivors. 

We are evaluating the impact of these conferences to provide insight into future, future engagement of the public sector and leadership on workplace harassment and VAWDASV. 

In March 2024, the Race Disparity Unit commissioned research on behalf of the Workplace harassment workstream to explore Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Women lived experiences of workplace sexual harassment in Wales. In order to provide opportunity to garner further insight from lived experiences, the research timeframe was broadened and the findings were published in September 2025. 

Sound Campaign: Gender Based Harassment in Public Spaces

We continue to challenge the public attitude to violence against women through our Sound Campaign; focusing on men and boys across Wales. Over the last year we continued to grow our Sound Squad of male allies. Our focus this year has been supporting the Gender Based Harassment in Public Spaces communications campaign.  This campaign shone a light on the experiences of women and girls in several settings, including public spaces where women exercise; the streets, the gym and included themes such as inappropriate staring, personal space and unwanted touching. Championing a solutions-focused approach, Sound aims to educate men, alongside showcasing what men can do to be allies in ending the public sexual harassment of women in Wales. 

Complementing the online campaign, this year saw a ‘Sound run’, with 10 local running clubs in Cardiff coming together to raise awareness and discuss public sexual harassment with media coverage on ITV Wales, BBC Radio Wales, BBC Online and S4C.

Relationships and sexuality education curriculum and the Spectrum project

In Wales, the Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE) code became mandatory for schools from September 2022. This education aims to help children and young people understand relationships and sexuality, empowering them with the knowledge and skills to make informed choices. The RSE Code outlines the mandatory learning requirements, which include topics such as sexual health, consent, and the rights of individuals. Schools must ensure that RSE is developmentally appropriate for their students, reflecting their age and maturity

The mandatory RSE Code supports schools to design their RSE. The content is set within the context of broad and interlinked learning strands, namely: 

• relationships and identity
• sexual health and well-being
• empowerment, safety and respect

These strands allow practitioners to design and develop a curriculum tailored to their learners, making connections and developing authentic contexts for learning across the curriculum.

We continued to fund Stori Cymru’s Spectrum project during 2024 to 2025, which in line with the RSE Curriculum Code, promotes the importance of healthy relationships and raises awareness of VAWDASV. Spectrum also delivers training for school staff and governors about understanding the impact of domestic abuse on a child and promotes a whole school approach to tackling domestic abuse. Funding has also been used for Spectrum to develop resources for teachers (both online training and printed material) on how to effectively deal with disclosures of VAWDASV from pupils

During 2024 to 2025, the Spectrum project engaged with 40,860 pupils across 3,040 sessions with the objective of ensuring that children and young people gain increased knowledge, awareness and understanding of VAWDASV issues with 2,855 staff present to also increase their knowledge

To support schools to embed a whole school approach to healthy relationships and VAWDASV, Spectrum supported 508 staff during INSET/staff training sessions as well as supporting in 30 consultation meetings. Five sessions were delivered for parents and governors, and there were 28 Spectrum attendances at VAWDASV and education related conferences and forums across Wales to promote the project as well as support the whole school approach. 

In primary schools, 1 year group may access a Spectrum session, and in comprehensive schools 2 year groups are offered 1 RSE session which focuses on healthy relationships. Tailored sessions and resources are available to meet the needs of students to promote inclusivity. Whilst not every school has received training from Spectrum, each child in a 10-year cycle will receive 1 to 2 sessions. 

Testimonials from the Spectrum Project 

All young people should know what to do if they are ever in a situation where they are in a toxic relationship (Pupil evaluation)

The session allowed pupils to have a greater understanding of healthy relationships and the causes of domestic abuse. As pupils begin to develop relationships it is crucial they understand and this session brought awareness to this (staff evaluation)

Working in partnership to support higher education providers

As part of our commitment to promoting safe, equal and healthy relationships across all education settings, the Blueprint brough together a working group. This brought together members of the Children and Young People’s Needs and Gender-based Harassment in All Public Spaces workstreams, along with Medr and the Violence Prevention Unit (VPU) to create a self-assessment toolkit for universities.  

The toolkit was designed to support high education institutions in assessing their approaches to preventing and responding to VAWDASV, and in fostering inclusive, respectful environments for students and staff. It encourages reflective practice and continued improvement, aligned with the principles of the VAWDASV National Strategy. 

Medr will consider the implementation of the toolkit with universities as part of their broader suite of documents and paperwork to support universities.

Medr’s strategic plan 

The Gender-based Harassment in all Public Spaces workstream recognised an opportunity to work together to provide a joint response to the Medr consultation on their draft strategic plan at the end of 2024. This provided the opportunity for workstream members to come together and agree a response that recognised the expertise of professionals across the VAWDASV sector. Within the Medr’s Strategic Plan 2025 to 2030, under strategic aim 1 the first founding commitment is “establish regulatory conditions to advance equity and equality of opportunity and work with partners to contribute to eliminating discrimination, harassment, victimisation, gender-based violence and abuse”. 

Keeping safe online

During 2024 to 2025, the we expanded the ‘Online issues and worries’ advice for children and young people, available through the Keeping safe online area of Hwb. The advice is designed to empower children and young people to make informed and confident choices in their digital lives. It addresses a wide range of online issues, including sharing nudes, online sexual harassment and online hate, and provides practical information that can help children and young people recognise unhealthy behaviours, set boundaries, keep themselves safe and seek support when needed. 

Community engagement

During 2024 to 2025 our commitment to engaging young men and boys in tackling VAWDASV saw Welsh Government collaboration with Cardiff City’s Community Football Academy youths, alongside partners within the South Wales Police and South Wales Police and Crime Commissioners Office. This led to incorporating elements of the Sound campaign into football sessions across 2 pilot sites in Cardiff and Merthyr Tydfil. In an effort to promote primary prevention opportunities, young men and boys partook in educational conversations about unhealthy behaviours in relationships, wider VAWDASV issues and challenged unhelpful ideology on masculinity.

Tackling perpetration

In February and March, the University of South Wales has progressed with research commissioned by the Welsh Government on behalf of the Blueprint tackling perpetration workstream. The research is focussed on identifying best practice for defining and measuring efficacy for perpetration interventions and will underpin a workstream position statement. An online consensus survey and 2 workshops attended by subject matter experts in North and South Wales have been completed. The research will conclude in the autumn of 2025 with a final report of findings, due later in 2025. The research will underpin the development of a Blueprint position statement on measuring efficacy for perpetration interventions. 

The workstream has completed the all-Wales scoping survey and published its report mapping the services to support behaviour change and improve victim survivor safety. The workstream will also develop a framework for categorising interventions and establish consistent terminology. 

 The report and the recommendations included within it have received sign off from the VAWDASV National Partnership Board. The report has been made available to stakeholders and published on the Welsh Government website. 

Cautioning and relationship advice and Domestic Abuse Protection Orders

In collaboration with Policing in Wales and regional Police and Crime Commissioners, we have continued to fund an early intervention programme, CARA (Cautioning and Relationship Advice) across Wales. This is an alternative to the Criminal Justice route, delivered as an early intervention programme issued to those who meet the specific criteria, including have committed an initial, first time domestic- related offence.

The UK Government and Policing are due to begin a trial rollout of the new protection order, DAPO across North Wales. It is intended for an April 2025 start. We continue to feed into the l stages of the trial to ensure the welsh context is developed and understood; ensuring the needs of Welsh people are considered in its rollout.

Police perpetrated domestic abuse specialist keyworker (DRIVE Project)

In collaboration with both Gwent and South Wales Police, we funded a specialist post which works with either serving or ex police officers accused of committing domestic related offences. This intervention is critical in terms of risk management and compliments the victim Tabw pilot, which supports victims of police perpetrated abuse in Gwent and South Wales.   

We recognise that to break cycles of abuse we must work with men and boys as allies and agents of change with a focus on primary prevention, healthy relationships and developing an understanding of gender-based violence at the very earliest opportunities. In order to make Wales the safest place to be a woman, we need to encourage men to be allies and to not excuse, condone or foster attitudes and behaviours that can lead to VAWDASV.

We have an award-winning communications campaign that seeks to develop and understanding of gender-based violence and the unhealthy attitudes and behaviours that can foster it. Our work in engaging men and boys is focused on primary prevention; before harm begins.

We recognise that we cannot do this in isolation; we need our communities, organisations and people to develop and embed the shift in society and culture to bring about the change. Working with community partners across sports has been a significant lens in which to deliver the messaging and particular tools that play a part in reducing harm in the very first instance.

We have supported the work of She Is Not Your Rehab to in bring world leading speakers and agents of change into local communities; in a variety of education settings, sports groups and health boards to encourage developing an understanding of family violence. Fostering safe spaces to learn, reflect and bring about change without fear of judgement. By equipping young men and boys with the tools, knowledge and understanding we aim to break intergenerational and entrenched attitudes towards VAWDASV.

The Sound campaign has been an innovative platform in which to deliver this messaging and engage with men and boys through their digital platforms and places of activity, for example online and in person within community sport settings. The campaign continues to receive praise for its innovative and direct approach, working with men and boys to foster safety for women and girls, taking accountability and ownership.

In October and November 2024, we were part of a delegation to New Zealand to share our approach in Wales. We met with the UK High Commissioner, the New Zealand Ministry of Justice, New Zealand Defence Forces, Health Ministry and community schemes to share best practice and learn from agencies working in communities to better enable a collaborative approach to developing policies and provisions in Wales that help reduce instances of VAWDASV and improve safety for women and girls.

Bystander intervention training

The bystander intervention training pilot aims to empower people to speak up and challenge attitudes and behaviours that may be supportive of violence against women and girls within a peer group, a workplace, community or public space. 

This pilot initiative offers training to promote a prosocial and informed bystander intervention programme that runs alongside our current, established VAWDASV Training delivered by the National Training Framework. This is with the intention of creating genuine and lasting changes in societal attitudes towards VAWDASV. Target settings include, but not limited to sports clubs, teams and governing bodies, teacher training settings, universities, organisations and businesses, police, community organisations, local authorities and the general public. This training will develop individuals' skills to enable safe bystander engagement to prevent or respond to VAWDASV and will support our aim of changing attitudes, tackling gender norms and toxic masculinity, creating a culture change and to further promote the unacceptability of all forms of VAWDASV. 

As of 31 March 2025, 628 participants have completed the training.

Workplace harassment workstream

Through the workplace harassment workstream, strong social partnership and relationship development has led to sharing tools, resources and examples of best practice to support in driving forward effective prevention of sexual harassment in the workplace.

National Training Framework (NTF)

The National Training Framework (NTF) is one of the key mechanisms for delivering the Act. Victims and survivors of VAWDASV will interact with a range of public services including housing and healthcare and it is important to establish proper pathways for support and to embed understanding of gender-based violence within all relevant authorities in Wales. The breadth of the NTF is wide covering 6 training groups which have evolved in depth and scale over the past ten years. All professionals within the public service will fall into one of these groups, with minimum training requirements outlined per group.

Relevant authorities (as outlined in the Act) are required to take reasonable steps to train their staff to meet the requirements of the NTF and to report on the progress by submitting an annual report to the Welsh Government following the end of each financial year. 

We are reviewing the NTF to ensure that it continues to meet the needs of professionals across Wales and supports them to respond effectively to victims and survivors of abuse.

We are phasing the review of the framework. The first phase in 2024 to 2025, engaged with our key stakeholders on the priorities for a review. This has helped us improve the annual reporting process for relevant authorities and to provide clarification on outdated sections of the National Training Framework guidance. As a result of this feedback, we are refreshing our online VAWDASV awareness module for Group 1 (professionals across the Welsh public sector).

The next phase of the review will look at the Ask and Act programme. Any updates to the Framework will be shaped by evidence, experience and the evolving needs of those working to prevent and respond to VAWDASV in Wales.

Women’s health plan

The Women’s Health Plan was published on 10 December 2024. The plan has been written by the Welsh NHS and is intended to provide the NHS in Wales with an approach for enacting the Quality Statement and the outcomes of the Discovery phase work. The Women’s Health Plan is the NHS response to the Quality Statement for Women’s and Girls’ health and the Discovery report. It is a national plan aimed at improving health services for women and women’s experience of those services, taking a life course approach. Addressing violence against women, domestic abuse and sexual violence is a specific priority in the plan to “Provide education on VAWDASV across the life course for all healthcare professionals to build workforce confidence and competence to ask about violence and ensure opportunities are not missed to disclose and prevent continuum of harm”. 

To deliver this action, work will need to be undertaken to understand the current position in terms of training provision and uptake of existing training opportunities.

There is a further action to undertake a scoping exercise to consider the need for each Health Board to have a dedicated staff or VAWDASV 'Champion' to support data collection, training, implementation of policy including the VAWDASV Act and the Serious Violence Duty. 

Engagement with the identification and referral to improve safety (IRIS) programme

IRIS aims to improve the healthcare response to gender-based violence. Variation in implementation of IRIS persists across regions in Wales. Forthcoming Welsh Government research, commissioned within this financial year, will investigate the factors contributing to this disparity, including differences in local priorities, funding availability, service readiness, and perceived relevance.  

Research has been commissioned by the Welsh Government’s Internal Social Research and Information team to understand how decisions are made around the commissioning, delivery, and uptake of VAWDASV training and support within General Practice settings, specifically focusing on IRIS (Identification and Referral to Improve Safety) and Ask and Act. These programmes are central to improving early identification and response to domestic abuse across healthcare settings. The research is scheduled for completion by early spring 2026, with publication of findings anticipated in the same period.

Education toolkit

We continue to work with partners to ensure relevant professionals are equipped to provide effective, timely and appropriate responses to victims and survivors of VAWDASV. 

Work has progressed to update an online educational toolkit aimed at supporting teachers, guardians, governors and parents. The toolkit is designed to strengthen understanding of VAWDASV and promote safe, supportive environments for children and young people. 

A new feature within the toolkit provides space for emerging and topical issues to be explored, with relevant guidance and resources made available to support education professionals and caregivers. This section can be regularly updated to ensure the toolkit remains responsive to the evolving needs of education settings. It is anticipated that work will continue throughout 2025 with a view that towards the end of the year the toolkit will be made live.

Survivor Voice Scrutiny and Involvement Panel 

We continue to work to ensure the voices and real-life experiences of survivors are at the heart of our work and that of the Blueprint. The Survivor Voice Panel includes 9 survivors of VAWDASV. Recruitment to the panel is ongoing on a rolling basis to ensure continued engagement and representation, and to maintain an active and sustainable membership. 

Over the past year, the panel has met regularly to scrutinise the plans and recommendations of the VAWDASV Blueprint workstreams ahead of their submission to the VAWDASV National Partnership Board. The panel is chaired by the National Advisers for VAWDASV.

The panel members are now embedded within each of the Blueprint workstreams, with at least two panel members assigned to each workstream. Two panel members will also be allocated to both the VAWDASV National Partnership Board and the Programme Board, ensuring survivor voice is represented at all levels of governance and decision-making. Work is currently being undertaken to identify and establish the appropriate support mechanisms to enable meaningful and sustainable participation in these spaces. 

Revenue and capital funding for third sector specialist services

During 2024 to 2025, the VAWDASV budget enabled services across Wales to continue to deliver critical support for victims, hold perpetrators to account and support children and young people who are victims in their own right either of witnessing domestic abuse at home, or have been the victims of exploitation or additional complex issues.

We provide core grants funding to all 6 regions across Wales to enable them to address regional needs. Through this funding regions are supporting providers of victim services, Independent Domestic Violence Adviser (IDVA)roles, training for professionals, local communication campaigns and keyworker roles. 

We continue to directly fund staffing and service delivery activities in some third sector organisations. 

We have provided additional financial support for people with no recourse to public funds who are victims of VAWDASV.

To support the implementation of the National Strategy we have commissioned research to develop a theory of change for the strategy, and data landscaping work. 

In 2024 to 2025 we brought together 2 capital funding streams into 1 single streamlined scheme. This capital funding is available to anyone working within the VAWDASV sector to support ongoing delivery of services, and enabling new items and properties to be purchased, including alternative, dispersed refuge space. We funded in excess of 20 applications which ranged from new furniture in therapeutic areas to large buildings and office spaces.  

Sustainable Whole System Approach (SWSA)

To gather insight on implementation of the Act at the regional level we conducted a survey and held workshops with partners to inform the work of the Blueprint’s Sustainable Whole System Approach workstream. These workshops focussed on key areas, including regional needs assessments, roles of regional boards and statutory partners in the delivery of the VAWDASV strategy 2022 to 2026 and to what extent regions felt they had clarity on their expected delivery models. The findings of these workshops were summarised in an internal report produced in late 2024, and formed the basis for an all Wales Summit, and call for action to all strategic and regional leaders, which was delivered in September 2025. 

These workshops also highlighted deficits in data pan Wales specific to VAWDASV and this work has been incorporated into the data landscape research, which seeks to gather information about what data is available across Wales and identifying gaps, in order to produce more robust needs assessments for regions. 

We have started work on developing statutory guidance under the VAWDASV Act for local authorities and local health board and other relevant partners on their VAWDASV planning duties. 

Live Fear Free helpline

The Welsh Government continued to fund Welsh Women’s Aid to deliver the Live Fear Free helpline for the third year of this current contract.

A total of 28,137 enquiries were handled by the Helpline during 2024 to 2025. This is inclusive of both inbound enquiries, and outbound calls, whether to survivors or to other professionals.

Enquiries can be made in the form of phone calls, emails, texts, and webchats. Sign Live is also available for British Sign Language (BSL) users, however there was no take up of this service during the year.

The Helpline is targeted to answer over 90% of enquiries the first time around and exceeded this during the year with a ‘strike rate’ of 94.6%. The average call waiting time was 19 minutes and 20 seconds, with the overall enquiry handling time being 26 minutes 24, accounting for offline helpline advocate admin and support time

During 2024 to 2025, around half of enquiries were from victims and survivors, with the other half being made up of concerned others and professionals, with less than 1% of calls being from perpetrators and those concerned about their own behaviour. 

This year, high risk indicators were recorded during enquiries, to assist in tracking the most vulnerable victims and ensuring they were getting the support they required. Examples of high-risk indicators includes:

• domestic abuse with sexual violence present
• harm to animals
• escalation of abuse
• honour based abuse
• pregnancy/ child contact
• stalking
• non-fatal strangulation
• threats to kill
• use of weapons/objects 

The helpline advocates can respond to all enquiries by triaging the need of the individual calling, with the outcome differing from active listening, providing information, signposting and referrals. Signposting can be to a range of services, not just to the VAWDASV specialist sector but to other support services such a debt management, legal support and mental health support. 

Regional VAWDASV teams

During 2024 to 2025 and ongoing, we have continued to work closely with our regional advisors and teams across Wales. This partnership has proven critical and supportive, ensuring that issues affecting local areas are brought to the attention of Welsh Government in real time, and that fostering a collaborative approach to decision making, consultations, and working together at pace to deliver services has enabled victims and service users to access support where necessary, sustain services at risk of no longer being able to operate and to be innovative and receptive to new ways of thinking and tackling VAWDASV.       

Supporting older victims of VAWDASV

The needs of older people are specifically recognised within the National VAWDASV strategy, demonstrated by the Older People’s Needs workstream within the VAWDASV Blueprint. As well as delivering the key high-level actions within the Blueprint delivery plan, we has recognise the importance of improving a joint approach between safeguarding and VAWDASV sectors to ensure a successful response to the needs of older people.

Our National Action Plan for preventing the abuse of older people recognises the role of the Blueprint workstream as an enabler in delivering the ambitions of the plan. 

Both VAWDASV and safeguarding policy teams have continued to work together to streamline approaches to policy development and delivery. During 2024 to 2025 the Older People’s Needs workstream commenced work to highlight opportunities to improve the risk assessment process for older people, following calls from members to review as a priority. This work remains ongoing. A best practice infographic was developed and cascaded which provided specialist VAWDASV service providers with an easy-to-read overview of how best to support older people who may approach their organisations. It focused on what older people need in respect to location, language, people and practice. This was developed through engaging with a range of providers across Wales, as well as reflecting on survivor feedback led by Dewis Choice as part of their work. The infographic was cascaded to the VAWDASV sector with a view that further tools could be developed for other sectors in the future. 

Migrant victims and those with no recourse to public funding (NRPF)

During 2024 to 2025 the Welsh Government continued to fund a pilot top-up fund through Bawso to support individuals with NRPF, complementing the established Home Office Support for Migrant Victim scheme. The top-up aimed to support migrant victims in Wales subject to NRPF conditions, could access longer stays in funded accommodation, alongside increased subsistence funding to support easier access to food and other essentials. In 2024 to 2025 161 individuals were supported through the scheme.

The pilot has highlighted ongoing challenges for individuals with NRPF, including inconsistent understanding of statutory duties to support individuals at risk of, or fleeing abuse, as well as issues with accessing information regarding immigration issues and rights. For individuals fleeing an abusive relationship, understanding their rights and opportunities for them to access support is imperative to encourage a smooth transition into a new, safe life.

The subsistence allowance allowed service users to purchase basic essential needs such as food which was suitable for their dietary and religious requirements. They were able to use the funds to purchase sanitary products, toiletries, clothes and use the funds for public transport allowing them to access essential amenities. 

For a service user who was pregnant, she was able to start buying baby items such as clothes, and nappies but was also assisted by the support worker to access other service providers issuing items for unborn and new babies.

All service users were also supported with food from food banks to ensure there was no shortage.

Bawso

In 2025, 10 years on from the VAWDASV (2015) Act, we continue to make progress through the continued embedding of the 6 VAWDASV Blueprint workstreams and delivery of the six National Strategy objectives. The Blueprint has given us an opportunity to formalise and embed our principles of partnership and working collaboratively to eliminate gender-based violence and abuse, and its workstreams have been delivering against its collaboratively agreed high level actions. We have continued to make progress in tackling violence against women and girls, domestic abuse and sexual violence in 2024 to 2025; however, as we prepare for a new strategy in 2027, it is also clear there is more to do. 

Tackling, and ultimately ending VAWDASV in Wales is a collective effort. It is a whole system problem, requiring a whole system response.  As we continue our efforts to make Wales the safest place to be a woman or girl, we will continue to deliver against the Blueprint actions in parallel with our work towards a future strategy.

Wales will not be a bystander to abuse.