Orkney Partnership for Action Against Gender Based Violence and Abuse

IMAGE: The partnership logo shows a leafy tree with visible roots and contains the text “Orkney Partnership for Action Against Gender Based Violence and Abuse”.

Who are we?

Orkney Partnership for Action Against Gender Based Violence and Abuse works at a local level as the key driver for multi-agency work to tackle violence against women and girls and gender based violence. We work alongside Equally Safe guidelines and are responsible for bringing together all the key public sector and third sector organisations working to prevent and eradicate violence against individuals within Orkney. We ensure that an effective and strategic approach is taken to progress the priorities set out in Equally Safe. Key members of the partnership include representatives from Women's Aid, ORSAS, Relationships Scotland Orkney, Police Scotland, NHS, Public Health, OHAC, Education, Right There, Housing, Criminal Justice, Victim Support, Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal and other relevant organisations. Importantly, the partnership offers a single point of contact for the breadth of work being taken to tackle gender based violence on all levels and to avoid duplication of effort and resource.

What we do

The main aim of the partnership is to ensure that the best use of all available resources in the community and that individuals affected by violence and abuse receive integrated, relevant and effective services. In order to do this, key activities undertaken by the partnership include:

Ensuring anyone affected by violence or abuse receive early and effective interventions - effective partnership working both between our partnership and other local organisations is essential in ensuring that individuals affected by violence or abuse receive early and effective interventions. At a local level, our partnership plays a key role in providing links to other organisations and partnerships working to improve safety and wellbeing for individuals, and ensuring perpetrators are held to account for their behaviours.
Promoting a preventative approach to tackling violence and abuse - Equally Safe highlights the need to make a decisive shift towards preventing violence and abuse by addressing its root causes. At a local level we play a leading role in engaging with other strategic partnerships and stakeholders (including representatives from Further Education/Higher Education institutions) and helping to ensure that they prioritise tackling gender inequality and social attitudes in their own strategies and plans.
Disseminating learning and training - the partnership plays a key role in ensuring that both specialist and non-specialist organisations have the knowledge and skills they need to identify and support individuals affected in an appropriate way. This may include producing learning resources, sharing best practice and organising training. Quality assurance for local services and policies are also provided, ensuring they are evidence informed and contribute to the outcomes and activities in the partnership strategic plan.

More information about the partnerships and how they support and connect to other strategic organisations and partnership working to tackle gender equality and VAWG at a local authority level can be found via the COSLA website:

https://www.cosla.gov.uk

Other Support We Receive

The partnership is supported by the Improvement Service - the national improvement organisation for local government in Scotland. The Improvement Service coordinates the work of the National VAW Network, which aims to improve the capacity and capability of local VAWPs across Scotland to implement the ambitions set out in Equally Safe at a local level. The Network brings together partnership coordinators/lead officers across the country with other key stakeholders including the Scottish Government, COSLA, and Police Scotland to share information, learning and resources and ensure that there is meaningful engagement and a coordinated approach taken on relevant issues.

IMAGE: The partnership logo shows a leafy tree with visible roots and contains the text “Orkney Partnership for Action Against Gender Based Violence and Abuse”.