The Home Office has announced its strategy to end violence against women and girls (VAWG) after being delayed three times. Campaigners, survivors and frontline organisations have repeatedly raised concerns about the lack of a clear, long-term plan, particularly as rates of domestic abuse, sexual violence and online misogyny continue to rise.
It was announced on Thursday, 18 December, and contains four core action areas. The government has framed it as a ten-year strategy, with an ambition to halve violence against women and girls within a decade.
We read through the full strategy and action plan so you don’t have to. Here is a brief summary of what’s actually in it.
Prevention and early intervention
An overhaul of the sex and relationships education curriculum in England will see teachers trained to identify early warning signs of misogynistic behaviour.
It will also teach children about healthy relationships and warn against incel culture and online abuse. This includes education on pornography, misogynistic influencers, and the role of AI and deepfakes in facilitating abuse.
Nudification apps, which create pornographic deep-fakes, will be criminalised to stop AI assisting VAWG. The government will also ban the creation of non-consensual sexually explicit deepfakes more broadly.
Pornographic content depicting strangulation or suffocation will be criminalised, with platforms required to prevent its spread.
In 2026, a helpline will be launched for young people displaying abusive behaviours in intimate and social relationships. It aims to provide an avenue for change. This will sit alongside pilots in schools and new tools to identify harmful sexual behaviour earlier.
£2.4 billion will be put into the ‘Families First Partnership Programme’. This will support families with complex needs, aiming to break cycles of inter-generational trauma. The programme will introduce earlier, joined-up intervention across local services.
Relentless pursuit of perpetrators
Policing reforms will see the creation of the National Centre for VAWG and Public Protection (NCVPP). Every police force must make VAWG a policing priority. Public protection will be embedded as a formal policing specialism, with new training and career pathways.
The justice system will be reviewed, looking at sentencing guidelines for abuse-related cases. This includes changes to how abuse cases are investigated and managed.
Stalking cases will be given more attention, including a ‘right to know’ (who the perpetrator is) scheme for victims of online stalking.
Survivors of domestic abuse will have a higher level of protection with the rollout of Domestic Abuse Protection Orders (DAPOs) at all police forces and courts. These have tougher limits on perpetrators of abuse, and are flexible in scope and duration.
The strategy also places increased focus on managing perpetrators beyond conviction, with the aim of reducing repeat offending.
Support
Free, independent legal advisors will be given to survivors of rape to help them navigate the justice system.
Survivors of domestic abuse will receive one-off cash payments to aid the rebuilding of their lives post-abuse.
Migrants who are abuse survivors with no recourse to public funds will be able to access support to help them leave abusive relationships while they regularise their legal status.
The strategy acknowledges that victim support is currently fragmented and commits to reforming how services are commissioned and delivered, with a stronger trauma-informed approach.
The law on prostitution will be reviewed to ensure it better protects women and girls against abuse.
Whole society approach
GP practices will have a ‘steps to safety’ programme by 2029 to improve identification of abuse and referral to support (England only).
The Employment Rights Bill will be used to ban the misuse of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs). NDAs signed to stop the disclosure of harassment and abuse will be void.
Long-term behaviour change schemes will be launched to change societal views which underpin abuse. This aims to shift inter-generational gender norms and misogyny.
The strategy frames ending violence against women and girls as a shared responsibility across government, public services, employers, communities and wider society, backed by long-term monitoring over the next decade.
The publication of the strategy has been met with a mixed response. While the government has described it as historic, many campaigners have welcomed some of the measures alongside serious questions about delivery, funding and political will.
Several organisations have acknowledged the importance of long-awaited steps on online abuse, including the planned inclusion of nudification apps and non-consensual sexual deepfakes in criminal law. Survivor advocates and child protection organisations have also welcomed commitments aimed at preventing image-based abuse before it happens, particularly measures focused on protecting children and young people online.
However, it remains unclear how seriously the strategy will be taken in practice. It was delayed three times, took years to publish, and follows a long line of government commitments on violence against women and girls that campaigners say have not resulted in consistent, systemic change.
Concerns about implementation are heightened by recent evidence. Measures introduced following the murder of Sarah Everard, including basic safeguarding procedures for women and survivors, have still not been fully implemented across policing. Reporting earlier this year found that a quarter of forces in England and Wales have yet to adopt essential safeguards.
There has also been criticism of the political response to the strategy’s launch. Despite 650 MPs sitting in Parliament, only a small number attended the statement in the House of Commons, raising questions about how high a priority violence against women and girls truly is within Westminster.
The End Violence Against Women Coalition has welcomed the recognition of prevention and early intervention within the strategy but warned of significant gaps. These include a lack of clear accountability for tech platforms, the absence of a meaningful firewall to protect migrant women, and funding increases that they argue fall short of what is needed to address the scale of abuse. The coalition has also expressed concern that some measures risk using violence against women to justify harsher immigration policies and expanded state surveillance.
Campaigners and experts have similarly pointed to the strategy’s ambitions while warning that it is seriously underfunded, and that without sustained investment, monitoring and political commitment, its impact may be limited.
The government has placed particular emphasis on tackling online harms in its public messaging, presenting the strategy as a major step towards preventing abuse rather than responding to it after the fact. Ministers have said the focus on technology, education and early intervention reflects lessons learned from survivors and campaigners.
Whether these commitments lead to meaningful change for women and survivors will depend on how they are implemented over time. For now, the strategy represents both a long-awaited set of measures and a test of whether government promises on violence against women and girls will finally be matched by action.
