The UK government published its VAWG strategy “Freedom from violence and abuse: a cross-governmental strategy” in December 2025 as a proposal to deliver its manifesto pledge to halve VAWG within 10 years. The strategy has three main pillars: prevention and early intervention, pursuit of perpetrators and victim support. In 2025, we collaborated with the End Violence Against Women Coalition and 60+ other expert VAWG organisations to set our expectations for the government strategy.
The strategy is a welcome shift in the right direction with a positive emphasis on preventing harm by educating children and young people. The importance of tackling online harms is prominent with key themes called out, including a focus on AI and banning nudification apps which we covered on our blog. Many forms of VAWG are reflected in the strategy and there is a clear commitment to long-term behaviour change shaped by experts. We are pleased to see the recognition of and commitment to specialist support organisations serving their own communities (“by and for” services) and encouraged by the inclusion of health, a topic that has previously been overlooked.
As a charity working with young people for almost a decade, we have hands-on experience navigating VAWG in schools. While we are encouraged by these positive aspects of the strategy, we have broader concerns about the strategy as a whole.
I) It feels like a big wish list, rather than an actionable plan
The strategy feels like an ambitious wish list, rather than an actionable plan that will make a difference on the ground. We’re unsure about the long-term sustainability of funding the strategy and concerned that funding isn’t being directed to ‘by and for’ services that are already delivering support to their own communities. Wider systemic challenges within education, like funding disparities and workplace pressures, don’t seem to be recognised and we haven’t noticed any mentions of young people’s voices being centred in the development of the strategy.
We believe it’s crucial to consider and incorporate the perspectives of those the strategy is designed to serve. After almost a decade of working with young people and schools, we recognise how important it is to listen to first-hand experiences and incorporate these into any plans for change to ensure it truly connects with their needs. From what we can see, the strategy overlooks crucial information about those affected, not considering key details such as how the strategy will work for teachers who haven’t received training, and are often overworked and underpaid.
2) Investment in new pilot programmes vs. funding expert organisations with years of experience
Image by Hannah B
We are also frustrated to see the strategy investing in new pilot teacher training programmes, rather than investing in the established, evidence-based programmes delivered by existing specialist organisations (like us!). We, along with many other expert organisations, have spent years developing our services based on our extensive experience working directly with young people and educators.
The new strategy is missing a key opportunity to tap into the existing wealth of insights from teams on the ground. The strategy is taking credit for its prevention aims, but not giving credit to the many amazing organisations that have been calling for this for decades.
We believe the strategy should embed RSHE training into initial teacher training, but also needs to recognise the existing pressures on teachers. There is a clear need to engage existing specialist services to deliver RSHE, rather than placing the responsibility on teachers alone.
3) Not addressing the nuances around intersectional identities
The strategy fails to acknowledge the nuances around the intersectional identities of people who will be using these services, notably the exclusion of migrants, people of colour and disabled folk. We’ve noticed that it also fails to address the intersection of sexual violence and race, transphobia and ableism, and anti-racism isn’t mentioned anywhere.
We believe that understanding and challenging the intersecting power relations that exist in our society is crucial for creating meaningful change. Without approaching VAWG from this perspective, a huge proportion of society who are disproportionately impacted by sexual violence will be overlooked and their needs will remain unmet.
How School of Sexuality Education is already delivering on the VAWG strategy’s key aims
Prevention
For a decade, we have provided sessions that challenge misogyny and embedded sexual violence including training for teachers and workshops for young people. All of our workshops are designed to challenge harmful attitudes and encourage critical thinking in ALL students (not just boys) due to the extensive internalised misogyny and victim blaming we’ve seen first-hand. Our spiral programmes explore,
power and consent,
pressure and coercion
and how to build safe, healthy relationships and navigate conflict.
We also work with teachers to provide them with the tools to support young people in a non-judgemental way that challenges harm and avoids reinforcing problematic gendered stereotypes.
Victim support
We always signpost young people to support services where they can talk if needed. We recognise that while teachers and other trusted adults play an important role, they may not be able to provide the specialist support that some young people need. We aim to empower young people to access services on their own terms so they can feel fully supported.
All of our programmes encourage young people to think about how we can challenge victim blaming, including educating about where these ideas might have been learned because we know how deeply they are embedded in our society. Overall, a huge part of what we do is advocating for and empowering young people. We exist to provide them with the necessary tools to make safe, informed decisions that prioritise the wellbeing of themselves and their peers.
Digital harms
Our work focuses on building young people’s understanding of navigating online spaces through the core principles of consent, equality, digital literacy and their rights. For nearly a decade, we’ve been working with young people, academics, prevention specialists and schools to address and prevent digital harms. We collaborated on research projects with Professor Jessica Ringrose (UCL) and Professor Tanya Horeck (Anglia Ruskin University) developing reports, resources and guidance that schools can use to embed sexual violence prevention within their settings. Click here to view our work.
Speak to one of our unembarrassable team members to find out how we can support your school in meeting these objectives.