{"id":594477,"date":"2025-11-26T06:55:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T06:55:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/594477\/"},"modified":"2025-11-26T06:55:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T06:55:14","slug":"glasgow-rape-crisis-centre-hits-out-at-scottish-government-amid-funding-fears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/594477\/","title":{"rendered":"Glasgow rape crisis centre hits out at Scottish Government amid funding fears"},"content":{"rendered":"

Glasgow\u2019s rape crisis centre is accusing the Scottish Government<\/a> of \u201cnegligent disregard\u201d in fears over funding.<\/p>\n

Glasgow and Clyde Rape Crisis have helped 2824 women and girls in the last year with more than half – 1441 – of them aged under 29. The youngest girl supported by the centre is just 13, the oldest 79.<\/p>\n

In an open letter to Shona Robison, cabinet secretary for finance and local government, and Shirley-Ann Somerville, cabinet secretary for social justice, on International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women (November 25), the leaders of Glasgow and Clyde Rape Crisis, Rape Crisis Ayrshire and Arran<\/a>, Western Isles Rape Crisis Centre and Lanarkshire Rape Crisis Centre called for urgent assurances from the Scottish government that critical funding will be increased in the next Scottish budget in January. <\/p>\n

The longest waiting time for support faced by survivors is 151 days, which the centres say is because of a crisis in short-term funding.<\/p>\n

Claudia Macdonald-Bruce, director of Glasgow and Clyde Rape Crisis, said: \u201cWe have had a 42 percent increase in the number of people wanting to use our services, and a waiting list of 151 days to get help \u2013 the demand is unprecedented.<\/p>\n

\u201cTelling a woman to wait for support is heart-breaking. She might have waited years to be able to ask for help, and not to be able to give her that help as soon as she takes that step is awful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Glasgow and Clyde Rape Crisis Claudia Macdonald-Bruce. (Image: Andrew Cawley)<\/p>\n

Glasgow and Clyde Rape Crisis won a regional Team Award in the Glasgow Community Champion Awards, run by the Glasgow Times in association with Vertu and supported by Glasgow City Council<\/a> and Allied Vehicles Charitable Trust.<\/p>\n

The group was recognised for its pioneering work in North Glasgow<\/a>, where it has established new community hubs to allow more girls and women to access its services, and it will now go through to the grand final on December 3.<\/p>\n

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Between 2021 and 2024\/25, there was a 3% increase in sexual crimes recorded by Police Scotland<\/a>, and a 13% increase in the city of Glasgow alone. Sexual crimes accounted for 5% of all recorded crime in Scotland last year.<\/p>\n

At Glasgow and Clyde Rape Crisis, which is Scotland\u2019s largest rape crisis centre, demand has grown year-on-year since 2021.<\/p>\n

Claudia said: \u201cWe are sympathetic to the Scottish government\u2019s financial constraints, but it is a political choice to fund new train stations and IT systems over helping women and girls who have experienced unimaginable brutality and violation to heal from their trauma.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt shows an utter, and negligent, disregard for survivors at a time when demand for services continues to rise.\u201d<\/p>\n

Around \u00a3500 will provide the centre\u2019s specialist service to one survivor for a whole year, Claudia explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery \u00a3500 we don\u2019t have means we have to turn someone away,\u201d she added. \u201cSurely the government must see that its political choices, over many years of underinvestment, have brought us to our knees. It\u2019s time to put this right and invest in women and girls, their healing and their futures.\u201d<\/p>\n

Equalities Minister Kaukab Stewart said: \u201cWe remain steadfast in our commitment to preventing and eradicating all violence against women and girls and addressing the underlying attitudes and systems that perpetuate it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe announced a \u00a32.4 million uplift to the Delivering Equally Safe Fund for 2025-26, to allow all fund recipients to continue the vital work they undertake to prevent violence and support survivors, bringing the total investment to \u00a321.6 million for 2025-26.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Victim Centred Approach Fund now forms part of the Scottish Government Fairer Funding pilot, and will provide \u00a332 million to 23 organisations between 2025-2027, including \u00a312 million for specialist advocacy support for survivors of gender-based violence.<\/p>\n

\u201cMinisters are considering funding decisions beyond March 2026 and we expect confirmation of funding to be made as part of the Scottish Budget process.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Glasgow\u2019s rape crisis centre is accusing the Scottish Government of \u201cnegligent disregard\u201d in fears over funding. Glasgow and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":594478,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7826],"tags":[748,186933,5036,918,10650,21729,4884,186932,186931,712,186934,11312,178204,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-594477","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-glasgow","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-claudia-macdonald-bruce","10":"tag-funding","11":"tag-glasgow","12":"tag-glasgow-city-council","13":"tag-glasgow-times","14":"tag-great-britain","15":"tag-rape-crisis","16":"tag-rape-crisis-centre","17":"tag-scotland","18":"tag-scottish-budget","19":"tag-scottish-government","20":"tag-shona-robison","21":"tag-uk","22":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115614693645017515","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=594477"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594477\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/594478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=594477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=594477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=594477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}