In 2013 Imkaan, Rape Crisis England & Wales, Respect, SafeLives and Women’s Aid formed the Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Sector Sustainability Working Group to promote the sustainability of specialist independent, local organisations within the sector. These five national organisations have developed, and are recognised for, the following areas of specialist expertise:

• Imkaan: Work with BME women and girl survivors of violence
• Rape Crisis England & Wales: Work with women and girl survivors of rape and sexual violence
• Respect: Work with male survivors of violence and work with perpetrators
• SafeLives: Work to end domestic abuse and make families safe
• Women’s Aid: Work to end domestic abuse against women and children

Each national body has its own Quality Standards covering its specialist work. In order to ensure our respective service standards can be used by commissioners in joint commissioning, the VAWG Sector Sustainability Working Group commissioned the Child and Woman Abuse Studies Unit (CWASU) at London Metropolitan University to produce a set of shared core standards. This work was funded by Rape Crisis England & Wales.

The purpose of these standards is to enable joint commissioning across specialist services in the VAWG sector, both nationally and locally. The standards are not intended to ‘stand alone’, they have been agreed as designated shared core standards, namely the minimum standards common to all five member organisations.