Home Office Minister Fiona Mactaggart announced today that £1.25 million of new funding will be available next year to continue the development of support services for victims of sexual crime.

The funding is part of a wider £3 million package of measures to strengthen services offering immediate, practical and local assistance to victims of crime to suit their individual needs.

The Home Office has already made available £4 million over the last 2 years for services for victims of sexual violence and abuse. During that time 108 grants have been awarded to a broad cross-section of voluntary and community sector projects over that time, including:

* rape and sexual assault crisis centres;

* organisations providing information and helpline services, one-to-one or group-based counselling and support for adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse;

* projects specialising in support for male victims, child victims and those with learning disabilities; and

* organisations providing user-friendly legal advice about victims' rights and the process of reporting and prosecuting sexual violence.

Victims Minister Fiona Mactaggart said:

"These funds will help to improve the support we give to victims of sexual crimes. These crimes are some of the most damaging physically and emotionally to victims and it is essential that they receive advice, information, support, care and counselling to meet their individual needs. I want to put victims' needs at the heart of what we do in the criminal justice system.

"Over the last two years we have already used £4 million recovered from criminals to develop community-based services, including Sexual Assault Referral Centres.

"This additional funding will help local community-based organisations to support victims in the immediate wake of a crime, provide practical help and advice in the longer-term and counselling where needed to help victims through the criminal justice system."

Women's Support Network in Middlesbrough is one of the many projects which has already received a grant from the Home Office. The network, which was set up in 1997, received funding earlier this year to increase its counselling and support sessions, and develop an advocacy scheme for female victims of sexual crime.

Dilys Davy, Manager of the Women's Support Network said:

"When a woman presents having suffered a recent rape or childhood sexual abuse, she very often has other issues on top which may need dealing with before she can be in a good place to access counselling. In this situation we are able to offer her Advocacy. These issues may be court cases pending, a complaint about how she has been treated by the police, or a housing or other practical problem.

"The funding we received from the Home Office has enabled us to set up our Sexual Violence Advocacy Project and to enhance our Sexual Violence Counselling Service. This service has outreached our highest expectations. The funding has enabled us to put together a unique service.

"We are finding that many women access the advocacy and then go on to receive counselling and complete our 6 week course in confidence and self esteem. We are seeing tremendous results using this system and we thank the Home Office for its invaluable contribution to our service."

Fiona Mactaggart announced the new funding at the 15th birthday celebration of Family Matters, a charity in Kent which supports survivors of sexual crimes and abuse. Family Matters has also previously received funding from the Victims Fund.

The new funding will be available through a grants scheme within the Victims Fund. Established organisations in the voluntary and community sector with proven expertise in delivering direct services to victims of recent and historic sexual violence and abuse will be eligible to apply. The new scheme will build on the success of the 2004/5 and 2005/6 scheme and will focus on developing and increasing capacity in existing organisations. Full details about the new scheme will be published shortly and will be made available through the Government Funding web site at: http://www.governmentfunding.org.uk.
Over the last two years, the Home Office's Victims Fund has also made grants to establish six new Sexual Assault Referral Centres (SARCs) and two designated children's services. A further three offers of grants for new SARCs were made last week. It has also provided 14 grants to existing SARCs to enable them to extend their services. SARCs are developed by the police and health services, often in partnership with the voluntary sector, to offer victims of rape and sexual abuse immediate support from trained staff, sensitive forensic examination and treatment where needed for Sexually Transmitted Infections.

The Government is also funding the development of a comprehensive training package for all healthcare professionals and police who come into contact with victims of sexual violence. The package, which is being developed by a team based at King's College Hospital (the location of the Camberwell SARC) aims to optimise the care of, and collection of evidence from, those who have been sexually assaulted.