Highland Council has reaffirmed its commitment to maintaining and strengthening domestic abuse support services across the Highlands as a review of existing contracts gets underway.
The Council said refuge accommodation for women and domestic abuse outreach services for all survivors remain vital emergency lifelines and will continue to be supported moving forward.
While contracts are being reviewed to ensure services reflect current need, the Council stressed that support will remain in place and accessible throughout the transition period.
There will be no changes to services before April 2026, when a new Highland wide Domestic Abuse Outreach Service is due to begin.
Existing contracts for refuge accommodation will remain in place until at least September 2026, ensuring continuity of support for women who need a safe place to stay.
Domestic outreach services are currently delivered by four Women’s Aid organisations across Inverness, Ross shire, Lochaber, Caithness and Sutherland, with contracts running until 31 March 2026.
A procurement exercise has been carried out to appoint providers to jointly deliver a new Highland wide outreach service for survivors of domestic abuse regardless of sex or gender from April 2026.
Contracts for outreach services supporting women have already been awarded for North Highland, Mid Highland and West Highland, with a further procurement phase now planned to appoint a provider for South Highland.
A separate contract has also been issued to provide domestic abuse outreach support for men, trans men and women, and non binary people.
The Council said spending on outreach services has been benchmarked against other local authorities, while taking account of the challenges of delivering support across rural and remote communities.
Refuge accommodation in the Highlands is currently provided by Ross shire Women’s Aid and Inverness Women’s Aid, with existing contracts originally due to end in March 2026.
To ensure stability, the Council has confirmed funding for an additional six months, extending refuge contracts until 30 September 2026 while a wider review of refuge provision is completed.
The Council said this review is focused on improving services and confirmed it has no intention of removing refuge accommodation for women in the Highlands.
Findings and recommendations from the refuge review will be presented at a future meeting of the Health and Social Work Committee.
Discretionary funding for Women’s Aid organisations linked to Multi Agency Risk Assessment Conference services is also under review, with the Council working alongside the Violence Against Women Partnership.
The Council said it remains fully committed to multi agency safeguarding and ensuring survivors continue to receive coordinated, effective support.
