What the government’s new Violence Against Women and Girls strategy means for schools

With an explicit commitment from the Prime Minister to halve cases of Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) over the next decade, the government’s newly published strategy addressing VAWG places schools firmly at the heart of prevention, early intervention and long-term change.

For school leaders, safeguarding teams and anyone working in education, the strategy's message is clear: this is not an “add-on” agenda, nor something that can be dealt with only once harm has already occurred. 

Instead, the strategy recognises that effective prevention begins with education, and that schools are actually uniquely placed to address the attitudes, beliefs and behaviours that underpin violence and abuse.

At Voicebox, this approach strongly reflects our existing work and ethos. Since beginning in 2019, we've worked with over 60,000 students and more than 240 schools and organisations, supporting young people and staff to engage critically with masculinity, relationships and respect.

It’s clear that phrases like “toxic masculinity” have gained momentum over the past five or so years, but this strategy marks a needed shift away from a purely deficit-based narrative and towards something much more constructive and practical. It's not enough for us to label harmful behaviours, we need to do much more in preventing these behaviours at their root cause.

While harmful attitudes must be challenged, boys and young men also need a positive, aspirational vision of masculinity to work towards. The government's new strategy signals a growing national commitment to the kind of preventative, aspirational approach in which schools will play a vital part.

Prevention and early intervention

The VAWG Strategy is built around three core objectives:

1. Prevention and early intervention to address the root causes of abuse

2. The relentless pursuit of perpetrators

3. Support for all those affected by violence and abuse when it happens

For schools, the first objective is the most immediately relevant. As the strategy states:

“We must stop violence before it starts. That means breaking the intergenerational cycle of abuse through early intervention and prevention – protecting young people, disrupting dangerous attitudes and stopping harmful behaviours escalating.” (p.9)

This focus recognises what teachers are seeing every day. Harmful attitudes don’t appear overnight. They develop gradually, shaped by gender norms, peer culture, online influences and a lack of safe, structured spaces for young people to explore relationships and identity without backlash or punishment.

Crucially, the strategy does not shy away from naming misogyny as a root cause, while also emphasising the need to engage boys and young men constructively. 

“When we say this is an issue for all of us, we do not minimise the importance of focusing on men and boys… We must also have the confidence to build a positive agenda that promotes opportunities for men and boys that is in no way at the expense of opportunities for women and girls.”

This framing is so important, and it mirrors the way Voicebox works with schools every day: challenging harmful attitudes head-on and in a safe way where boys and young men can explore a healthier, more hopeful version of masculinity. One that supports women and girls rather than positioning them in opposition.

Framing 'masculinity' in a positive way

In his foreword, the Prime Minister calls for a “positive, aspirational agenda for men and boys”, a theme that runs throughout the strategy and will culminate in a national summit in 2026.

Conversations about masculinity in schools can often become narrowly focused on risk, blame or prohibition. And while harmful behaviour should be challenged, the strategy recognises that long-term change requires something more:

“We want to build a society [...] where men and boys are working to end abuse.”

At Voicebox, we describe this as promoting healthy masculinity - helping boys and young men understand that empathy, emotional literacy, accountability and respect are strengths, not weaknesses. And that anything 'masculine' is not inherently bad, but rather, the pressure to be masculine can be what traps boys and men in certain harmful behaviours in order to meet an expectation.

Our workshops and assemblies do not simply tell students what not to do; they actively explore what positive masculinity can look like in real-life friendships, relationships and online spaces.

This strengths-based approach is particularly important in a context where young people are being exposed to increasingly extreme misogynistic content online. The strategy highlights that children and young people who encounter misogynistic content are almost five times more likely to view physical harm as acceptable, and that influential figures are actively “trivialising consent and normalising abuse”.

Schools cannot counter social media's influence through rules alone. They need spaces where students can question, reflect and develop alternative narratives about identity, manhood, masculinity and power, in real-time, real-life and with a real person – exactly what preventative education aims to do.

The new RSHE 2026 guidance for schools

The strategy also lands alongside new statutory RSHE guidance, mandatory from September this year, which places greater emphasis on consent, healthy relationships and tackling misogyny from an early age.

The government is clear about its expectations:

“By the end of this parliament in 2029, every secondary school in England will have a credible offer for educating students about healthy and respectful relationships.”

Importantly, schools are given choice in how they deliver this – whether through in-house teaching, specialist staff training, mentoring or working with external providers. Funding has been allocated both for teacher training and for piloting healthy relationships programmes delivered by external organisations.

This flexibility recognises two realities:

• Not all staff feel confident or equipped to facilitate complicated discussions about masculinity, pornography, consent and online harm.

  
  

• High-quality external provision can complement curriculum teaching by offering specialist expertise and creating space for open dialogue outside of a 'classroom' context.

Voicebox’s workshops and assemblies are designed precisely with this in mind. We work alongside schools to deliver age-appropriate, evidence-informed sessions that support RSHE objectives while responding to the real questions and pressures students face.

The impact of early intervention

The strategy’s second objective – the pursuit of perpetrators – has attracted media attention, particularly following cases such as a school in Country Antrim, Northern Ireland suspending 19 students for what was described as “toxic masculinity”.

While decisive action is sometimes necessary, the strategy implicitly asks a deeper question: how do we intervene earlier, before behaviour escalates to that point?

Nearly 40% of teenagers aged 13-17 who were in a relationship last year experienced emotional or physical abuse. The strategy emphasises the need for adults in schools to be able to identify concerning behaviours early and intervene constructively.

This is why staff training is so crucial. The strategy explicitly highlights the importance of equipping teachers, parents and role models with “the confidence to challenge harmful behaviours constructively”. 

At Voicebox, our staff training programme focuses on exactly this – helping teachers recognise warning signs, navigate difficult conversations and respond in ways that are firm, supportive and proportionate.

This prevention work requires us to create cultures where harm is challenged consistently, safely and, most importantly, early.

How young people can shape their own future

One of the most promising aspects of the strategy is its recognition that young people themselves must be part of the solution. Long-term cultural change can't be imposed solely from the top down.

Voicebox’s Healthy Masculinity Leaders Programme reflects this principle by empowering students to take an active role in shaping their school culture. Through structured training and ongoing support, young leaders develop the confidence and skills to challenge harmful norms, support peers and model positive behaviours for other pupils.

"Before the sessions I used to think that positive masculinity meant becoming more feminine and limiting masculinity, whereas now I understand that you can be masculine and positive together” 

“I'm now in a better position to be able to guide other boys and men to embrace their masculinity without it being harmful to others or themselves.”

These comments are from two Year 10 pupils who took part in our Healthy Masculinity Programme at Epsom College from 2023 to 2024.

The peer-led element of the programme aligns strongly with the strategy’s emphasis on behaviour change and community-level intervention. By investing in student leadership, schools move beyond one-off lessons and begin to shift culture from within the school body itself. Find out more about the Healthy Masculinity Leaders Programme.

Supporting the whole school community

While the strategy places a strong emphasis on children and young people, it also makes clear that changing adult attitudes is essential:

“The wider commitment to long-term societal change cannot be achieved without changing the attitudes of adults too.”

For schools, this means recognising that VAWG prevention is not solely a student issue. It requires a whole-school approach, from leadership teams and classroom teachers to support staff, governors and even parents.

Our work across assemblies, workshops, student leadership, staff training and parent support is specifically designed to support this joined-up approach. There is not a one-size-fits-all solution to combatting VAWG, therefore we need to be coming at it from all possible angles in a tailored and appropriate way. This way, prevention becomes embedded rather than reactive.

What the strategy means for your school

The VAWG Strategy is ambitious, challenging and – crucially – hopeful. 

For schools, it represents an opportunity to be part of the action through education and positivity, guiding them to support their boys in every way they can.

We welcome the strategy’s emphasis on prevention, staff training and a positive vision for boys and men. Our experience working with tens of thousands of students tells us that when young people are given the tools to understand themselves and others, they are capable of extraordinary change.

If halving VAWG in a decade is to become a reality, schools will be central to that journey, and they should not have to walk it alone.

Read the government's VAWG strategy

Find out more about Voicebox's work or get in touch directly.