DACA project: six-month update

Over the past six months, the Domestic Abuse Court Advocacy (DACA) Accreditation Project has continued to make strong progress across training, accreditation, mentoring and partnership working.

This update shares some of the key developments including our latest SQA-accredited training, readiness assessment visits with services, publication of the Companion Report, and ongoing mentoring support for services developing DACA provision.

The project team has been working closely with services and partners across Scotland to achieve our strategic aims. Below we have highlighted some of the main areas of work:

Delivering DACA Block 5 SQA-accredited training

Between March and April 2026, we delivered training alongside criminal justice specialists to 12 learners from DACA services across Scotland. The course supports skilled learners to further develop their skills and knowledge in carrying out the specialist DACA role; from understanding how domestic abuse court advocacy cases are managed through to supporting cases from referral to closure. It was a great cohort, and we are looking forward to running the course again in Autumn 2026.

Readiness assessments with DACA services

As part of the journey towards accreditation, the DACA project team has been carrying out readiness assessments with DACA services. These visits help us understand how services are operating against the Domestic Abuse Court Advocacy Standards and the DACA Accreditation Framework. By June, we had completed visits with four services.

The visits have been a valuable opportunity to see services in action, recognise what is working well, identify areas of challenge, and offer support where needed. Learning from these visits is also helping to shape our approach to eventual accreditation of services. We have been working in partnership with LGBT Youth Scotland and Scottish Women’s Aid on areas of development so that the framework does not, wherever possible, contradict wider accreditation programmes, service standards and policies.

We are grateful to everyone who has taken part so far for their guidance and collaboration. We look forward to meeting with the remaining services during Summer 2026.

Publishing the Companion Report

In June 2026, we published the Companion Report to the Domestic Abuse Court Advocacy Standards. The report explains the thinking behind the Standards, the evidence that informed their development, and the role they are intended to play in supporting consistent, high-quality advocacy. Please do read it here. And find the Standards here.

Mentoring support

Grampian Women’s Aid has successfully completed its mentoring journey with the DACA Accreditation Project. The service began working with us in September 2024 and, by March 2025, launched its DACA service. This means that in a first for the north of Scotland, women across Aberdeenshire supported by Grampian Women's Aid, can access domestic abuse court advocacy. The DACA Accreditation Project has thoroughly enjoyed working alongside the Grampian Women’s Aid team throughout this journey. 

During the remainder of 2026, we will continue to work with two further services to build on their existing knowledge and skills as they develop new DACA services.

If your service is interested in DACA mentoring, please click here and contact us at scotland@safelives.org.uk for further information.

Thank you

Thank you to all the services, partners and learners who have contributed to the project over the past six months. Your insight, commitment and collaboration are helping to strengthen DACA support across Scotland, and we look forward to continuing this work together in the months ahead.