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There are more than 2 million survivors of domestic abuse in England and Wales. And these victims face a postcode lottery in accessing life-saving support.
This is why, together with survivors, practitioners and partners, we worked tirelessly to ensure the needs of victims and the frontline were listened to and understood as the Domestic Abuse Bill moved through Parliament.
Find out more about the four-year journey to ensure this milestone legislation was a true leap forward.
A whole picture approach for the whole family.
A national strategic response to all perpetrators focusing on prevention and holding perpetrators to account.
Long-term, sustainable funding for the full range of frontline specialist domestic abuse services.
SafeLives supported the Disabilities Trust call for non-statutory guidance around assessing domestic abuse survivors for brain injuries and providing them with specialist support if injury is identified.
SafeLives backed Respect’s amendment to ensure that perpetrator interventions, which can be issued by a judge through a DAPO (Domestic Abuse Prevention Orders), meet a safe minimum standard.
This submission pulled together views from organisations like Amnesty, EVAW, Imkaan and Southall Black Sisters to ensure that the Domestic Abuse Bill provides protection for migrant women.
SafeLives coordinated a letter from 6 Royal Colleges and additional specialist domestic abuse organisations to Matt Hancock calling for a greater role for health in the Domestic Abuse Bill. We need to open more avenues for survivors to access care, and with only one in five victims call the Police, it is vital that victims can access a non-criminal route to effective support.
We also produced a briefing on the particular issues faced by LGBT+ victims of domestic abuse in partnership with Galop and Stonewall.
See the 2020 paper by Lis Bates and Marianne Hester, which provides further context to the importance of perpetrator interventions. Their research finds that victims express they want civil-issued Non-Molestation Orders (NMOs), and for the police to enforce breaches of those orders.
Now, that the Bill has become an Act, take a look at how our influencing and collaborations with the wider sector shaped the Act’s current form:
Within the Domestic Abuse Act, we wanted to see more investment in specialist domestic abuse services. We called for the UK Government to strengthen legislation to include full statutory duty on local authorities to provide both accommodation-based and community-based services for all victims, as well as perpetrators of abuse.
SafeLives webinar setting out the key opportunities from the Domestic Abuse Bill and ways local areas – commissioners, services and multi-agency partners – can use it as a springboard for improving their domestic abuse approach for the ‘whole family’.
We developed two free webinars to support areas in implementing the Domestic Abuse Act. Each takes a deep dive into the partso of the legislation areas we received the most feedback and queries about.
This event aimed to equip areas to maximise the opportunities this key piece of legislation offers. Presenters included SafeLives Practice Consultants and expert partners.
A special thank you to:
This webinar focused on local authorities’ domestic abuse strategy, in line with the Domestic Abuse Act 2021, how this affects public and voluntary agencies and what their roles and responsibilities are. The session also gave attendees the chance to discuss their thoughts and the challenges they are facing implementing the new elements of the Act in to a ‘business as usual’ plan of action.
Thank you to the local authority areas who participated, including West Sussex and Cheshire East, and to the local area survivor voice coordinator who shared their expertise and experience.
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