Response to new Domestic Abuse Commissioner’s report: Shifting the Scales

SafeLives welcomes the Domestic Abuse Commissioner’s report, which provides a vital and sobering insight into the challenges faced by victims and survivors of domestic abuse when engaging with the criminal justice system. It highlights systemic failures but also offers a clear pathway for transformation, aligning closely with the principles and approaches that underpin our work. 

We are pleased to see the Commissioner’s recommendations, particularly the focus on multi-agency working. No single organisation can tackle domestic abuse in isolation. Effective collaboration is essential to provide the protection, support, and justice survivors deserve. The success of Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conferences (Maracs) demonstrates the impact of a coordinated approach, where survivors are placed at the heart of decision-making, supported by our research, data, and guidance. However, this must go beyond agencies sitting in the same room and sharing information; it requires meaningful action and change in their own practice and between them to improve lives.  

At SafeLives, we have unparalleled experience of working with local areas to understand and improve what effective multi-agency collaboration looks like in practice. Our Whole Picture framework provides guiding principles for delivering coordinated responses, ensuring survivors are supported throughout their journey to safety and recovery. 

The report’s call for baseline reviews of local multi-agency responses reflects our whole-family, public health approach. By working with Police and Crime Commissioners, local authorities, and health systems, we have helped improve responses to both high-risk cases and prevention efforts. However, we echo the Commissioner’s concerns about the chronic underfunding of specialist and ‘by and for’ services. Without sustainable resources, the very organisations survivors rely on risk closure. 

We strongly support the call for genuine investment in independent workforce training to tackle poor behaviours from some responders, including police. Survivors need and deserve responders who believe them, understand the trauma they’ve experienced, and act with empathy and urgency. Training must place survivors and their experiences at the core, embedding a trauma-informed approach across the criminal justice system. SafeLives’ DA Matters programme, adopted by well over 30 police forces across the UK, has already demonstrated the impact of properly delivered training in transforming how officers identify and respond to domestic abuse. 

Within the criminal justice system, survivors must feel supported throughout their journey. As the report notes, “faith in the system is at an all-time low.” Survivors need skilled advocates to help them navigate complex processes. In Scotland, we have developed the world’s first Domestic Abuse Court Advocacy standards, and we are ready to contribute to the proposed CPD justice advocacy programme for the rest of the UK. This is an opportunity to radically transform survivors’ experiences, ensuring they receive justice while also accessing the wraparound support they need to thrive. 

We are particularly pleased to see the report’s focus on police-perpetrated domestic abuse (PPDA). It is critical that forces address the shocking gap in accountability, with only 4% of police officers accused of domestic abuse being dismissed. The police force should not be a haven for perpetrators of domestic abuse. Significant reform is needed to bring about a wholesale culture change, reducing the opportunity for power to be abused. Survivors must have confidence that those who are meant to protect them are held to the highest standards. Our Workshop for Cops on this issue already provides valuable support for officers tackling this within forces. 

Risk pathways must also be strengthened. There must be proper investment in identifying those in the greatest danger, ensuring consistent and well-resourced processes for taking action. This includes addressing the catastrophic decline in life-changing, independent support for victims. As the report outlines, specialist and independent services are integral to safety planning and recovery, yet these remain critically underfunded. 

Finally, data and accountability are at the heart of any meaningful reform. We support the report’s call to overhaul data systems across the criminal justice system to improve transparency, track survivor outcomes, and drive systemic change. Capturing survivors’ voices and lived experiences is essential to ensure reforms genuinely meet their needs. 

SafeLives remains committed to working alongside the criminal justice system, specialist services, and survivors themselves to ensure every victim of domestic abuse receives the justice, safety, and support they deserve.  

Together, we can create a system that survivors can trust and that holds perpetrators to account. 

DA Matters Programme

Learn more about our police training programme that equips officers with trauma-informed knowledge and skills to respond to domestic abuse effectively. 

Whole Picture Approach

Explore SafeLives’ Whole Picture framework for delivering effective multi-agency responses. 

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