Our call to Government:
- Lead a Government-led, survivor co-created review and update of the entire risk response — not just a single checklist — with independent oversight.
- Resource the system: workforce training and supervision, protected time for practitioners, Marac (multi-agency risk assessment conference) capacity, data standards and safe information-sharing.
- Roll out nationally an updated, inclusive approach that works across identities and contexts, and recognises children as survivors in their own right.
We hope to see this commitment reflected in the forthcoming VAWG strategy. Victim-survivors deserve nothing less than a risk approach that is fit for purpose and a system capable of protecting them.
For transparency about our role:
SafeLives is a charity; we do not set national policy. What we can do—and have done for years—is highlight the urgent need for change and share the voices of survivors and frontline services.
We have been commissioned to run a short, initial insight exercise on multi-agency risk pathways across all risk levels for adults and children. This means facilitating workshops/listening sessions with survivors, ‘by and for’ organisations, frontline practitioners and statutory agencies — and sharing those findings with the Home Office. The Home Office reviews the insights. This is not a contract to run, own or decide any national tool, and it is not a review or rewrite of Dash.
We stand ready to play our part — with survivors, services and Government — to strengthen the system and keep people safer, sooner.