Whole Health London

London is a leader in health-based domestic abuse innovation, with significant recent investment in the capital, notably through the Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) in primary care settings and the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC)’s uplift funding for Independent domestic violence advisors (Idvas) in hospital settings. However, gaps remain in provision across London and we know there is more to do improve the response to survivors of domestic abuse to get them safer sooner, as well as to reduce the costs of a crisis response at a later stage.

Read the Whole Health London report: We only do bones here

Key findings

• Domestic abuse has a devastating effect on the health and wellbeing of victims and families, and costs society £66 billion per year – of which more than £2 billion is borne by health services.
• We estimate that 241,000 women and 120,000 men experienced domestic abuse in the past year in London, on the basis of Crime Survey of England and Wales estimates that 7.3 per cent of women aged 16-64 and 3.6 per cent of men in the same age bracket experienced domestic abuse between March 2019 and March 2020.
• 425,480 children and young people in London will have experienced domestic abuse by the time they are an adult.
• We estimate there are around 45,750 female survivors of domestic abuse working for the NHS just in London.
• We estimate around 88,000 Londoners received medical attention following partner abuse in the last 12 months.
• The estimated health service costs of domestic abuse in London equals £433 million per year.
• One in ten offences recorded by the Metropolitan Police involves domestic abuse.
• Only one in five people experiencing abuse ever calls the police but victims will be accessing every hospital, GP surgery and mental health setting every day, while children and their parents will be being supported every day in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), health visiting services and by school nurses.

For the full findings and further details, see the full report ‘We Only Do Bones Here’.

Domestic abuse has a profound impact on our physical and mental health. It is vital that health services are an active part of the solution to give victims the help they so urgently need.

The Whole Health London project builds on the findings of the Pathfinder Project, which sought to embed a ‘whole health’ approach to domestic abuse in eight sites across England.

We are calling for a ‘whole health’ approach to create better provision for survivors in all health settings, across all London boroughs. This strategy will mean over-stretched healthcare professionals will receive the support they need to adequately help victims, and victims won’t face a postcode lottery when it comes to accessing services.