Yesterday (October 21st), the national domestic abuse charity Women’s Aid and creative agency Hijinks, held a choir performance outside Parliament, heralding the momentous Ministry of Justice decision to have the legal presumption of parental involvement removed from child contact cases in family courts. The repeal follows a dedicated, decade-long campaign by Women’s Aid, survivor ambassador Claire Throssell MBE, and many other survivors and sector partners, marking a major campaign win and a significant milestone on the road to keeping women and children safe.   

The decision to remove the presumption comes after the Government’s own Harm Panel found that it was not fit for purpose and recommended that an ‘urgent’ review be conducted to address it, back in 2020. Today’s long-awaited decision has ushered in a new era of hope for countless women and children who historically had the courts system weaponised by perpetrators as a means of continuing abuse. It also marks a significant shift in the ‘pro-contact’ culture that has, for so long, dominated family courts, and placed the ‘rights’ of abusive fathers over the safety and wellbeing of children.  

Today’s event is especially poignant, as it coincides with the anniversaries of the deaths of Jack and Paul, beloved sons to Claire Throssell MBE, Women’s Aid survivor ambassador, whose deaths could have been prevented.  In 2014, Jack, 12, and Paul, 9, were both killed by their father, despite Claire’s warnings that he was a danger to them. Paul died on 22ndOctober 2014, and Jack on the 27th October 2014. Claire has since campaigned tirelessly with Women’s Aid to stop unsafe child contact with dangerous perpetrators of domestic abuse.  

Despite today’s long-awaited and warmly welcomed decision, we must never forget Jack and Paul, as well as the many children who have been killed because of unsafe family court practices. In a bid to shine a light on their stories and to ensure that the culture in courts changes for good, Women’s Aid brought a 19-child choir to Parliament.  The choir represented the 19 preventable child homicides documented in the recent 19 More Child Homicides report, which found that in the last 30 years, 67 children have been killed by a parent who was also a perpetrator of domestic abuse, in circumstances relating to unsafe child contact. In their memory, Women’s Aid is asking government to ‘hear the children’.  

The performance began with the choir of children singing together, gradually fading until only one child’s voice remained – symbolising how children’s voices and experiences are so often silenced in the family courts. The event will be made into a short film to be published later this week to shine a spotlight on the often-unheard children’s experiences of domestic abuse, including coercive control, and calling on government, family courts and statutory agencies to prioritise the safety of children in child contact cases to save lives.   

Farah Nazeer, Chief Executive of Women’s Aid, comments:   

“Today’s event was a poignant, and visceral, reminder of the very real danger that the ‘pro-contact’ culture in family courts poses to the lives of children and their mothers. Time and again survivors have told us of their harrowing family courts experiences, which allow the perpetrator of abuse to carry on tormenting survivors and their children – and finally, we are seeing some real and significant change take place. The government has made a momentous decision to repeal the presumption of contact – a vital step that will usher in a time of change and will see the safety and wellbeing of children prioritised. 

“For years, we and our survivor ambassador, Claire Throssell MBE, campaigned to have the presumption of contact removed. We succeeded. Now, we will continue applying pressure on the courts to maximise the impact of this monumental decision, by calling for legislation to be brought urgently to enact this critical change – women and children simply cannot wait. We are also calling for specialist domestic and sexual abuse training to be mandated for judges, in recognition of the fact that years of pro-contact culture will take time and education to reverse, and to ensure that preventable mistakes are avoided and both women and child survivors are kept safe.” 

Claire Throssell, MBE, survivor ambassador of Women’s Aid, comments: 

“For almost a decade, Women’s Aid and I have worked together, campaigning to change the family courts and improve laws, to ensure that children at risk of further harm from abusive parents have a brighter, safer future, free from fear and oppression. Every child deserves to be heard, seen, supported, and believed; to have a childhood and to live.  

“Successive governments have failed to protect children, standing by an outdated presumption that it is in a child’s best interests to have contact with both their parents, even when there have been allegations of domestic abuse.  We have campaigned tirelessly to have this presumption removed from the family law and practice, because until this narrative changes, more children, like Jack and Paul, will continue to die.  

“Although today’s announcement can never bring back Jack and Paul it will give children further protection against preventable harm in their lives. No child should have to hold out a hand for help in darkness to a stranger and say that they have been hurt by someone who should love and protect them most. No parents should have to hold their children as they die, from the abuse of a perpetrator, as I did a decade ago.” 

Justice Minister, Baroness Levitt KC, said:  

“The horrors of domestic abuse can scar a child for life. It is apparent from our research that the presumption of parental involvement can, in some courts, lead to contact being ordered even in cases where there has been domestic abuse. Our priority must always be children’s welfare. Being a parent is a privilege not a right: the only right which matters is a child’s right to safety and this government is determined to ensure that that is at the heart of every decision made about each and every child. 

“Repealing the presumption is a key part of our package of family court reforms which will protect children.  

“I want to thank Claire Throssell who, despite the unimaginable loss of her sons Jack and Paul, has campaigned tirelessly to ensure no child goes to bed frightened. She is an inspiration.”   

Notes to editors 

What is the legal presumption?  

The ‘presumption of parental involvement’ was introduced into law in 2014. It means that, in a contact case between separated parents in the family courts, the court must presume that the continued involvement of both parents in their child’s life is in the child’s best interests.  

Why are you campaigning for its removal?  

Leading domestic abuse and legal charities, as well as countless survivors, have long campaigned to have the legal presumption of child contact removed. It is the only presumption about what furthers a child’s welfare in family court. It dilutes the court’s focus on the welfare of the child because it places the court in a position where they must presume involvement of a parent is in the child’s best interests unless this can be shown otherwise. With an estimated 60% of cases in the family courts involving domestic abuse, the presumption feeds the pro-contact culture withing the court. This can be extremely dangerous and has led to the preventable deaths of children, as found in our recent ‘19 Child More Homicides’ report. 

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Isabelle Younane, Head of External Affairs at Women’s Aid, said: 

“Last year, the now Labour Government, pledged to halve violence against women and girls (VAWG) in the next 10 years if they were elected. This pledge was welcomed by Women’s Aid, as we saw it as an opportunity for tangible action to be taken towards the epidemic of domestic abuse and other forms of gendered abuse across the country.

However, with no explicit mention of violence against women and girls (VAWG) or domestic abuse in the Chancellor’s speech, and a failure to commit to new funding on tackling VAWG, we are concerned about the ability of government to meet its important manifesto commitment. Without adequate investment in the specialist services that support survivors by helping them to rebuild their lives free from abuse, this pledge will be impossible to deliver.

We are also concerned that the only reference in the Autumn Budget to domestic abuse is in the Home Office budget and in the context of criminal justice outcomes. This is despite the fact that only one in five women report abuse to the police, and that we need a whole-system approach to tackling domestic abuse if we are to truly end this national epidemic – as recognised by the National Police Chiefs Council earlier this year

Women’s Aid, alongside 20 other leading VAWG organisations sent a letter to the Chancellor, Deputy Prime Minister, Home Secretary and Justice Secretary last week, which highlighted the urgent need for sustainable funding to specialist services in the Autumn Budget and Spring Spending Review. The tragic reality is that 1 in 4 women will experience domestic abuse in their lifetime, meaning that there are countless survivors who need support. Without proper funding, life-saving services that support women and children will be unable to meet demands.

Within departmental allocations, we have continued to call for a minimum funding settlement of £516 million per year in England, to ensure that survivors can access early interventions with specialist domestic abuse services. This funding will not only save lives, but also has the potential to save the public purse as much as £23 billion a year if adequately funded – our research with ResPublica in 2022 found a £9 saving to the public purse for every £1 invested.  With our recent Price of Safety report highlighting that it can cost £50,000 for a survivor to flee, we urge the Home Office to guarantee funding of no less than £2 million for the Flexible Fund for 2025/26 and beyond, to ensure that survivors have the access to the resources they need to flee abuse.

While funding is a challenge for the whole of the VAWG sector, specialist ‘by and for’ organisations face additional barriers. This is why we are calling for ring-fenced funding for ‘by and for’ organisations who provide specialist support to Black and minoritised women, migrant women, d/Deaf and disabled women, and the LGBT+ community.

Women’s Aid will need to see the details of the departmental budgets and what this means for VAWG services, but near-absence of VAWG from the budget today is extremely concerning. We already know that the Treasury has reneged on plans to deliver on a new £10m fund for Tackling Economic Impacts of Domestic Abuse (TEIDA). We hope that we will quickly be reassured that this funding has been reallocated to another VAWG project, to avoid a reduction in spend on VAWG compared to the previous government. Otherwise, this would be catastrophic for an already chronically underfunded sector, meaning that women and children would be at even greater risk of being turned away from the lifesaving services they rely on.

Women’s Aid welcomes the increase in funding for social housing, as this will improve housing provision for some survivors of domestic abuse. However, we are clear that this needs to translate into an increase in funding for Part 4 of the Domestic Abuse Act in order to address unmet need. Looking ahead, we appeal to MoJ and MHCLG to address the funding cliff edge next year for specialist services commissioned under contracts linked to government funding, who are still waiting for allocations from local authority budgets ahead of their contracts expiring on 31st March 2025.

We also welcome the long overdue investment in probation services, especially given the early prisoner release scheme introduced earlier this year, putting even more pressure on already stretched probation services and their ability to ensure adequate safety planning for survivors as part of a multi-agency response. 

If the government are committed to ending VAWG, specialist domestic abuse services must be given the funding they urgently need to support women and children as they flee abuse and rebuild their lives in safety. Women’s Aid will wait for more details to emerge but hope the Government ensures that the funding attached to tackling VAWG matches the level of ambition set out in the Labour Party Manifesto, and to end this national emergency that still sees one woman murdered a week.”

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Women’s Aid said: 

“10 years ago this week, Jack (12) and Paul (9), the sons of Claire Throssell MBE, were tragically killed by their father after he deliberately started a fire during unsupervised contact. This contact had been granted by the family courts, despite Claire disclosing her experience of domestic abuse and warning that it was unsafe for the boys to be with their father unsupervised.  

The family courts have long presumed that it is in a child’s best interests to have contact with both parents, and this presumption was enshrined in law in 2014. While this presumption does not apply where there is evidence of risk of harm to a child, the strong pro-contact culture often gets hinders the threshold being reached. A report from Women’s Aid in 2016 found that 19 children, including Jack and Paul, were killed because 2005 and 2015 as a result of unsafe child contact. 

Over the last decade, Claire has campaigned tirelessly to protect children and end unsafe child contact with dangerous perpetrators of abuse. In collaboration with Women’s Aid, she launched the Child First campaign, calling on the government to end avoidable child deaths. Claire’s commitment and resolve have resulted in a number of important developments, including the Harm Panel, which was commissioned by The Ministry of Justice to review how family courts identify and respond to allegations of domestic abuse and other forms of serious harm in private legal proceedings. This expert panel found that the presumption of child contact was not fit for purpose, recommending that it be ‘urgently’ reviewed to address its ‘detrimental effects’.  

Change to the presumption is sadly yet to be made four years on, and Claire continues to speak up for the lives of children impacted by abuse. A petition launched as part of the Child First campaign recently hit the milestone of 100,000 signatures and will be handed into Downing Street next month. It is essential that the government act now to reform the presumption of child contact and address deeply harmful cultures in the family courts which put young lives at risk. 

Women’s Aid is honoured to campaign alongside Claire and stands in solidarity with her as she pushes for life-saving changes. We cannot imagine how difficult this time of year is for Claire and will be keeping Jack and Paul in all our thoughts.” 

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Farah Nazeer, Chief Executive of Women’s Aid, said:

“Whilst we know that overcrowding in prisons is a real and serious issue, and that today’s announcement is underpinned by the new Labour government’s ambition to repair our broken criminal justice system, Women’s Aid, along with sector colleagues, have long cautioned against including domestic abuse perpetrators in early and automatic release schemes.

We strongly urge government to not just consider the highlighted risks to prison officers of violence rising when prisons are overfull, but the significant risk posed to women and children when violent and abusive men are released before the end of their sentence. It is absolutely vital that both the physical and psychological safety of survivors of domestic abuse is considered throughout the government’s work to tackle prison overcrowding.

Under the new scheme, prisoners convicted of sexual and some domestic abuse offences will be exempt from the early release system. Whilst it is good to see the inclusion of domestic abuse and other forms of violence against women and girls explicitly excluded from early release, we are concerned that the scheme focusses on the offence rather than the offender, and that abusers could still be let out earlier than they should be. It is also all too often for perpetrators of abuse to be charged under other offences not noted in this exemption, which means they will fall through the net.

We know from our member organisations across the country what a worrying week this is for survivors of domestic abuse, seeing in the news women killed in their own home and a high-profile case of planned rape and murder, from man with a history of violence against women. When you add to this the early release of offenders it becomes terrifying. This week we are also further reminded of the very real risk posed to women, with three women killed in Hertfordshire, and Gavin Plumb being sentenced for the planned kidnap, rape and murder of television presenter Holly Willoughby

We ask government to centre women and children in their response to the current prison situation, as the early release of perpetrators of domestic abuse has potentially devastating consequences. We must also see appropriate safeguards in place with specialist services being actively involved in safeguarding, and multi-agency meetings. This response will need domestic abuse training for probation services and will require immediate work in partnership with specialist services to ensure women and children aren’t asked to bear the brunt and placed in the direct path of danger.

Women’s Aid is here to support both our member organisations and survivors during a time we know is deeply concerning for many.”

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Sophie Francis-Cansfield, Head of External Affairs at Women’s Aid, comments:

The latest Femicide Census report shows that at least 147 women were killed by 144 men in 2021. This is a staggering number, but sadly not unexpected within our current society, where women’s inequality, sexism and misogyny prevails – all of which devastatingly underpin violence against women and girls. 

We know that over 50% of women killed by men in this period were killed by a current or former intimate partner, demonstrating the sobering consequences of not giving domestic abuse the national prioritisation and funding it deserves and so desperately needs. Ensuring adequate funds go to the specialist services that provide quality care and support, quite literally provides a lifeline for women and child survivors of domestic abuse. 

The report also highlights severe inequalities in data collection, with police forces only responding with information relating to ethnicity for around 40% of victims.  

New data shows that since the Conservative government came to power in May 2010, the lives of almost 2,000 women have been taken by men. In the wake of a new government, we must take this opportunity to stand together in rejecting this heinous epidemic and take urgent action to ensure women and girls are safe. 

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Farah Nazeer, Chief Executive of Women’s Aid, said:

“The election of a new government today presents an opportunity for real, and tangible change in the way that tackling domestic abuse and other forms of violence against women and girls is approached in this country. While there have been some positive legislative changes in recent years, including the introduction of the Domestic Abuse Act (2021) and the criminalisation of coercive control, survivors have been largely let down by disjointed responses to the issues they face and inadequate funding. The tragic reality is that 1 in 4 women will experience domestic at some point in their lives and the domestic abuse sector must be supported to provide their life-saving services.

Women’s Aid welcomed pledges made by Labour during this election period to halve violence against women and girls within a decade of being elected, but for this promise to be delivered, urgent and sustainable investment is needed. As it stands, the domestic abuse sector is facing ongoing challenges that leave many survivors facing a postcode lottery of support, with women and children being turned away at their point of need. The government must commit to investing £427 million per year, as a minimum, into specialist services, so that women and children get the support they deserve. What’s more, we know that every pound invested in domestic abuse support services will see a saving to the Exchequer of at least £9 – saving money and lives.

Domestic abuse is a national threat and needs an urgent response to protect women and children. Women’s Aid invites the new government to work with us and utilise our expertise to deliver on their promises for transformation and to ensure that women and children who have experienced abuse can get the support they deserve.”

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Domestic abuse services in England are struggling to provide the vital services to women, due to a continued lack of adequate funding, according to national charity Women’s Aid’s Domestic Abuse Report, published today.

Despite a sustained increase in spaces for women and children in refuges, the 4,344 bedspaces available in England still fall nearly a quarter (23.2%) short of the Council of Europe’s minimum recommendation.  

It’s not only refuges struggling to keep doors open, but also counselling, resettlement advice and services for children. Just over a third of the domestic abuse services Women’s Aid spoke to (36.3%) were able to provide a formal counselling service over the past year, a figure that has remained the same from 2021 to 2022. Mental health support is essential to domestic abuse survivors’ recovery. 

More than 40% (44%) of services the charity surveyed were running an area of their service without dedicated funding from local authorities. More than 80% of these services were using their financial reserves to cover essential costs, putting their financial stability and sustainability at risk.   

Farah Nazeer, chief executive of Women’s Aid, said:  

“Funding gaps for domestic abuse can cost lives. We want our local, life-saving member services to be able to provide support for women and their children without struggling to survive and make ends meet. If they are unable to provide the services needed, it could mean survivors returning to homes that are not safe. At a time when the cost of living is already a barrier for many survivors trying to leave, we urgently need the government’s support.

We know how much funding is needed, so we just need the maths to add up here. The cost of domestic abuse to society is huge at an estimated £66 billion, so adequate, sustained investment would also help to save money in the long-term. At the same time, lives would be saved and survivors able to rebuild their lives and start again.”  

Women’s Aid is calling on the government to commit to at least £409.3 million per year – a figure determined by the charity’s research – as a minimum for specialist domestic abuse services. The charity is also asking for ring-fenced funding for specialist services led by and for Black and minoritised women, Deaf and disabled women and LGBT+ survivors, which are even more chronically under-funded than most.

The full report can be seen here

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“The death of Sabina Nessa is devastating and it is appalling that she was yet another woman who could not safely walk home. Women should be safe wherever they are, at home and in public, and this requires a whole system approach by the UK Government to address the continuum of male violence against women. However, the treatment of Sabina’s death has not been on the same level as others, and time and time again we see how victims from Black and minoritised communities do not receive the same level of attention and support. It is simply not good enough, and it has to change. Sabina’s death is as unacceptable and shocking as that of any other woman, and our headlines, TV coverage and outrage in our social media posts should reflect this.

We need urgent action from Police and the criminal justice system to ensure that violence against women and girls is treated with the gravity and importance it deserves. It should be of the highest priority that perpetrators of violence are taken seriously as a danger to women. They must be kept off the streets, with sentencing reflecting the severity of the crime and repeat offenders identified and monitored.

Last week’s HMICFRS report into the police response to Violence Against Women and Girls should be a wake-up call. We need urgent action and change to properly address violence against women and girls. We cannot accept more and more women dying at the hands of violent men.”

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Women’s Aid launch new mental health campaign to ensure the mental health needs of survivors are listened to and responded to effectively. Join the campaign.

Farah Nazeer, CEO at Women’s Aid, said:

“Melanie Brown, survivor and Women’s Aid patron, experienced long-term coercive control during her ten-year marriage. Even years on, her mental health remains affected, having suffered with both PTSD and anxiety. Her experience is not an isolated one, it is one that will be recognised by countless survivors of domestic abuse. When women reach out for support like Melanie, they need to know that help is there, which is why we are asking the government to properly fund domestic abuse services in the community, to make sure that both women and children can get the help that they need. 

Our new statistics show that almost half of the women in refuges (45.6%) say they have experienced depression or had suicidal thoughts as a result of the domestic abuse they experienced¹. These figures are likely to be tip of the iceberg – due to the fear and stigma surrounding mental health, many women won’t disclose problems.  

We must listen to these ongoing experiences of trauma if we are to respond to the needs of survivors; domestic abuse has severe and long-term impacts on the mental health survivors.  

Our new flagship campaign – Deserve To Be Heard – will ensure that the mental health needs of women are heard and responded to effectively. Vital survivor voices are at the heart of this campaign, and we will not be silenced until all women and children have access to the mental health support they deserve.  Its key aims are to change perceptions and attitudes towards survivors’ mental health which compound women’s trauma and inequality and to secure sufficient funding to enable specialist women’s services – particularly those led ‘by and for’ Black and minoritised groups – to deliver vital mental health support and long-term healing. 

From long waiting times for support, victim blaming and communication barriers to stigma and a lack of trauma-informed responses and services — mental health services are failing survivors. There is a poor understanding of the connection between mental health and domestic abuse, with women often being asked ‘what is wrong with you?’ rather than ‘what has happened to you?’ Deserve To Be Heard aims to challenge this; bringing an end to victim-blaming, reframing how we think and talk about domestic abuse and mental health. It will strengthen our societal response to domestic abuse and help survivors rebuild their lives.”

Read about the Domestic Abuse Commissioner’s support of our urgent #DeserveToBeHeard campaign.

¹ Data on number of women having reported feeling depressed or having suicidal thoughts are from On Track: The Women’s Aid case management and outcomes monitoring database. On Track is used by over 85 local service providers throughout England. Services contribute to a national dataset by recording information on women’s experiences of abuse, the support they are offered, and the outcomes achieved. Data here are from a sub-sample (3,194 refuge service-users) of this national dataset where information about service users was taken from cases closed during 1st April 2020 – 31st March 2021 and where a detailed abuse profile for service users was available.

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