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By Phoebe Nicholson-Pallett, Research and Evaluation Officer

As part of our Annual Audit 2024, Women’s Aid heard from 104 domestic abuse organisations [1], with the aim of better understanding the unique value that specialist services offer to survivors of abuse, including children, as well as to local communities and society. This includes specialist ‘By & For’ services that are run by and for particular groups of marginalised women. We found that specialist domestic abuse services work to continually improve understandings of and responses to domestic abuse across society, keeping communities safe and saving money. They advocate for survivors to receive the holistic and longer-term support they need to recover and live free from control and abuse. Specialist services understand their local communities and seek to improve the safety of their communities through prevention, awareness, and education. All the while these services must continually adapt to meet new challenges and complex societal and often political issues.  

Our research showed that specialist services are doing this in five main ways:

1. By recognising the diversity of survivors and their experiences

“We have been able to provide services by-and-for the Latin American and BME community in their preferred language which has proven to make a big impact in the service users, 98% of our users in 22/23 state that it made a difference to receive the service in a Latin American and BME women’s organisation.” – Annual Survey, 2023 

“We’re there from beginning to whenever it needs to end, or not end – it’s open. It’s what women and girls told us that they needed – they come in and they tell their story once and we’re with them until they decide, “right. That’s it. I’m off now”. […] We don’t see repeat victimisation like we used to in some of the more rigid services where you come in at one end and you get that bit of support and then off you go.” – Interview, 2023. 

2. By engaging survivors in the community

“Our service has helped so many women and families feel safe, cared for, listened to and supported […] I think not only have we empowered our survivors to move on and up we also helped the wider community by way of some survivors volunteering and some taking up meaningful employment opportunities.” – Annual Survey, 2023. 

3. By identifying gaps and filling them

“We’ve just got for this year a Safer Ageing Domestic Abuse Advisor because one of the things that was identified in [our] assessment was that older people were suffering from domestic abuse but not reaching out.” – Interview, 2023. 

4. Ensuring survivors receive the support they are entitled to from statutory services

“We identified an increase in referrals where mental wellbeing was the primary support need and those referrals were experiencing long waiting times for mental health support so were looking for something else to bridge the gap.” – Annual Survey, 2023. 

“Not having a criminal justice system that works for women subject to Domestic Abuse. This increases risk for women and adds pressure to Domestic Abuse services.” – Annual Survey, 2023. 

5. By sharing knowledge and expertise

“We offer training to professionals, and group work to survivors and their children. We are visible as a reputable and passionate charity in our local community and participate in community events. We offer a counselling service to those recovering, and work in partnership with local agencies to offer excellent service provision that best meets the needs of the community.” – Annual Survey, 2023. 

“We have been influencing the narratives around DA that blame victims and fail to hold perpetrators responsible for abuse. We are now seeing the impact of this […] with many lead agencies talking about the importance of language used and embedding responses that challenge victim blaming.” – Annual Survey, 2023. 

We know that specialist domestic abuse services are doing far more than responding to the immediate or short-term needs of survivors and their children. They are saving lives, restoring hope, working to ensure that survivors receive the representation and responses from statutory services and support they are entitled to.  

It is crucial, therefore that we continue to see, recognise, and amplify the value of these vital services, and enable them to adopt strategies to ensure their long-term survival and sustainability. 

Read the full report here: The Domestic Abuse Report 2024: The Annual Audit 

References:

[1] Running 188 service entries on Routes to Support. Of these 104 organisations, 80 ran refuge services (21 indicated that they did not, and three did not respond to the question) and 76 provided community-based services (15 indicated that they did not, and 13 did not respond to this question).

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When it comes to responding to crime, it can be said with certainty that data matters – it matters when it comes to establishing who is most vulnerable, who the likely perpetrators are, what the underlying causes are and what can be gleaned from the data to keep those who are vulnerable, safe. While data on domestic abuse is available, it contains gaps which leave us with questions about the women’s lived experiences, while also often concealing the gendered nature of this abominable crime. What we must remember is that each week, a woman is still being murdered by her abuser and children left motherless because of this heinous crime.  

At the end of last year, the Office for National Statistics published its annual domestic abuse data bulletin, with figures for the year ending March 2023 showing that one in four women (27%) experienced domestic abuse since the age of 16. For men, this figure is around one in seven (13.9%). When looking only at partner abuse, the figures are 22.7% for women and 10.2% for men.  

The latest figures also found that an estimated 1.4m women experienced domestic abuse in the previous year, an apparent decrease from 1.7m in the year before, but this is not a statistically significant change. The survey for the most recent year contained an error, which resulted in missing data, and the data comes on the tail end of the coronavirus pandemic. However, the ONS did report a significant decrease in the proportion of women aged 16 to 59 years who experienced domestic abuse in the year ending March 2023 (6.5%) compared with the year ending March 2020 (8.1%). This comparison only relates to women up to the age of 59 years because the upper age limit was only removed in October 2021. This was following successful campaigning from Women’s Aid and others, finally demonstrating that domestic abuse can be suffered by anyone – daughters, mothers, grandmothers. Whilst the ONS reports that this is a statistically significant change with 95% confidence, they do note caution around the data, due to the caveats with data collection in the year ending March 2023. This period also covers the period of the Covid pandemic, which is likely to have had an impact on the figures, although this requires longer term analysis. 

We have previously spoken about the ‘hidden’ gender asymmetry when looking at the statistics. First, it is important to remember that the estimates published by the ONS are taken from the Crime Survey for England and Wales and are not based on reporting to the police. They are therefore the best available statistics on prevalence. However, in our blog we set out how these figures do not capture context, impact and repeat victimisation – whether these behaviours were experienced as a pattern of abuse in a context of coercive control, how they made the victims feel and whether the abuse formed part of a series of incidents. Extensive research shows that these factors are important in understanding the gendered dynamics of domestic abuse, as women are not only more likely to experience domestic abuse, but are also more likely to be subjected to coercive control, and to being seriously physically and mentally harmed or killed. 

Since bringing this to the fore, we worked with a team of leading researchers led by the Centre for Gender and Violence Research at the University of Bristol, to develop a measure of prevalence that incorporates coercive control and the impact of abuse. These questions were added to the Crime Survey in April 2023 as part of a split-sample trial until March 2025, and we look forward to seeing the impact this has on the figures that are being reported.  

The latest ONS bulletin also contains data on domestic homicides, which do clearly show the gendered nature of domestic abuse. Homicide Index data from the year ending March 2020 to the year ending March 2022 shows that 67.3% of domestic homicide victims were female. Of the 249 female domestic homicide victims, the suspect was male in a staggering 241 cases. In the majority of female domestic homicides, the suspect was a male partner or ex-partner (74.7%), whereas in the majority of male domestic homicides, the suspect was a male family member (66.1%). 

Furthermore, the total number of women killed by a partner/ex-partner over this three-year period was 186. All of the suspects were male. This is an average of 1.2 women per week killed by a male partner/ex-partner. In previous years, this average has been around 1.5 women per week, but homicide data changes year-on-year, so a longer-term analysis would be needed to establish a trend. Similarly, regardless of whether there is a trend or not, the stark reality remains that each week, a woman is killed by a man – the grief and devastation this leaves is unimaginable, as each woman is someone’s daughter, mother, sister, or cherished friend and each loss is an immense tragedy.  

One glaring gap in this data is victim suicides in the context of domestic abuse, and this is one area that new research is shedding more light on, including the Domestic Homicide Project, which has been looking at deaths in the context of domestic abuse since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.  

Another critical gap is in the experiences of Black and minoritised women. In November 2023, Imkaan and the Centre for Women’s Justice launched a groundbreaking report into the deaths of Black and minoritised women due to domestic abuse. The report highlighted that there is currently no data available on the breakdown of intimate partner killings of Black and minoritised women by men. There are therefore many unanswered questions about the deaths of women experiencing domestic abuse, and particularly those women subject to additional inequalities. 

Since 2020, large scale changes including the Covid-19 pandemic, the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 and the rising cost-of-living pose further questions about changes to perpetration, experiences of abuse and access to support. The need for more and better data on domestic abuse has therefore never been more critical.  

It is also vital to remember that every data point behind every trend relating to domestic abuse should not exist. Women and children should be safe in their homes – that is a basic human right. As long as this data exists, criminals abusing these rights are committing crimes with impunity. We must come together to end this epidemic, once and for all. 

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To read Women’s Aid’s analysis of the findings click here.

Why the definition of refuge matters

Sarika Seshadri, Head of Research and Evaluation

“For those three weeks, I didn’t eat anything. I was breastfeeding. And it was COVID, and the hotel didn’t give too much, just gave a cereal, a juice, and a cake. That was all my food for three weeks, while I was breastfeeding. And I didn’t have money to buy anything”.

(Multiple types of TSA, Other ethnic group)

The report “Women survivors of domestic abuse and their lived experiences of temporary safe accommodation in England: January to June 2023” from the ONS explores the experiences of women accessing different forms of temporary accommodation. Centering women’s voices, it sheds important light on what it is actually like to flee domestic abuse. From worrying about not being able to safely return to pay back some borrowed money for a train fare, to not being able to feed yourself or your children, the stories that the women shared bring home the real and daily challenges women face in escaping domestic abuse. Whilst each woman’s experience is different, the stories here reflect the critical difference that specialist support can make, whilst also being a testament to the strength and resilience of the women themselves.

What the stories also show is the difference between a refuge service, including specialist ‘by and for’ refuge services, and other types of temporary accommodation, which may not even be safe. Women’s Aid defines a refuge service as a type of safe accommodation dedicated for survivors of domestic abuse that includes a specific programme of support. This differs from other forms of accommodation, which we know from our work on our No Woman Turned Away project, are often unsuitable and dangerous for women fleeing domestic abuse.

This report highlights this difference, showing that in other forms of temporary accommodation, women and their children were often unable to access even basic rights such as food, water, clothing, bedding or space to sleep. Women were frightened for their safety, and the safety of their children. They struggled to navigate complex systems to access services, felt isolated and depressed and struggled to secure the resources they needed to move on. Despite the fact that children are now recognised in law, under the Domestic Abuse Act 2021, as victims in their own right, women were unable to secure support for their traumatised children.

 “We’re just living in one small room, with … one double bed. So, we have to share a bed. He sometimes didn’t like me to sleep with him… I told the council, ‘This is the situation. It’s very narrow, and I don’t know what to do’… They were like, ‘You have to make him sleep on the floor, and you sleep on the bed.’…How can I do that? He’s a disabled child. He’s autistic. How can I make him sleep on the floor, while I’m on the bed?”

(Multiple types of TSA, Other ethnic group)

Even those women who had accessed refuge, reported that they were concerned about staff who were overworked and overstretched, and some refuges didn’t offer the quality or specialism of service that women fleeing domestic abuse desperately need. 

“As much as women have help, particularly speaking for myself, you have the support, you have your key worker that comes to see you every week, but one side that I thought was not looked …  into is people’s mental health … accessing even mental help was very difficult … Because I felt suicidal a lot. But my key worker was very good, she was really brilliant. She made loads and loads of referrals.”.

(Refuge, Black African)

This quote supports the findings from a recent report from Imkaan and the Centre for Women’s Justice on the suicides and homicides of Black and minoritised women, that specialist support, and in particular support provided by ‘by and for’ services, can potentially be the difference between life and death. Women fleeing domestic abuse need a well-funded, sustainable and high-quality network of specialist refuge services, including ‘by and for’ refuge services, that can support them and their children to recover, move on and live free from abuse.  

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In June 2020 the Ministry of Justice published the Harm Panel Report, following an inquiry into risks of harm and the family courts in England and Wales. The report identified deep-seated, systemic problems with how domestic abuse is responded to in family court proceedings. Courts and professionals were found to be prioritising contact over children’s and non-abusive  parents’ safety. Despite attempts by senior judiciary and policy makers, over the past 20 years, to improve family court responses to domestic abuse, these issues have continued.

Practice Direction 12J (PD12J) was implemented in 2008, which set out what a court should do when allegations of domestic abuse are raised in a child arrangements (contact) case. Research found serious shortcomings in its implementation and deep-rooted systemic barriers to achieving meaningful cultural change, leading to a continuous ‘cycle of failure’. These include a strong pro-contact culture and narrow understandings of domestic abuse by courts and professionals which leads to domestic abuse being marginalised, downgraded and ignored in child contact cases at the expense of safeguarding and welfare. There is a perception in many courts, and by many professionals, that domestic abuse is only ‘relevant’ to decisions relating to the welfare of the child when it involves recent incidents of very severe physical violence. This has led to fact-finding hearings (where the court decides whether allegations are true) being held in only a small proportion of domestic abuse cases, with allegations not considered sufficiently recent or serious ‘swept under the carpet’. If fact-finding hearings are held, victims can experience systematic barriers to proving the abuse, including women’s experiences not being believed and stereotypical beliefs on ‘typical’ victims and victim behaviour. Even where abuse is proved at fact-finding hearings, it is not often factored into decisions about child contact. Respondents to the Harm Panel felt there was little difference in the orders made between cases that did and did not feature domestic abuse, with courts simply treating the case as if domestic abuse was of no continuing relevance.

Challenging outdated attitudes towards abuse

In March 2021 the Court of Appeal published a judgment in the case of Re H-N and others [2021] EWCA Civ 448 on four joined family court cases, all of which involved allegations of domestic abuse. The mothers had experienced dismissive attitudes and minimisation of the domestic abuse and sexual violence by the trial judges. Three of the four appeals were upheld, with the Court of Appeal agreeing that the cases had been dealt with poorly.

The Court of Appeal noted that the approach requiring victims to provide evidence of physical injury was “wholly outdated” [23], as are approaches which respond to domestic abuse as purely a matter between the adults and as though it is irrelevant to the child’s welfare [24]. The Court of Appeal emphasised that incidents of abuse “, may be part of a wider pattern of abuse or controlling or coercive behaviour” [27], which is relevant to the risk of future harm, is never just ‘in the past’, and that a “pattern of abusive behaviour is as relevant to the child as to the adult victim.” [31] Accordingly, the Court of Appeal stated that understanding saw coercive and controlling behaviour should be the “the primary question” in child contact cases involving domestic abuse. [51] However, the Court of Appeal also expressed the view that “not every case requires a fact-finding hearing even where domestic abuse is alleged” [8], highlighting the resource implications of increasing the number and length of fact-finding hearings.

There is tension in the Re H-N case between restricting the need for fact-finding hearings, and ensuring robust assessments of the risk of coercive control. The concern is that without a full understanding of domestic abuse and a real shift away from the pro-contact culture, resource constraints will come before factually-based risk assessment and the ‘cycle of failure’ will persist. This concern was confirmed in the case of K v K two years later.

Challenges to meaningful change

In K v K [2022] a district judge made findings against the father, including rape and controlling behaviour of the mother and physical abuse of the children. Cafcass had recommended there should be no further direct contact between the children and their father. On the father’s appeal to the High Court, the findings were upheld. However, the Court of Appeal then found that the finding of rape was unsafe and the case should be remitted to a more senior family court judge for consideration of whether a fact-finding hearing was necessary. This raises concerns about how allegations of rape are dealt with in family court proceedings. There is no definition of rape and consent in documentation applicable to family court proceedings. The Court of Appeal in H-N made clear that the criminal concepts of rape and consent should not apply in family court proceedings. It is therefore unclear what test a complainant must meet in order to prove their allegations which is, arguably, in breach of their rights under Articles 6, 8 and 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights. A further concern is the use of rape tropes and stereotypes, such as how a woman would or should behave in an abusive relationship. Additionally, unlike the criminal law, there are no safeguards in family law proceedings to prevent a complainant’s sexual history being used to discredit her.

The Court of Appeal also said that the parties should first have participated in a Mediation, Information and Assessment Meeting (MIAM) before going to court, despite mediation being inappropriate in cases involving allegations of domestic abuse. The judgment also indicated a worrying understanding of how coercion and control impact children. The trial judge had found that the father’s behaviour “would have been very frightening for the children” who, he said, had suffered harm from witnessing the abuse of their mother. The Court of Appeal said an analysis of why the children would have found this behaviour “very frightening” was needed.

The ‘key principles’ set out by the Court of Appeal were designed to limit the number of fact-finding hearings by ensuring that MIAMs are not bypassed without a ‘genuine reason’, and careful consideration of whether a fact-finding hearing is ‘necessary and proportionate’. A similar view is contained in judicial Guidance published in May 2022 which states: “there is a time and a place to determine allegations of domestic abuse, but it may not be in your court. Unless it will be relevant to, and necessary for, your decision regarding the welfare of the child, do not allow the court to be used to litigate such allegations.”

The family courts are facing huge resource constraints, and the difficulties of ensuring that the fact-finding exercise can be undertaken in this context cannot be underestimated. However, it is extremely concerning that lack of resources and poor understanding of domestic abuse appear to be leading a retreat from the positive progress seen in H-N and recommended by the Harm Panel report. Although the Court of Appeal in H-N confirmed that training for judges in rape, domestic abuse and coercive and controlling behaviour is mandatory, it remains unclear what training is provided. Judicial training needs to go further than outlining the basic principles of domestic abuse and should include a focus on the dynamics of memory and trauma to increase understanding of how witnesses and parties present when they have sustained abuse. Two years after the Harm Panel, a report by Women’s Aid found that while some family court professionals’ understanding of coercive control is beginning to improve, the impact of coercive control on victims, and the ways it is used by perpetrators post-separation are still not fully understood, with the pro-contact culture still a “key driving factor” in child contact cases.

Finally, a significant concern is the use of ‘parental alienation’ as a tactic to undermine allegations of domestic abuse, an argument that was raised by the father in the Court of Appeal in K v K.

Parental alienation is not recognised as a medical disorder by the WHO, NICE or under the DSM. There is growing evidence that parental alienation is often counter-alleged by fathers when mothers allege domestic abuse. We are aware of cases in which primary carer mothers have been found to have ‘alienated’ their children from the father, and the children have then been removed from mothers and either placed in foster care or in the care of the father. In such cases, she may be allowed no contact with the children for 90 days or ever again. In contrast, in most cases of proven domestic abuse, contact between the child and perpetrator continues. A further concern is the use of ‘parental alienation experts’, an industry that continues to grow and profit. The President of the Family Division is currently reviewing the use of unregulated experts in family court cases.

We continue to push for progress. In August 2022 Dr Proudman succeeded in an appeal in which the Judge failed to undertake a fact-finding hearing on the mother’s allegations of abuse (CM v IP [2022]).  We are also currently awaiting the outcome of the Pathfinder Projects being piloted in North Wales and Dorset, which aim to develop alternatives to the adversarial process to reduce the trauma to victims of domestic abuse and ensure that the voice of the child is heard. Until then, however, it is imperative that the current system does not resolve resource constraints by compromising or bypassing fact findings and consequently, effective risk assessment and the safety and welfare of children and adult victims.

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Women’s Aid and ITV have highlighted this week that the cost of living crisis is having a significant effect on specialist support services working with survivors of domestic abuse. New research from Women’s Aid has revealed the impact of the crisis on services and some of our members have shared their experiences with ITV.

You can watch the ITV piece here.

• Nearly every member (96%) said they were experiencing at least one of the following financial issues: increased rent for premises, other increased costs (e.g. food or supplies), funding not rising in line with costs or another financial issue.
• More than half of Women’s Aid members (59%) told us they were using their charitable reserves to cope with the crisis.
• Almost three-quarters (73%) said they had staff who were experiencing financial hardship, with one in five (20%) saying they had staff who were using foodbanks.
• Only five members (10%) had been able to access help with their refuge energy bills.
• The majority of members are experiencing staffing issues, with 80% struggling to recruit for vacant roles at the salaries they can pay.
• Shockingly, many members (67%) said if this crisis continues without intervention, it would stop them from supporting survivors – either turning them away from existing support, reducing the support available or closing all together in 5 cases. This rose to 85% of services run by and for Black and minoritised women.

Specialist domestic abuse services such as Women’s Aid members are a vital lifeline for survivors, providing safety and support for women to recover and rebuild their lives after their experiences of abuse. In summer 2022, our survey of domestic abuse survivors found that the cost of living crisis was making it even harder for women to escape domestic abuse. At a time when their life saving specialist services were especially needed, our members told us they were also feeling a severe impact from the rising cost of living.

We know, and Women’s Aid research has found, that the domestic abuse support sector is facing an ongoing funding crisis. The recent Covid-19 pandemic presented huge challenges to domestic abuse services and as the cost of living crisis has intensified this winter, it has added to the pressures on these already stretched services. To understand members’ experiences of this further crisis and to find out what impact it is having on their capacity to support survivors, the Women’s Aid research team issued a survey in November 2022. The full results of our survey can be seen in this document.

Local support services are facing financial challenges due to the crisis

Nearly all of the specialist frontline services who responded to the survey (96%) told us they were facing a financial issue related to the crisis. With the majority (78%) reporting that their funding was not rising in line with the increased costs they are seeing, member services were looking for ways to cut costs and having to scale back on the extra ‘added value’ support they deliver alongside their core services, such as care packages for survivors or peer group work programmes. Over half (59%) were having to use their charitable reserves to cope, which is not sustainable in the long-term.

“Our reserves can only be spent once, when they’re gone that will be the end of any support we can give to staff and survivors…”

Staff are struggling with the crisis, creating additional challenges for services in delivering support to survivors

Local authority funding contracts for domestic abuse support does not always cover the full cost of delivering the service. Often services rely on unsustainable and short-term funding pots to support their work, leaving domestic abuse services under-resourced and restricted in what they can pay their staff. With low salaries in the sector and the cost of living soaring, almost three-quarters of the specialist support services responding (73%) said they had staff who are experiencing financial hardship. One in five (20%) had staff who were using foodbanks.

Low salaries mean passionate and experienced staff are making the difficult choice to leave for higher paid roles elsewhere in order to support themselves and their families. The majority of the specialist domestic abuse support services responding (80%) were struggling to recruit for vacant roles at the salaries they can pay. Member services told us they were concerned these issues were affecting the quality of the services they could deliver to survivors, with short-staffed services and heavy workloads leading to burnout and affecting the wellbeing of existing staff.

 “We cannot keep up with increasing demand and staff are working non-stop and beyond working hours to support women. This is leading to burnout. Staff vacancies means that staff are doing more for longer”

Domestic abuse support services are feeling the impact of pressures on public services

The impacts of the cost of living crisis are far-reaching and services in other public services are also feeling the effects. The vast majority of Women’s Aid member services responding (92%) said they were seeing an increase in delays or difficulties accessing services in at least one other sector. This is leading to longer stays in refuge as survivors struggle to secure move-on housing or require support over longer periods of time, adding to demands on services and reducing the number of refuge places they can make available.

“It’s prolonging progress, positive outcomes and recovery, lives are on hold.”

Support services have not been widely able to access support around the crisis

The majority of specialist support services responding have not been able to access government support schemes to help with their refuge energy bills. These schemes are not straightforward to access for communal buildings, which is how utilities in refuge services are often managed. Just five (10%) of the services responding to our survey, said they had successfully been able to access energy support for their refuge and some were unaware that support was even available to them.

“Our bills are set to soar and the additional cost of funding these bills takes away money from other areas such as staff.”

Specialist services for Black and minoritised women are particularly feeling the impact of the crisis

The survey showed these challenges were having a disproportionate effect on specialist services run ‘by and for’ Black and minoritised women. For example, specialist services for Black and minoritised women were more likely to report issues recruiting staff and more than half (54%) said they had not been able to provide any cost of living pay increases to staff, compared with just under one-third (28%) of all services. More of these specialist services reported concerns about how the crisis may affect their ability to support survivors in the future.

Fears for the year ahead

Despite all of the challenges they are facing, specialist domestic abuse services continue to provide their lifesaving work and support for survivors remains available. However many specialist services (67%) said that if the cost of crisis continues without intervention, they were concerned they would have to turn survivors away and/or reduce their services. Shockingly, five member services had fears they might have to close their services completely.

“Our service is at serious threat of closure”

Women’s Aid is calling for:

• An Emergency Support Fund administered by a network of specialist domestic abuse services and accessible to survivors regardless of immigration status, to support survivors of domestic abuse through this crisis period.
  

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• Urgent, practical support for specialist domestic abuse services
  • The Government to establish an independently chaired taskforce to review recruitment and retention in the domestic abuse and wider violence against women and girls (VAWG) sector. The taskforce must be chaired by a VAWG expert, and involve specialist VAWG organisations and specialist ‘by and for’ services, as well as local commissioners and funders.
  • A Government guarantee to provide services with support with energy bills until the crisis is over, and that no specialist domestic abuse services will close. The government must also provide immediate clarity on how energy bill support can be accessed where there are difficulties. 
  • Ensure local authorities and police and crime commissioners set contracts with services to pay workers at the Real National Living Wage.
    

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• Reduce the impact of legal costs for survivors to enable them to seek justice
  • Abolish the means test for legal aid for survivors of domestic abuse.
  • Fund specialist advocacy services for all survivors.
  • Provide additional support to women with No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) to ensure they can access immigration advice/and support with their visa fees.
    

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• Exempt survivors of domestic abuse from the benefit cap and end the two-child tax credit limit these are huge barriers for women with children when fleeing abusers.
  

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• Abolish the No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) condition for survivors of domestic abuse and extend eligibility for the existing Domestic Violence (DV) Rule, to ensure all women with insecure immigration status are supported to escape abuse.
  • Local authorities must prioritise supporting women with NRPF experiencing domestic abuse directly during the cost-of-living crisis – and set aside emergency funds to do so.
  • The government must urgently provide clarity about what funding will be provided for accommodating survivors with NRPF, specifically the Support for Migrant Victims run by Southall Black Sisters concludes in March 2023).

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• Almost all survivors (96%) responding had seen a negative impact on the amount of money available to them as a result of cost of living increases. 
• Two thirds (66%) of survivors told us that abusers are now using the cost of living increase and concerns about financial hardship as a tool for coercive control, including to justify further restricting their access to money. 
• Almost three quarters (73%) of women living with and having financial links with the abuser said that the cost of living crisis had either prevented them from leaving or made it harder for them to leave. 

We know, and research by Women’s Aid and others shows, that many women who face domestic abuse already experience economic control by their abuser. This financial disadvantage means these women face further barriers when trying to leave, recover and rebuild their lives after abuse. The soaring cost of living compounds this crisis, making it even harder for women to escape abuse.  

At Women’s Aid, we quickly saw through our LiveChat and other direct services that women experiencing domestic abuse are even more concerned about the impact this will have on their safety and their future. The Women’s Aid research team set out to ensure that survivors’ voices are heard in responses to the cost of living crisis and issued a survey in June 2022 to find out what women are experiencing, and what they want to see happen. The full results of our survey can be seen in this document. 

Women experiencing domestic abuse are worried about being able to pay for essentials 

Unsurprisingly we found that almost all survivors (96%) responding had seen a negative impact on the amount of money available to them as a result of cost of living increases with a quarter (24%) saying they’d needed to access food banks. While living with the trauma of abuse, they also tell us they are worried about paying bills (74%) or being able to afford food (61%).  

 “Everything has gone up in one go. Everything.”  

Economic abuse creates an uneven financial playing field and adds to the pressures survivors face 

On top of these financial hardships, which many of us face, women living with their abuser are often financially dependent on them too. In our survey, 27% of women in this group told us they had limited or no access to money at the time due to limits imposed by the abuser. 

Economic abuse takes many forms and has a profound impact. During the last year, 37% of all respondents said their abuser made it difficult for them to work, or prevented them from doing so and over a third (39%) said the perpetrator refused to pay child maintenance.  Economic abuse along with increased financial hardship as a result of the cost of living crisis creates an unequal financial starting point for survivors.  

“[My abuser] would check accounts when I had the debit card. If I was food shopping, would ask how much I’ve spent, to see if I was truthful as he had already checked online. [They] would hide the car keys or leave the car with no fuel. [They] would not top up the gas and electric meters so I had to spend all day with no gas or electric.”   

Abusers are already using the cost of living crisis as a tool for abuse

Two thirds (66%) of survivors told us that abusers are now using the cost of living increase and concerns about financial hardship as a tool for coercive control. As we saw with the Covid-19 pandemic, abusers will use any means available to exert control and create a climate of fear. 

A fifth of survivors (21%) told us their abuser used the crisis to justify controlling their access to money. Women also talked about ex-partners using the crisis to justify reducing child maintenance payments.  

“[The abuser] makes me feel guilty for not doing enough to contribute to rising bills. Pushes me for more money, but makes me feel guilty and like I’m neglecting him and my family by taking extra shifts.”  

The crisis has further isolated survivors  

Survivors talked about feeling isolated as a result of the cost of living crisis. For example, more than two thirds (67%) of survivors told us they were forced to spend more time at home because they were not able to afford activities outside the home or because they had to work more to make ends meet. When your home is not a safe place to be, the implications of this are horrifying and more than four out of five (83%) respondents said the cost of living crisis had a negative impact on their wellbeing or mental health.  

“I have felt more isolated as I already cannot leave the home without permission. Not being able to afford activities means that I cannot leave at all.”  

The cost of living is preventing women from fleeing

On top of existing barriers to leaving a relationship and dealing with the trauma of domestic abuse, survivors tell us that they now have a set of new barriers to face when considering whether they can escape abuse. For women sharing housing and finances with the abuser, cost of living increases have created a new barrier to leaving. Almost three quarters of this group (73%) said that the cost of living crisis had either prevented them from leaving or made it harder for them to leave.  

The majority of survivors who told us that the cost of living crisis has stopped them being able to end a relationship, or made it more difficult to do so, said this was due to the immediate costs of leaving (67%) or not being able to afford ongoing living costs on a single income (69%). Some explained that they were prevented from fleeing by the stark reality of not being able to support their children (50%), getting into debt (52%) or that benefits wouldn’t cover increased living costs (48%).  

“I feel like my only option to keep my kids is to go back to the marital home where he nearly killed me.”  

Support services are there for survivors but also feel the impact of cost of living increases 

Women’s Aid members tell us how cost increases affect them. Rising utility costs mean refuge services in particular are seeing a devasting impact on their outgoings as they look to cover increases from reserves rather than pass on to residents. This is not sustainable long-term and one member noted that refuge residents will not benefit from government measures to help with energy costs where the refuge uses a bulk energy contract, rather than individual meters. Members are concerned about not being able to afford cost of living pay increases, creating challenges with recruitment and financial difficulties for their staff. At the same time, the value of contracts are not increasing in line with these additional costs meaning they have to be met in other ways. 

“We have just renewed our energy costs with our bulk supplier and the costs have increased by 300%. We built a 45% increase in to our budgets, but the 300% increase have completely blown our financial plan for this year. We would normally pass increases on to our residents in the refuge…but this would not be affordable – it would stop victims from moving in to refuges.” 

What needs to happen? 

That women in 2022 are having to remain with their abuser because they are afraid of not being able to provide for themselves or their children is alarming to say the least and must be addressed.  

Survivors tell us they want to see more direct financial and practical support to help them through the crisis such as mortgage holidays and support with paying for bills and essential items. They want to see funding for housing options to enable women to escape domestic abuse and increase wages for the professionals working to support them.  

Women’s Aid is calling for:

• An Emergency Support Fund administered by a network of specialist domestic abuse services and accessible to survivors regardless of immigration status, to support survivors of domestic abuse through this crisis period.
• Urgent, practical support for specialist domestic abuse services
  • • The Government to establish an independently chaired taskforce to review recruitment and retention in the domestic abuse and wider violence against women and girls (VAWG) sector. The taskforce must be chaired by a VAWG expert, and involve specialist VAWG organisations and specialist ‘by and for’ services, as well as local commissioners and funders.
    • A Government guarantee to provide services with support with energy bills until the crisis is over, and that no specialist domestic abuse services will close. The government must also provide immediate clarity on how energy bill support can be accessed where there are difficulties. 
    • Ensure local authorities and police and crime commissioners set contracts with services to pay workers at the Real National Living Wage.
• Reduce the impact of legal costs for survivors to enable them to seek justice
  • • Abolish the means test for legal aid for survivors of domestic abuse.
    • Fund specialist advocacy services for all survivors.
    • Provide additional support to women with No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) to ensure they can access immigration advice/and support with their visa fees.
• Exempt survivors of domestic abuse from the benefit cap and end the two-child tax credit limit these are huge barriers for women with children when fleeing abusers.
• Abolish the No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) condition for survivors of domestic abuse and extend eligibility for the existing Domestic Violence (DV) Rule, to ensure all women with insecure immigration status are supported to escape abuse.
  • • Local authorities must prioritise supporting women with NRPF experiencing domestic abuse directly during the cost-of-living crisis – and set aside emergency funds to do so.
    • The government must urgently provide clarity about what funding will be provided for accommodating survivors with NRPF, specifically the Support for Migrant Victims run by Southall Black Sisters concludes in March 2023).
      

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

 “The current cost of living crisis has been devastating for survivors of domestic abuse. Women’s Aid surveyed women who have experienced domestic abuse in the past year and the majority (96%) said the crisis had a negative impact on their financial situation.

We know that domestic abuse and economic abuse go hand in hand with abusers often controlling every aspect of a woman’s life. The soaring energy and food costs, coupled with stagnant wages, will leave many women more vulnerable to abuse. 

“Women have told us that they are being trapped because of their dire financial situation, two thirds (66%) of survivors told us that abusers are now using the cost of living increase and concerns about financial hardship as a tool for coercive control.

Women who live with their abuser are often financially dependent on them, almost three quarters of this group (73%) said that the cost of living crisis had either prevented them from leaving or made it harder for them to leave. 

“This crisis is having an unprecedented impact on women and children and requires urgent action. While the government has made some positive progress in this area, more must be done. We urge the government to provide an Emergency Support Fund for Survivors to offset the impact of the cost of living crisis. We also ask that the government offers discounts on energy bills to domestic abuse services that provide lifesaving support.

 “We are quickly approaching the winter months where the crisis will only get worse. Survivors have suffered enough, having been trapped in their homes during COVID: they must be offered the help they need to support their children and to be free from abuse.”

For further information, please contact: E.dobres@womensaid.org.uk

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Today we have published The Domestic Abuse Report: the Annual Audit 2022, looking at the work of domestic services in England and the experiences of women who use them.

We found over a third (35.1%) of service users reported feeling depressed or having suicidal thoughts as a result of the abuse they experienced[1].

We know from our work with survivors that this is likely to be the tip of the iceberg because of the stigma and fear around disclosing poor mental health. The evidence is clear: being subjected to domestic abuse can have devastating and long-term consequences for mental wellbeing and domestic abuse is a key driver of women’s mental ill health.

Yet our report shows that in 2020-21 domestic abuse services were struggling to cope with demand and provide the level of support that survivors so desperately need because of funding uncertainty and pressures resulting from the pandemic. Despite the number of spaces in refuge services in England increasing by 354 (the highest increase in recent years), demand still exceeds available space. Without sufficient refuge spaces, survivors are often left with the impossible choice of returning to their perpetrator – or becoming homeless.

Key findings:

• 9% of organisations responding to our annual survey told us they had been running an area of their domestic abuse service in 2020-21 without any dedicated funding.
• 9% of refuge referrals in 2020-21 were declined, most often because of a lack of capacity.
• 7% of organisations responding to our annual survey reported that Covid-19 had affected demand for their services. Of these organisations, 84.5% told us that demand for the support they offer had increased.
• Provision was not always accessible to all women who needed it. Only 6.3% of all service vacancies were able to consider women who had no recourse to public funds and less than half could accommodate a woman with two children. This fell to less than one in five for a woman with three children.
• 6% of women placed in refuge between 1st July 2020 and 31st March 2021 came from a different local authority area to the refuge they moved to, and 28.1% to a completely different region.

We estimate that refuge services supported 10,809 women and 11,890 children and community-based services supported 124,044 women and 148,852 children in 2020-21. The length of time women experienced abuse before this point was, on average, six years. For different women this period ranged from less than a month to a staggering 66 years. It is vital that specialist services are able to provide the expert support survivors need to recover from the trauma of domestic abuse and to rebuild their lives free from fear and abuse.

But refuges continued to face funding challenges and the impact of Covid-19 in 2020-21:

• 5% of refuge services were commissioned by their local authorities in 2020-21. This is roughly the same as in the previous year (71.7% in 2019-20).
• 2% of Women’s Aid Annual Survey respondents that had community-based support provision told us that they had received funding from their local authority for community-based support in 2020-21. However, this funding often did not cover full costs of delivering services.
• Services faced challenges in maintaining staffing levels and addressing concerns about the safety and wellbeing of staff and survivors.

However, the pandemic has also led to some new doors opening for domestic abuse services, including new short-term funding pots, reaching more survivors in the remote delivery of services, and new and strengthened partnerships with external agencies. Some organisations had even managed to open new services or expand areas of their domestic abuse support work.

Early impact of the new statutory duty

This year saw the introduction of the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 which includes a new £125m statutory duty on local authorities in England to assess the need for support for survivors of domestic abuse, including children, in safe accommodation, and fund services accordingly. In April 2021, some elements of this new statutory duty came into force and our report shows feedback from local services on the initial impact of the duty and its implementation in their local area. Next year’s annual audit report will give us much more information on the impact of this new duty.

At the time services responded, June and early July 2021, there still appeared to be considerable variation in the way that local authorities were interpreting the regulations and guidance in the statutory duty. Some felt well represented in the implementation process “All refuges and domestic abuse services are represented by the local partnership board in our local authority area, I am aware of two (ourselves included) services by and for Black and minoritised women.” Others flagged concerns about planned practice going forward “Other key DV/SV services are included [on the local Partnership Board] they are all primarily white British service providers. The LA is intending to take BME specialist services in house…”  or that there might be unintended poor consequences for survivors  “… I fear it may lead to them stepping back from the national refuge network with less accommodation available, and restrictions on national access ….”   

Conclusion

Our report shows the vital work done by specialist domestic abuse services for women and children, in refuge services and also in support based in the community. We will continue to monitor the impact of the new statutory duty on the provision of refuge services. It is important to also remember the vital work done by those specialist domestic abuse services based in the community (whose funding is not covered by provisions in the statutory duty).

In a particularly challenging year, there have been some good news stories. The number of bedspaces in refuge services in England has increased (the highest increase seen in recent years). The resilience and determination shown by the professionals and volunteers in domestic abuse services to continue to support survivors during the changing times of the pandemic have been inspiring.

To read the full findings, along with information about missing data and sample sizes, and to find out more about our data sources, please see the full report: The Domestic Abuse Report 2022: The Annual Audit.

[1] Over a third (35.1%) of service users in a sub-sample reported feeling depressed or having suicidal thoughts as a result of the abuse. In community-based services, this was 34.0% of service users and in refuge services the percentage was much higher at 45.6%

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A Safe Blog by Lizzie McCarthy and Jenny Birchall, Women’s Aid

6th December 2021: Today, Women’s Aid has published two reports as part of our Deserve To Be Heard campaign. This campaign aims to highlight the devastating impact of domestic abuse on the mental health of women and their children. Through our campaign, we will ensure that the mental health needs of women, who are all too often not listened to and not believed, are heard and responded to effectively.

• Mental health and domestic abuse: A review of the literature by Jenny Birchall and Lizzie McCarthy, Women’s Aid
• Reframing the Links: Black and minoritised women, domestic violence and abuse, and mental health – A Review of the Literature by Ravi Thiara and Christine Harrison, University of Warwick

In this blog we highlight some key findings from these reports on the barriers facing domestic abuse survivors in accessing appropriate and timely mental health support. The reports linked to above look at these barriers in more detail, as well as exploring the impact of domestic abuse on survivors’ mental health and the work of specialist domestic services in meeting mental health needs. The references for all this evidence can be found in the reports.

The mental health trauma caused by domestic abuse 

The evidence is clear; being subjected to domestic abuse can have devastating and long-term consequences for mental wellbeing and the perpetration of domestic abuse is a key driver of women’s mental ill health. One study referenced in Mental health and domestic abuse: A review of the literature describes the impact of domestic abuse as having “…psychological parallels with the trauma of being taken hostage and subjected to torture” (Howard et al., 2010).

However, survivors face a range of barriers in accessing appropriate mental health support, and all of these barriers are heightened for survivors from minoritised or marginalised groups. We highlight some of the main barriers discussed in the reports below.

Survivor disclosure and help-seeking 

Putting the burden on the survivor herself to disclose abuse or seek out mental health support (rather than services reaching out to survivors or healthcare professionals safely and sensitively enquiring) is problematic. The impact of domestic abuse often includes lowered self-esteem and feelings of shame, meaning that survivors do not feel able to seek out support. Expecting them to do so is therefore often unrealistic. Survivors also often fear that they will not be believed or taken seriously if they talk about abuse and/or mental health concerns (sometimes because of negative experiences in the past).

There is sadly still considerable stigma around being diagnosed as mentally ill, which is often used by perpetrators to discredit survivors. Perpetrators may also use a survivor’s insecure immigration status (or lack of clarity about immigration status) as the basis of threats that prevent survivors talking to domestic abuse or healthcare services. In addition, survivors with children are often fearful that accessing mental health or domestic abuse support may mean that social services will get involved and they will be judged as “failing to protect” their children from abuse; or it will be used against them in any child contact or child protection legal proceedings.

Unhelpful professional responses 

Unfortunately, when survivors do talk to healthcare professionals about domestic abuse and mental ill health, the response is not always helpful. Victim-blaming, disbelieving attitudes and inappropriate responses are significant barriers to accessing support. It is also important to understand the context of oppression (including multiple intersecting forms of inequality and discrimination) in which survivors are experiencing domestic abuse, and the barriers that structural sexism, racism and other forms of inequality create in accessing mental health support. In Thiara and Harrison’s report (published by Women’s Aid today) the authors note that access to mental health support is lowest amongst the most marginalised groups. They state that:

“The ways in which racism perpetuates health inequalities is evident in how Black and minoritised groups access, or are deterred from accessing, forms of help and support, especially through statutory/mainstream mental health services…”

The issue of survivors not being asked about possible domestic abuse by healthcare professionals (including GPs and mental healthcare specialists) is a key theme in the literature on mental health and domestic abuse. There is evidence of some healthcare professionals not feeling confident in addressing domestic abuse and sometimes treating survivors’ mental health concerns as completely separate from their experiences of abuse. This leads healthcare professionals to focus solely on physical injuries or narrowly view a survivor’s mental ill health as a medical problem or condition, rather than understanding it as the result of being subjected to violence and abuse.

There are examples of good practice in the literature too, though, including healthcare services working in partnership with domestic abuse services and healthcare professionals receiving the tools and training they need to safely and sensitively enquire about domestic abuse.

Inaccessible and re-traumatising services

Mental health information and services are not always accessible to all and this creates another barrier to survivors accessing support. These inaccessibility barriers include communication barriers, cultural awareness barriers, and practical access barriers (e.g. where a venue is not wheelchair accessible). In addition, survivors who are denied recourse to public funds because of their immigration status do not have access to many publicly funded services, or fear accessing them due to hostile immigration policies.

Attempting to engage with some mental health services can even worsen survivors’ mental health issues and create further trauma; for example if services

• Are not working with an understanding of the impact of domestic abuse on women’s lives.
• Do not provide safe opportunities and spaces for survivors to tell their own stories.
• Do not understand the impact of intersecting forms of oppression (such as racism and sexism) or are themselves discriminatory.
• Or fail to keep survivors safe from sexual harassment or violence from other patients.

Some studies also raise concerns that survivors are being medicated or referred directly to inappropriate mental health services which are not trauma-informed, without any exploration of the abuse they are experiencing or referral to specialist domestic abuse support.

Overstretched services 

When survivors do disclose mental health problems and are taken seriously, there are long waiting lists for mental health support. Mental health services are usually over-stretched and often can only offer short-term support. These waiting times have only been exacerbated by a surge in demand during the Covid-19 pandemic. The Royal College of Psychiatrists raised concerns in September 2021 about the backlog of patients waiting for mental health support, with an estimated figure of 1.6 million people waiting for treatment from mental health services (and the actual number is likely to be greater).

Specialist domestic abuse services are well-placed to meet many of the mental health needs of survivors, sometimes working in partnership with health services and healthcare professionals. Specialist domestic abuse services – including ‘by and for’ services for Black and minoritised women, LGBT+, and disabled survivors – work in a holistic way that addresses many survivor needs, including mental wellbeing. These are services that understand the impact of intersecting inequalities, build trusting and empowering relationships with survivors, and recognise the extent of the trauma caused by domestic abuse.

Despite facing high demand and many funding challenges, specialist domestic abuse services are doing important work in meeting survivors’ mental health needs. In her book on the experiences of survivors living in refuges, Hilary Abrahams (2007) sums up the importance of adequately resourcing the work of specialist domestic abuse services:

“The value of this complex and demanding work needs to be fully appreciated and properly funded, taking into account its one-to-one nature and the requirement for extended support within the community. Combining practical and emotional assistance in this way enhances the prospect of a successful transition to a new life for the woman and may also lessen future demands on health and social care provision and possible expensive crisis interventions.”

Opportunities for change 

The reforms proposed in the Health and Care bill and the forthcoming Women’s Health Strategy are key opportunities to recognise and take action on the mental health consequences of domestic abuse. In response to the evidence found in the reports published today, Women Aid’s Deserve To Be Heard campaign is calling for the following:

• Tackling domestic abuse must be explicitly recognised as a public health priority, with greater emphasis on the mental health impacts of domestic abuse in healthcare policy and funding.
• Services and professionals responding to survivors’ mental health must work in a trauma-informed way. Greater partnership work between health services and specialist domestic abuse services and specialist training of healthcare professionals are key ways of achieving this aim.
• The intersecting forms of structural oppression that survivors face must be considered in any policy or strategy relating to women’s health.
• Investment in mental health services is important and must be accompanied by investment in specialist domestic abuse support services, including ring-fenced funding for specialist services led by and for Black and minoritised women, Deaf and disabled women and LGBTQ+ survivors.
• Medical students and professionals responding to domestic abuse (including healthcare professionals, police, legal professionals) need specialist domestic abuse training that strengthens their understanding of perpetrator tactics in weaponising mental ill health.

Domestic abuse survivors deserve to be heard by healthcare professionals, they deserve to be heard in healthcare policy-making, and they deserve to be heard in healthcare decision-making structures. Campaign with us to make this happen!

For more information about the Deserve To Be Heard campaign and how you can get involved, please click here. Thank you to all the survivors whose expertise and stories have informed the literature reviewed in the reports published today. 

For information and support, please click here.

Thank you to Ravi Thiara and Christine Harrison for their important contribution to the evidence base for this campaign.  

Thank you to the Gamesys Foundation for funding the Deserve To Be Heard campaign. 

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