The role
We are looking for a Domestic Abuse Practitioner/IDVA to join our casework team. Our domestic abuse service provides a vital lifeline to women experiencing all forms of abuse, including physical, emotional, sexual, economic, spiritual and technological abuse.

You will provide practical and emotional support through:

• Risk and needs assessment
• Safety planning and key work
• Supporting access to counselling, legal advice and other services

You will play a key role in empowering women to rebuild their lives and move towards a safer future.

About you
You will be:

• Experienced in working with vulnerable and high-risk women, particularly those affected by domestic abuse
• Trauma-informed, empathetic and proactive
• Confident managing complex caseloads
• Knowledgeable about the gendered nature of domestic abuse and sexual violence
• Familiar with, and sensitive to, the needs of the Jewish community
• Comfortable using digital tools and systems

Initial 1-year fixed term contract. Extension of contract subject future funding.

Development
If you are not already IDVA-qualified, you will be eligible to apply for SafeLives IDVA training after six months in post.

Please download an application pack and form www.jwa.org.uk/vacancies
If you have any queries, please contact Amy, Operations Assistant on info@jwa.org.uk or 020 8445 8060.

Closing date: Monday 11th May @ 9.00 am

Interviews: Wednesday/Thursday 13th/14th May

This post is advertised in accordance with section 7.2 (e) of the Sex Discrimination Act. Only women need apply. Registered charity number: 1047045

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We are recruiting for a Senior Economic Partnerships Manager to join our team in London; the scope on this job involves:

• Job Title: Senior Economic Partnerships Manager
• Location: Homeworking with a requirement to occasionally work at our Head Office (Vauxhall)
• Salary: £49,538.49 per annum (Inclusive of London Weighting, which may not be applicable depending on your home location and any agreed permanent homeworking arrangement)
• Contract type: Full-time, Fixed term (until 31 August 2027)
• Hours: 37.5

The Senior Economic Empowerment Partnerships Manager is responsible for raising awareness of the growing threat of economic abuse. An experienced project manager with experience of managing services for victims of domestic violence and/or other forms of gender-based violence, the post holder will work with the Heads of Service to implement Refuge’s tech strategy to ensure that Refuge continues to learn about and respond to changing economic developments with a particular focus on technology and victims of domestic abuse.

The post-holder will work across all services and will work closely with the Fundraising Team and Head of Services to develop an economic fundraising strategy to ensure that the role generates income through partnerships and consultancy with the financial sector by raising awareness of economic abuse and technology-facilitated abuse.

The post holder will work closely with the Policy Team to feed into legislative asks relating to economic abuse, to better improve responses for survivors both in legislation and in the financial sector. We are looking for candidates with extensive practical experience of supporting a diverse range of victims of domestic violence and/or other forms of gender-based violence. In-depth understanding of economic abuse, and how it is used against women and girls and how this form of abuse is a barrier for women leaving a relationship. Current, up to date knowledge and understanding of the legislation that impacts survivors of economic abuse and in-depth understanding of the needs of survivors and their children impacted by economic abuse.

The Senior Economic Empowerment Partnerships Manager will cultivate a learning culture around economic abuse and help improves outcomes for survivors, improving responses from the financial sector, and raising awareness of economic abuse.

Closing date: 9.00am on 20 April 2026

Interview date: 28, 29 & 30 April 2026

Benefits:
Refuge offers a variety of exciting opportunities to learn, develop and grow in your career. We recognise the value everyone brings to the organisation to achieve our aims and are dedicated to developing and rewarding our staff. More details of our benefits can be found in Job Information Pack.

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A blog by Farah Nazeer, Women’s Aid CEO

International Women’s Day is always a special event in the Women’s Aid calendar and one that we use as an opportunity for celebration, reflection and of course, looking towards the future. 

These are testing times for so many, with different experiences of constrained resources, political change, the economic environment, and indeed the international context that’s playing out for women at large. The impact of these significant issues on our sector and the women and children we are here for is undeniable, but I wanted to make sure we could still carve some space to recognise what we have achieved together in spite of the many challenges, and our commitment to adapting and persevering to make things better.  

For over half a century, Women’s Aid and its members have been supporting survivors of domestic abuse and working towards creating a society which has no space for misogyny, and which does not tolerate violence against women and girls. Rooted in the feminist movement of the 70s, today, we are a federation of over 180 organisations, supporting women and children as they seek to escape abuse and rebuild their lives. We are a sisterhood and it is by coming together and working together, that we are able to deliver the vital, life-changing support that survivors so desperately need. 

It is a sad reality that women face an unequal amount of challenge and threat – from inequality in the workplace, through to the devastating reality that women are much more likely to be killed by their current or former partners. International Women’s Day is an important opportunity for us to recognise this and to celebrate our sisters, who do so much to help women and children flee. I am grateful to each and every one of them – in our federation and of course, worldwide. 

The scale of the problem we are facing remains devastatingly vast. According to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics, a third of women over the age of 16 in England and Wales experience domestic abuse. This is an astonishingly high figure, and yet, it is likely to be even higher, given that domestic abuse is a crime that hides in plain sight and one that is historically underreported. 

To add to this already deeply challenging context, services are running within a frankly unsustainable funding environment, often being forced to turn women away who need help. Too many women referred to refuges cannot be accommodated because the space simply does not exist. And that matters because we have all heard the question: “Why doesn’t she just leave?” If anyone is still asking that question, the answer is painfully simple. Too often, when she tries to leave, society does not give her somewhere safe to go. Sustainable funding for the services that support women and children is critical. They are the backbone of response to ending violence against women and children. 

Steps are being made to change the wider reality of violence against women and children and many of them are significant. It feels like we are living at a time of reckoning – we see public bodies reflecting on their failings, committing to learn and change. We have seen a government publish a strategy aimed at reducing VAWG. We are also seeing an increasingly aware society, women who are unafraid, who see bad behaviour and who do not shy away from calling it out whether that be online or in their own lives. 

But the reality is, we cannot make the change that is needed alone. Momentum is gaining and it must be maximised and to do this, we must come together. We now need everyone else to stand with us – we need to see promises being delivered on, we need the pace to increase. Every woman who is killed by a predatory man is someone’s mother, daughter, sister, friend, colleague. They deserve better. 

This momentum must go beyond the women’s sector; we need allies from the public and private sector to make a commitment as well. Ending domestic abuse requires change across society; to shift attitudes and to improve the support available to survivors wherever they look for it. 

This year we’ve been so proud to work with some incredible corporate partners on initiatives that make a genuine difference to the lives of survivors. We’ve created pathways of support for women and children in need, delivered awareness campaigns to improve public understanding of abuse and have used our collective voice to reach new audiences and influence government. 

I hope that 2026 brings opportunity for new innovative collaborations between our sector and our corporate allies. It’s these connections and partnerships that gives us the strength and power needed to truly challenge misogyny and abuse that is deep-rooted in our society. 

My message this International Women’s Day is simple – it is hope and it is unity. We face many challenges, but the feminist movement has faced them ever since it began. We know that we can withstand these pressures, we know that we can achieve remarkable things. Join us – be proactive allies, campaign for change, call out dangerous behaviours and support one another. Together, we are unstoppable.

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

“This week, the Ministry of Justice announced a range of reforms to the criminal justice system, as well as much-needed funding for victims’ services. For too long, survivors have been left to muddle through the justice system without adequate support, often without being believed, so these changes are welcome.  

The announcement that £550 million will be invested in victim support services, to be spread over three years, will provide some respite to life-saving services, which have continued delivering high-quality care and support despite a funding crisis. While we await further clarity on the critical question of what proportion of the funding will be ring-fenced for domestic abuse and sexual violence services, and while we would of course like to see further investment in the long-term, this 2% uplift is welcome given the challenging economic context that we are currently in, whilst recognising that costs have increased for many services well beyond this. 

Looking ahead and in the context of this government’s commitment to halve violence against women and girls (VAWG) in a decade, we continue to urge that  £280 million be committed annually to support these community-based support services, which provide survivors with life-saving help, when they need it most. 

This week, we also saw a number of changes introduced to tackle the backlog of court cases, which is having a detrimental impact on survivors – causing them to drop criminal proceedings due to the damaging impact the delays have on their mental health. A key element of this week’s proposal is the diversion of cases away from court and towards out of court resolutions. We are concerned that the increased responsibility of judicial discretion and on magistrates in domestic abuse cases could mean an increased risk to the safety of women and children due to inconsistent levels of domestic abuse training across judges. Coercive control is an insidious part of domestic abuse and it is vital that judges and magistrates understand its complexity, and the responsibility that they have towards survivors, women and children alike. We urge that specialist domestic abuse training be provided to all judges and magistrates to ensure that decisions are risk-assessed and survivor-focused.  

We are pleased to see further reform, including reforms recommended by the Law Commission which centre the needs of survivors over those who commit heinous crimes against them, accepted by the government. We are pleased to see that it will be enshrined in law that where previous convictions evidencing domestic abuse exist, these can be used at trial for further domestic abuse related offences. We are also pleased to see vital measures introduced to restrict the use of ‘bad character evidence’ against rape victims in court. For too long, survivors of rape have been disbelieved, questioned and undermined, while conviction rates remained stubbornly low. These changes are vital if trust in the justice system is ever to be rebuilt.” 

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Sarah Davidge, Head of Membership, Research and Evaluation at Women’s Aid, comments: 

This week, the Office for National Statistics (ONS), published new figures on domestic abuse. The publication included its analysis of the abuse scales as recommended by the University of Bristol and Women’s Aid, with the aim of providing a better national picture of the prevalence of domestic abuse and to better contextualise the headline prevalence measure which showed that an estimated 2.2 million women and 1.5 million men have experienced domestic abuse in the past year. 

After decades of supporting and working with survivors, we are acutely aware of the challenges that are presented when it comes to measuring the prevalence of this heinous crime. We know that countless survivors will not report their experiences to the police – due to a lack of trust in policing, or feelings of shame – meaning that police data is severely limited. The Office for National Statistics collates domestic abuse data through its Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW), which is based on a household survey and does not depend on reporting to the police. This data comes with its own limitations and underplays the gender asymmetry that we know exists in domestic abuse.  

The aim of the abuse scales released this week is to group together different types of victims that experience domestic abuse based on the abusive behaviours and their impacts. For example, the abuse scales show that women experienced significantly higher rates of domestic abuse in Clusters 2 and 3 (which indicate medium and higher numbers of abusive behaviours and impacts) than men. For partner abuse specifically, women were over three times as likely to experience higher numbers of abusive behaviours and impacts – 4.1% of women were grouped as experiencing partner abuse recorded as Cluster 3 compared to 1.3% of men. 

Despite this step forward, this data breakdown still has significant limitations – for example, the scales will only apply to the experiences of abuse from the age of 16, ignoring the experiences of children and young people.  

Whilst the ONS questions ask respondents whether they have experienced domestic abuse in the past year, they do not ask about the impact of this for the same period. The abuse scales instead measure the impact of abuse experienced by victims since the age of 16. It is therefore not possible to differentiate between when the abuse occurred and when these impacts were felt. This means we cannot know whether these impacts are recent, ongoing, or date back many years. We know from our work with survivors that many women experience long-term impacts from domestic abuse, including economic, along with many experiencing post-separation abuse, sometimes for a significant length of time.  

Additionally, whilst the abuse scales account for the number of different abusive behaviours a victim experienced, the frequency of experiencing the same behaviour multiple times is not measured by the survey, apart from for physical abuse. The scales do not make any assessment or comparison of the severity of behaviours or impacts; however, we know that the severity of domestic abuse disproportionately impacts women. The overwhelming majority of domestic homicide victims are female (65.4% or 231 victims) and most perpetrators are male (224 out of 231; 96.97%).1 

The ONS is still finalising the abuse scales methodology as part of its work to redevelop domestic abuse statistics. We urge the ONS to accept all of the recommendations made by the University of Bristol and partners including Women’s Aid, Respect and the College of Policing, and we call on the government to use the abuse scales for a more accurate and detailed measurement of the prevalence of domestic abuse. For too long, domestic abuse has been a crime that hid in plain sight, and it is only by accurately measuring it, and it’s devastating impact, that we can hope to eradicate it once and for all.” 

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

Despite the pledges made in the Labour government’s election manifesto to halve violence against women and girls (VAWG) in the next decade, we are once again disappointed to see a budget that does not explicitly mention VAWG and domestic abuse.  

If the government is still committed to its manifesto pledge, then investing in the sector that supports survivors and provides lifesaving, frontline services is absolutely essential. For years, successive governments have failed to invest into the VAWG sector in a way that is as sustainable as it is impactful. We have seen powerful, standalone investments that make for positive interventions, yet neglect to provide the ongoing support that victims and survivors urgently need. Without urgent and sustainable investment, local refuges and community-based services simply won’t be able to continue supporting women and children at their point of need, leaving many trapped in life-threatening situations. 

Despite the omission of VAWG from the autumn budget, we are pleased to see that the government has made the decision to scrap the two-child benefit cap, which placed countless children at risk of poverty. This is a shift that has been long-campaigned for by Women’s Aid as well as the wider VAWG sector, as the removal of the cap will allow for more women and children to leave refuges and restart their lives, following the ordeal of abuse. 

We are concerned that the decision to freeze income tax thresholds further exacerbates the lack of financial support women need to escape abuse. Women’s Aid research demonstrates that it can cost a survivor almost £50,000 to flee and ‘stay fled’ from domestic abuse. While the maximum support available from the state is around £40,000, many survivors would not be able to access this full amount. The deficit in financial support is twice as large for survivors who have no recourse to public funds. We continue to call on the government to commit long-term to the Flexible Fund and to carry out an impact assessment of the ‘Budget’s key economic interventions on survivors of domestic abuse to better understand their unique needs. In addition, the introduction of a cap to pension contributions under “salary sacrifice” schemes means that any contributions above the cap would be subject to NI payments by both employees and employers; we are concerned of the impact this could have on specialist services, combined with the rises to minimum wage, on the sector’s ability to retain workers and have financial stability. Once again, we continue to call for funding commitments that match the ambition of the manifesto pledge. Specialist domestic abuse services should be given the funding they urgently need to support women and children as they flee abuse and rebuild their lives in safety.  

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About the role

We are looking for a Survivor Engagement Officer to join our team and help strengthen the meaningful involvement of victim-survivors in all aspects of SEA’s work.

A core part of this role is building and sustaining trusted relationships with by-and-for and community-led organisations to support outreach, engagement, and the inclusive recruitment of survivors from Black and minoritised communities and other marginalised groups. We are particularly keen to receive applications from Black and minoritised women, and/or applicants with strong experience working with these communities.

You will also support the coordination and facilitation of SEA’s Experts by Experience Group (EEG), moderate our online Survivor Forum, and contribute to delivering our Survivor Engagement Strategy. You will help ensure that survivor voices – especially those from underrepresented communities – shape our services, policy and communications work.

You would be joining SEA at an exciting time, as we strengthen our approaches to inclusive survivor engagement and implement a new strategy to widen participation and reach.

About you

You will be a skilled relationship-builder with strong experience of working with Black and minoritised communities and/or community-led organisations.

You will have excellent communication and facilitation skills, and experience supporting or engaging survivors and/or marginalised groups in a trauma-informed and inclusive way.

You will bring a strong understanding of anti-discriminatory and survivor-centred practice, and a commitment to widening participation in systems change work.

Experience supporting collaborative engagement projects or survivor groups would be desirable, as would experience moderating online spaces or forums.

About SEA

Surviving Economic Abuse (SEA) is the only charity in the UK dedicated to raising awareness of economic abuse and transforming responses to it. All our work is informed by Experts by Experience – a group of women who speak about what they have gone through so that they can be a force for change. Economic abuse occurs when someone’s partner controls (through restriction, exploitation and/or sabotage) how they acquire, use and maintain economic resources such as accommodation, food, clothing and transportation.

What we offer

• 25 days annual leave, plus 5 Wellbeing Days and Statutory Bank Holidays
• Home working (UK based)
• Flexible working
• 5% Employer Pension Contribution
• Reflective practice
• Health Cash Plan, including Employee Assistance Programme
• Enhanced sick pay, family leave and carer’s leave
• The chance to be part of our highly professional, supportive team

To apply:

This post is only open to women applicants, as being a woman is considered a genuine occupational requirement under Schedule 9, Paragraph 1 of the Equality Act 2010.

• To find out more about the role, or to apply, please visit our website at: https://survivingeconomicabuse.org/jobs-at-sea/
• Applications open from 23 June 2025 and close at 11.59pm on 13 July 2025.
• Interviews will take place virtually, on 30th July & 4th August 2025.

Direct applications only – no agencies please.

Surviving Economic Abuse (SEA) is committed to developing an inclusive team which reflects the diversity of the communities we support. Our culture celebrates diverse voices, and we particularly encourage applications from Black and minoritised applicants and disabled applicants who are under-represented at SEA.

SEA is a Disability Confident Committed, and Kinship Friendly Employer.

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