Dear Prime Minister,
I am writing to you on behalf of Women’s Aid, and signatories of this letter, asking you to provide sustainable funding for the lifesaving specialist domestic abuse services that women and child survivors rely on.
1 in 4 women experience domestic abuse in their lifetime and 1.8 million children experienced domestic abuse in 2023-24. The economic and social costs of domestic abuse in England are estimated to be approximately £84 billion in 2024-25. This is a national emergency – yet we are continuing to waste money and its costing lives.
We are urging you to commit to a minimum funding settlement of £516m per annum in England for specialist domestic abuse services in the upcoming multi-year spending review to improve lifesaving support available for survivors.
Women’s Aid estimates that only one in ten child victims of domestic abuse receive support from a refuge or community-based support service. In addition to the funding settlement proposed above, we are urging your government to introduce a children and young people (CYP) support fund of £46 million to ensure that all specialist domestic abuse services have a dedicated CYP worker.
Lifesaving domestic abuse services are closing. Women and children are being turned away in their time of need – forcing them to return to an abusive partner or parent and putting even greater strain on already struggling public services, including the NHS.
Despite having years of expertise on VAWG and being best placed to support survivors, specialist domestic abuse services have been chronically underfunded for over a decade. Despite your welcome manifesto commitment to halve violence against women and girls in a decade, the Autumn Budget has only made things more precarious. There was no new dedicated funding, overall investment in victim support services was reduced by 4.2%, and the hike in employers’ National Insurance contributions will cost them anywhere from £8,000 up to over £187,000 per year.
Whilst we welcome the increase in funding for the statutory duty to fund support in safe accommodation, without greater national oversight or active encouragement for commissioners to use flexibilities in procurement law, the failure to meet demand - as highlighted Women’s Aid’s latest Annual Audit - will continue.
Half of all refuges led ‘by and for’ Black and minoritised women in the UK have closed in the past decade and continue to struggle to stay afloat when these women need them more than ever (Imkaan, 2018). As part of the proposed £516m funding settlement, we therefore call for ring-fenced funding for all specialist led ‘by and for’ services.
Increased funding in specialist domestic abuse services could not only help your government save £9 for every £1 invested by reducing duplication of effort and pressure on public services - it will also save lives.
We hope we can count on your commitment to investing to save money and most importantly, women's and children's lives, as part of your efforts to halve VAWG in a decade.
Yours sincerely,
Farah Nazeer, Chief Executive Women’s Aid