Domestic and sexual abuse

After years of supporting small charities who work with people who have experienced domestic abuse, we have gained valuable insights into the specific challenges these charities and the people they support are facing. We've focused on addressing these challenges from several angles by seeking to improve commissioning processes, supporting small charities to influence national policy and practice, and investing in a programme working with perpetrators to end the cycle of abuse.

Improving domestic abuse commissioning

Small and specialist charities are often best placed to support people who have experienced domestic and/or sexual abuse. These charities are often set up by and for the communities they aim to support and they have a huge amount of expertise, as well as in-depth knowledge of their local community and resources. They are also often able to sensitively tailor their approach to each individual and work with people long term. This is particularly important when charities are working with communities that are often marginalised, or whose needs might not be met by other services, such as disabled people, LGBTQ+ people and communities experiencing racial inequity.

However, funding and commissioning processes don’t always recognise the distinctive value of smaller charities. As a result, small charities have often missed out on funding and contracts to deliver domestic and sexual abuse services. To help specialist local services survive, we supported the Women’s Aid Federation of England and Imkaan Sustainability Partnership in England and Welsh Women’s Aid in Wales to work closely with specialist charities. They have helped local specialist services prepare for and be more successful in bidding for government funding. Charities that have been supported through this work have gone on to receive more than £27m in government contracts – and this may even be over £33m if contracts are extended. 

Working with Imkaan, SafeLives, Welsh Women’s Aid and Women’s Aid Federation for England, we have developed toolkits to support collaborative commissioning. These toolkits were developed following discussions with survivors, providers and commissioners. In Wales, we published a Collaborative Commissioning Toolkit which Welsh Government recommends commissioners should follow in their statutory guidance. In England, we worked together to build this guidance into the Home Office’s Violence Against Women and Girls Commissioning Toolkit.

We’ve also submitted evidence to government calling for new approaches to commissioning for domestic abuse services – you can read some of our consultation responses below:

• Domestic abuse services
• Domestic Violence and Abuse Bill
• Joint Committee on the Domestic Violence and Abuse Bill: written
• Joint Committee on the Domestic Violence and Abuse Bill: oral
• Supported Housing

Helping charities to influence change

Our Transform programme supported charities to influence change and improve support for survivors of domestic and sexual abuse – building the evidence base, developing new partnerships or approaches and influencing policy.

The charities we supported through the Transform programme achieved important changes such as:

• 38 services were accredited or working towards quality standards for supporting male victims/survivors of sexual violence.
• Statutory organisations in Leeds adopted a city-wide policy statement on supporting adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse.
• National Police Chiefs Council adopted new policy restricting the sharing of immigration data relating to victims.
• The UK Government was influenced to invest funding in supporting domestic abuse services to better meet the needs of LGBTQ+ survivors.

Read a success story of how the Transform programme helped one charity to influence change.

We also worked with DMSS to evaluate the programme and help the charities embed learning throughout their projects. You can find out more about each of the projects here.

“Our work in Greater Manchester has shown that systems and services currently do not work for the most disadvantaged women, with too many falling through the gaps in support. Local authorities have real power to make a difference and transform their response.” - Agenda, Transform Programme.

Charities continue to build on the influencing successes achieved through the Transform programme. We support the ongoing policy and campaigns work of Rape Crisis for England & Wales, influencing change and improving support for survivors of sexual abuse. We also continue to support Latin American Women’s Rights Service, whose Step Up Migrant Women campaign has continued to grow support and make the case for safe reporting of abuse and support for survivors, regardless of their immigration status. Watch this video to learn more about their important work.

The Domestic Abuse Bill presented a landmark opportunity to influence change in the response to domestic abuse. The Transform programme took place while the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 was progressing through Parliament. We supported Women’s Aid Federation of England to coordinate charities to influence the Bill. We also provided evidence to influence the development of the Bill, drawing on the learning and insights from charities we support.

The charities we fund are also using their expertise to influence Lloyds Banking Group’s practice and services.  We have connected specialist domestic abuse charities with Lloyds Banking Group to share their expertise and improve how the bank responds to colleagues and customers affected by domestic abuse. This has resulted in changes in practice that are informed by the experiences of survivors and the charities supporting them. 

Read more about our work with Lloyds Banking Group’s specialist support team on domestic and financial abuse.

Challenging perpetrators to end the cycle of abuse

If we are ever to end the cycle of abuse, we must do more to challenge those who perpetrate it. This is why we invested £1m in Drive, a new approach tackling high-risk perpetrators of domestic abuse to change their behaviour. Drive was developed by Respect, SafeLives and Social Finance, with the Foundation as the lead charitable funder.

Through a multi-agency response, the Drive programme brought together police and other agencies to tackle abuse, change behaviours and address issues such as substance misuse, housing and mental health. It includes close working with IDVAs (Independent Domestic Violence Advisors) to ensure the safety of survivors.

An evaluation of the three-year pilot phase showed that the Drive programme resulted in an 82% reduction in physical abuse, an 88% reduction in sexual abuse and a reduction of risk to the survivor in 82% of cases. The programme also generated useful insights about systems change, which was captured in a report to share learning more widely.

“As a result of Drive, victims-survivors were safer and more likely to be free from abuse, and the work with perpetrators created space for victims-survivors to make decisions for themselves.” - University of Bristol evaluation of The Drive Project.