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A Joined-Up Strategy to Tackle Violence Against Women and Girls
Sexual violence, harassment, and domestic abuse remains endemic in our society. One in four women in England and Wales will experience domestic abuse in their lifetime as violence against women and girls (VAWG), in all its overlapping forms – financial, physical, psychological - devastates the lives of those who experience it.
Yesterday, in Parliament, I pressed the Government on the need for domestic abuse services, mental health services, and suicide prevention to work much more closely together.
The previous Government’s own suicide prevention strategy recognised the link between suicide and domestic abuse, while research by Safe Lives shows that suicide is now the leading cause of death in domestic abuse cases. As part of a pattern of coercive control, this is an inextricable and overlooked thread that must be tackled at the root.
I was therefore encouraged to hear about the work already underway. The Chief Coroner’s Office is developing a clearer pathway around deaths by suicide where domestic abuse may have been a factor, while the Law Commission is considering how the law should respond where domestic abuse contributes to a victim’s suicide.
Equally, the Government’s strategy to halve violence against women and girls over the next decade rightly places prevention and early intervention at its core.
That pledge is greatly welcomed, but in the last year or two, we have seen no shortage of strong rhetoric and positive strategy. Yet too often, past strategies have failed because as those plans leave Westminster, the resources and coordinated delivery fails to follow.
In Newbury and West Berkshire, phenomenal organisations such as Project Salama are already doing this work every day. Supporting and empowering women from across the constituency who are facing multiple forms of abuse and multiple barriers to getting help.
Their community research found that 72% of women they engaged with identified urgent mental health and wellbeing needs, while 65% did not know where to turn for help.
This is exactly why intervention must arrive when the warning signs appear, not after the harm starts and victims reach crisis point. So, if we are to realise the ambitions of the Government’s VAWG strategy, sustainable, ring-fenced funding must be delivered to such specialist charities that provide the wraparound support women and girls need.
With VAWG related crime rising 37% in recent years and as it menacingly moves into new online spaces – a cross-government, whole-of-society approach is needed.
One that sees departments working in partnership with frontline women services, businesses, health professionals and schools; perpetrators being held to account; specialist domestic abuse support embedded in every police unit; the roll out of public awareness campaigns that dispel myths about domestic abuse and signpost frontline support; and taking on tech platforms that allow misogynist attitudes and ‘manosphere’ figures to profit and spread online.
There is a huge amount of progress to be made, but with victims and survivors at the centre of a joined-up service that intervenes early, it can be delivered.
I will keep pushing the Government to do all they can for organisations such as Project Salama and the hundreds of women across Newbury and West Berkshire they support.
