A “lack of momentum” from the government is leaving “tens of thousands” of child victims without the support they need to recover from domestic abuse, a top advocate has warned.
The domestic abuse commissioner for England and Wales, Dame Nicole Jacobs, criticised the government for delaying the publication of its Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) strategy, saying victims “cannot wait any longer” for clear plans to tackle domestic abuse.
She added she could not see how, at the current pace, it would meet its “ambitious” target of halving violence against women and girls within a decade, with “no major funding” announced for specialist domestic abuse services.
A government spokesperson said it was working to “finalise the strategy”, adding it has invested £13.1m in a new National Centre for VAWG and Public Protection (NCVPP), which launched in April.
Dame Jacobs’s statement comes after the government said it was acting on just 10 of 66 recommendations laid out in her report published earlier this year, which laid out changes needed to strengthen the support given to children in situations involving domestic abuse.
These included ensuring schools, the NHS and other services such as police forces and social care are better equipped to help address domestic abuse through resourcing, training, and funding.
She added that while some of the remaining 56 recommendations have been accepted partially, she said the majority had been flagged by the government as either needing to “explore” or “consult” on whether this work is required, or had been “dismissed outright”.
In a statement, Dame Jacobs said: “Tens of thousands of child victims are currently not getting the level of help and support they need to recover from abuse, and I remain largely unclear on what the government intends to do about it.
“For children experiencing domestic abuse, every day can be an anxious battle. Many are growing up in homes where the rules are always changing, where they struggle to concentrate at school and often do not know what devastating consequences the next day will bring.
“These children are our future – they need and deserve an ambitious plan from government on how it is going to ensure they are protected, but also how it intends to prevent other children from growing up in homes like theirs. But this has yet to materialise.
“Halving violence against women and girls within a decade is an ambitious target and one I applaud. But with the VAWG strategy still delayed and no major funding announced for specialist domestic abuse services, I fail to see where the momentum within government is coming from to ensure this commitment succeeds.
“It’s vital that the government clearly sets out how it intends to tackle and prevent domestic abuse as a matter of urgency. It should not need to be said that adult and child victims cannot wait any longer.”
Last year, then home secretary Yvette Cooper admitted the target of slashing violence against women and girls would be challenging. “Let’s be honest, it’s an ambition that I’m not aware any country has set before,” she told a conference in Westminster.
“It’s very ambitious to say we are going to halve violence against women and girls in a decade.
“We’re working at the moment to work out how you measure overall violence against women and girls, how you look at domestic abuse, how you look at stalking, how you look at sexual offences, so that we can have that measure and so that we can see across the country what progress is being made.”
A government spokesperson told The Independent: “This government has set out an unprecedented mission to halve violence against women and girls within a decade.
“We will deliver a first-of-its-kind, cross-government strategy which will set out concrete action to pursue perpetrators, support victims and prevent these crimes from happening in the first place.
“We are currently finalising the strategy, working across government, ahead of publication soon.”
