Government unveils £80m plan to tackle domestic abuse and violence

Home Secretary Theresa May said the money, which is linked to the government’s Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy 2016-2020 published today, will be spent on services and frontline work such as refuges and rape crisis centres.

It will also cover the cost of a Service Transformation Fund being established next year, which will be designed to encourage new approaches to tackle domestic violence, support victims and prevent perpetrators from reoffending.

Meanwhile, the Home Office will publish a National Statement of Expectations (NSE) to make clear to local partnerships what good commissioning and service provision looks like. This is intended to “provide a blueprint for all local areas to follow”.

Last month CYP Now reported that close to 200,000 initial child protection assessments during 2014/15 involved domestic violence as an identifiable factor. In total, 1.35 million women experienced domestic abuse in 2014/15.

“As the true scale of these crimes is revealed we need to strengthen our work to change attitudes, improve prevention and where possible rehabilitate offenders to stop reoffending,” Theresa May said.

“To do this we need to make tackling violence against women and girls everybody’s business. From health providers, to law enforcement, to employers and friends and family we all need to play our part.

“By allowing women to disclose violence as part of their everyday interactions we can support earlier identification and intervention to stop violence and abuse from escalating to critical levels.

“By improving confidence in the criminal justice system we will be able to bring more perpetrators to justice, as well as doing more to rehabilitate offenders.

“And to ensure all victims get the right support at the right time, we will drive a real transformation of service provision, providing support to local commissioners so that all areas rise to the level of the best."