Women’s Aid updates proposed funding settlement for domestic abuse services
As outlined in a previous update, Women’s Aid have increased our minimum annual funding settlement for specialist domestic abuse services to align with a new estimate for the ‘by and for’ from the Domestic Abuse Commissioner’s office. In their latest funding submission, the DAC modified their figure for the ‘by and for’ sector to account for updated population figures from the Office for National Statistics. Their new minimum funding settlement for the ‘by and for’ sector is £150m (previously £178m). This includes £66m for refuge services and £84m for community-based services. We continue to call for further research to be led by the ‘by and for’ sector to provide a better understanding of the demands facing the ‘by and for’ sector and the funding needed to ensure that all Black and minoritised survivors are able to access the support that they need.
In the meantime, we have aligned our funding ask with the figure estimated by the Domestic Abuse Commissioner. This means that our total funding settlement for the specialist domestic abuse sector, including ‘by and for’ services, is now £502m (previously £516m). This is divided into a funding settlement of £222m for refuge services (previously £228m) and £280m for community-based services (previously £288m). Our estimate for the total shortfall from current government spending is now £307m (previously £321m). This includes a shortfall of £62m for refuge services and £212m for community-based services.
We continue to call for the Government to work with Women’s Aid to establish a better understanding of the funding required to meet the needs of children as victim survivors in their own right. In the meantime, we continue to call for a ring-fenced fund of £46m to ensure that at minimum all refuges and community-based services have a dedicated children and young person’s worker.
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