Findings from a new Women’s Aid report show that 22.2 per cent of women supported by the charity’s No Woman Turned Away project have experienced further abuse from the perpetrator while waiting for a refuge space, with 2.9 per cent forced into sleeping rough to escape abuse.
The No Woman Turned Away project, now in its eighth year, provides valuable support for women and children experiencing barriers to accessing refuge provision, working alongside local services to ensure the most vulnerable survivors have access to the support they need when they need it the most.
Based on the project’s work during 2023, the report highlights the numerous challenges faced by women most marginalised by society when accessing help to escape domestic abuse. For example, only five out of 58 women who had a disability, and only eight out of 67 women with mental health support needs were accommodated in refuge by the end of the support period. Women who faced multiple barriers to accessing support found it particularly difficult to access refuge, with only three out of 69 women with three or more barriers and neither of the two women with four barriers finding a refuge space by the end of the support period.
The report also continues to demonstrate the impact of the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 and the work that remains to be done. While the Act brought about changes to the priority need for accommodation for those affected by homelessness due to domestic abuse and introduced a statutory duty for local authorities to fund domestic abuse support, the findings of this report suggest that the support required by survivors is still not in place. Highly concerning amongst the report’s findings are the numerous reports of statutory agencies responding inappropriately to survivors. In 2023, Women’s Aid recorded 87 such incidents, with at least 36.4 per cent of women contacting a local housing team being prevented from making a homelessness application. For at least 16.3 per cent of survivors, social services failed to meet their obligation to safeguard and protect women and children.
Despite these numerous challenges, the No Woman Turned Away project delivered over 973 hours of support to 204 women in 2023. Practitioners helped almost half (49.5 per cent) of women achieve a new housing outcome, with most women (64.7 per cent) saying they felt safer after the support they received from the project.
For the report, click here. For comment by Farah Nazeer, Chief Executive of Women’s Aid, click here.
Original reporting by Family Law Week