The Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government announced an uplift of additional £30 for the Domestic Abuse Safe Accommodation Grant for 2025-2026
See here
Responding to the announcement on 2nd December, Abigail Ampofo, interim CEO of Refuge, said:
“Refuge welcomes the recent announcement from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) to continue its funding of refuges for women fleeing domestic abuse, with a £30m increase for 2025-26.
“The Domestic Abuse Duty Safe Accommodation grant for the coming year is now worth £160m, representing a 20% uplift to support local councils in fulfilling their responsibility to provide lifesaving accommodation for domestic abuse survivors.
“However, this figure is still well below the minimum funding settlement of £228m for refuge services, as estimated by Women’s Aid. At a time when violence against women and girls (VAWG) is devastatingly prevalent, and many services are at breaking point after years of chronic underfunding, adequate investment into specialist services is needed more than ever.
“The VAWG sector has repeatedly emphasised the need for dedicated, ring-fenced funding for specialist domestic abuse services, including a national ring-fenced funding pot for ‘by and for’ organisations, which are vital for marginalised survivors who face even more extensive barriers to accessing support. As local authorities continue to feel the pressure of acute funding challenges, Refuge is concerned that the current funding allocation does not include ring-fenced provisions for specialist services, who will continue to be at risk of decommissioning in favour of generic services.
“VAWG services provide lifesaving support to thousands of women and girls every year and will be essential in supporting the Government to deliver its mission to halve VAWG over the next decade, but many will be unable to continue their crucial work if the Government does not step up. With the Spring Spending Review on the horizon, we are calling on the Government to put in place ring-fenced, multi-year and sustainable funding for specialist organisations.”
For the Refuge press release see here
29th November, 2024
On 29th November Women’s Aid said in response to the responds to MHCLG’s funding announcement:
“We welcome the Government’s announcement that domestic abuse refuges will continue to be funded, and that there will be a £30 million increase for local councils to deliver their legal duties under the Domestic Abuse Act 2021. We are pleased that the overall figure has increased from the last year (to a total of £160 million), however the amount available still falls short from our estimate of what is needed to fully sustain, the life-saving network of services that remain in high demand. Women’s Aid estimates a minimum funding settlement of £228m for refuge services (of which £78m to be ring-fenced for the ‘by and for’ sector) is needed to fund life-saving services via the safe accommodation duty.
We are concerned that this money is not being delivered through a ring-fenced and dedicated funding pot, however we hope that with accompanying memorandums for councils, and clear guidance from the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government, that councils will ensure this money is spent on the most critical and cost-effective services,1 delivered by specialist refuges to ensure we are meeting the needs of survivors of this national emergency.
Without a protected funding pot for this purpose, there is a risk that specialist domestic abuse refuges, and wider violence against women and girls (VAWG) services will see funding cuts or services being fully decommissioned, as local communities are faced with further cuts to public services. Unfortunately, we have seen this happen following the issuing of Section 114 notices across the country and local authorities struggling with bankruptcy. As ever, this has had a disproportionate impact on specialist ‘by and for’ services. In the past three months, we have seen a sharp increase in the number of services led ‘by and for’ Black and minoritised women facing closure.
Any ambitions set out in the Government’s upcoming VAWG Strategy simply will not be met without specialist ‘by and for’ services, who support and save the lives of victims facing additional barriers and systemic discrimination. We therefore urge the Government to address the decommissioning specialist services in favour of more generic organisations.
Councils have a critical role in the whole-system approach needed to deliver the Government’s ambition of halving VAWG in a decade. We hope that councils will avoid competitive commissioning practices, that force life-saving domestic abuse services to competitively bid against one another and waste public funding. Women’s Aid have a range of resources available to support councils to understand legitimate alternatives to harmful procurement practices – you can find out more by contacting policy@womensaid.org.uk.
We also look forward to working with the government to ensure the multi-year funding settlement announced in Spring 2025 will sustain our network of unparalleled experts and specialist domestic abuse, and support the Government’s ambition of halving VAWG by 2035.”
Read the press release here
Original reporting by Family Law Week