'Our call to the new government - Standing Together's response to the King's Speech'
The highly anticipated King’s Speech set out our new Government’s mission-driven plans yesterday. We are heartened by the values of fairness, security, opportunity, and stability being seen, by our new Government, as key underpinning priorities alongside a clear commitment to “halve Violence Against and Women and Girls”.
As a national charity committed to ending domestic abuse through effective coordinated community responses, we call on the Government to ensure their ambitious commitments to end violence against women and girls are set out in a clear whole system approach delivery plan that keeps the safety of victims and survivors central to its development.
We ask that the approach to devolved decision-making is clear so that victims of abuse, who are the most vulnerable in our society, can be assured they can access support when they need it. This requires our new Government to ensure that local decision-makers know they must keep much-needed funding in the sector so that vital support provided by specialist organisations can be sustained.
We welcome the commitment to strengthen support for victims, and we ask that this includes the cessation of victims of abuse from being imprisoned due to offending that was simply the result of the abuse they’d experienced. We ask that all victims of abuse can be confident that their access to any form of Justice will not re-traumatise them further. We ask that they receive trauma-informed support from the point of disclosure and this is underpinned by the well-coordinated provision of support within their communities, which appropriately incorporates specialist support, regardless of postcode. We also ask that society is given a clear message that convictions will increase, and that perpetrators of domestic abuse will be held to account.
The much-welcomed focus on prevention and improved mental health provision for young people, alongside the expectation that “mental health is given the same attention and focus as physical health” reflects the empirical evidence base that supports early recognition of the impacts of domestic abuse and coordinated support to enable victims and survivors, including children young people, to recover from the trauma of living with abuse. We ask that the improvements of our NHS include a clear expectation that there is a coordinated community response to health and domestic abuse through partnership working.
As our Government raises educational standards, and the promotion of the wellbeing of children, we call on this to include clear expectations that all educational establishments respond appropriately to domestic abuse, to prevent harm, and give children and young people clear messages on what healthy relationships are and stem the development of misogynistic beliefs and attitudes, fostering healthier attitudes and respect. An excellent way forward is the establishment of an independent football regulator, and we call on the Government to ensure this key development enables positive leadership with a clear message of zero tolerance of misogyny and violence against women and girls in football and the wider sporting world.
The legislative Housing reforms laid out today are also welcomed by us, but we ask that they tackle domestic abuse as a lead cause of homelessness for both women and children in our country by constructively reducing homelessness, whilst protecting abuse survivors, and guaranteeing victims’ rights.
The modernisation of the asylum and immigration system is overdue, and we ask our new Government to ensure the most significant barriers to accessing support that migrant victims and survivors of domestic abuse victims of domestic abuse are reduced by addressing their NRPF in a meaningful and humane manner.
We welcome the opportunity to support our new Government’s direction of travel as it begins its work and look forward to continuing to work with partners, including Ministers, to ensure that survivor voices are heard.