Domestic abuse campaign: Commissioner for England urges Peterborough residents to lobby MPs over new legislation

Nicole Jacobs believes a new toolkit which was trialled in Peterborough and Cambridgeshire should be rolled out across the country, and she wants to see the Government make that commitment as part of the new Domestic Abuse Bill which could be signed into law next year.

Speaking about the 30 month, government-funded pilot project called the Whole Housing Approach, she said: “For many years we’ve talked about the housing response to domestic abuse as refuge.

“Refuges are extremely important but so many people can’t access them or it’s not the option they want. We have to think of a whole range of people’s situations, from those who are street homeless with complex needs to someone who wants to leave their abusive partner but is tied into a mortgage and has financial concerns, and everyone in between.

“That’s what I like about the Whole Housing Approach. We have to be assertive if we want to address domestic abuse.

“With housing and financial abuse and housing needs, so many improvements are needed. What I love about the Whole Housing Approach is it is so aspirational. What Cambridgeshire and Peterborough are doing is a model for what we need to see in all areas of England.

“For the Domestic Abuse Bill we’re waiting for a date in the House of Lord’s which we highly anticipate will be at the start of the next calendar year. It will then move quite quickly and is expected to receive royal assent in spring/early summer.

“One thing I would really encourage people to think about is saying to MPs (who will vote on the bill again) is to widen the statutory duty in the bill for the Whole Housing Approach. There is a real opportunity for readers to make that case to government.”

The toolkit - which can be viewed at: https://www.dahalliance.org.uk/what-we-do/whole-housing-approach/whole-housing-toolkit/ - was the culmination of the pilot project which saw six specialist domestic abuse organisations, as well as a civil society organisation, work with 10 local authority areas to provide domestic abuse initiatives and practices across a range of accommodation settings and tenure types (social, private rented and privately owned).

It has been targeted at responses to domestic abuse within housing and offers practical guidance and resources to local areas to deliver a consistent approach to tackling domestic abuse.

For people experiencing domestic abuse the home is often the most dangerous place. On average, two women are killed by their partner or ex-partner every week in England and Wales and 75 per cent are killed in their own home.

The new bill would create a statutory definition of domestic abuse, emphasising that it is not just physical violence but can also be emotional, coercive or controlling and economic abuse.

It would also place a duty on councils in England to provide support to victims of domestic abuse and their children in refuges and other safe accommodation and provide that all eligible homeless victims of domestic abuse automatically have priority need for homelessness assistance.

Moreover, it would establish in law the office of Domestic Abuse Commissioner with Ms Jacobs currently holding the role as ‘designate’ before it is fully ratified.

Speaking ahead of a new Peterborough campaign to raise awareness of domestic abuse and encourage actions to support victims, she said: “Campaigns are always important, but this year in the context of Covid it is particularly important.

“One of the things we’ve seen in the past months is people struggling to reach out and get support or help they really need.

“What you realise all the more is that friends, families, employers, community members and anyone in a position to help are really important. They always have been but we’ve particularly understood that these months.

“We’ve seen increases at national helplines where people are quietly seeking help, for instance through web pages. We’ve also seen as increase in third party concerns - co-workers, neighbours and families.

“It just goes to show everyone has a part to play addressing domestic abuse and how prevalent it is.

“So often we focus very much on specialist, frontline domestic abuse charities. They’re very much at the centre of a coordinated community response to domestic abuse as they should be, but one thing to recognise is how people find a way to those charities through employers and all sorts of people in their lives and to encourage them to talk about domestic abuse.

“Most people who experience domestic abuse at a very early stage won’t like that term, but reaching out to domestic abuse services is a huge help. Anything we can do to raise awareness in the community is positive.”

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