Government pledge £76 million new funding for Domestic and Sexual Violence Support, Vulnerable Children & Modern Slavery

On Saturday (2.05.20) the Government pledged £76 million new funding for domestic and sexual violence support, vulnerable children & modern slavery, out of The Chancellor’s £750 million ‘charity bailout’ announced earlier in April.

Director of End Violence Against Women Sarah Green says:

“This announcement is very welcome as women & children face heightened risks and support services work to transform their response. What really matters now is the detail on how the money is to be distributed – we need a commitment to ensuring it gets to the real grassroots specialists, with a ringfence for BME ‘by and for’ services as set out by our sector in its Emergency Funding Joint Statement.

“The clear recognition in the announcement by Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Governmentof the need for specific sexual violence support – where need is growing and service transformation needs to happen to meet it – as part of this package is welcome and a credit to the longterm advocacy of organisations such as Rape Crisis.

“Additionally the recognition of the pressures on crisis and long-term accommodation for domestic abuse victims and the announcement that the Domestic Abuse Bill will put domestic abuse victims in their rightful place as priority need for housing is excellent.

“Crucially however, there’s a lot of detail still to come on allocation and distribution as well as how government will carry out smart grant-making that ensures it is local services with established track records, and recognition in the community with high self-referral rates, that are at the top of the list. We also look forward to hearing more on potential critical policy change such as abolition of No Recourse to Public Funds.”