The Isle of Wight Council has been allocated £292,040 of funding to provide support for victims of domestic abuse and their children, Minister for Rough Sleeping and Housing Eddie Hughes announced.
The funding will help ensure victims and their children who need it are able to access life-saving support such as therapy, advocacy and counselling in safe accommodation, including refuges.
The money – £128 million in total – will fund a new duty on councils to ensure victims and their children are able to access life-saving support in safe accommodation – a key part of the Government’s landmark Domestic Abuse Bill. The duty will come into effect later this year, subject to the Domestic Abuse Bill becoming law.
This is part of a wider package of support for victims of rape and domestic abuse, with a £40 million funding boost for victim support services announced last week.
The Government has taken action to help the most vulnerable in society during the pandemic, with an unprecedented £76 million pledged in May to ensure vital services including refuges, helplines and counselling remain accessible.
Minister for Housing and Rough Sleeping, Eddie Hughes MP said:
“Domestic abuse is a heinous crime which threatens the lives of victims in their own homes where they should feel safe. So it’s right that we’re giving victims support in safe accommodation and providing South East councils with money to deliver essential services that will help them and their children rebuild their lives.”
“This is part of a long term strategy to provide broader support for domestic abuse victims both in safe accommodation like refuges, and in their own homes.”
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Councillor Clare Mosdell, Cabinet member for adult social care, public health and housing needs, said:
“Tackling domestic abuse is an important issue for the Island and a priority for the council and our partners.
“We recognise the significant impact it has on not only victims but their wider families too.
“Providing an Island specific provision for victims and their families is important and we know that the right service is essential to enable families to be able to access safe support if the situation arises with a safe place to go if needed.”
Councillor Gary Peace, Cabinet member for community safety, said:
“As a Metropolitan police officer, I worked for four years in a community safety unit investigating domestic violence and other hate crime.
“I have first-hand experience of the trauma and damage caused to the lives of victims, family, and friends. The experience lives with me to this day.
“The workload was one of the highest of any investigative department. And domestic abuse is also one of the most high risk and fraught crimes and experiences that victims can suffer.
“The money secured through the hard work of officers is vital in supporting the approach we currently take and mean we will be able to constantly improve our response to this heinous crime. It will go a huge way to supporting all of our combined efforts to protect victims and their families.”
Originally announced in the Spending Review, the £125 million is another big step towards tackling domestic abuse, ensuring victims are given support in safe accommodation to help them recover and rebuild their lives.
once again, same use of the stereotypical image of a woman cowering with a mans clenched fist – when will IE stop using this outdated image.
This appears to be the only image that IE has, as they use it everytime they talk of domestic abuse.
i guess the wish to portray women as weak and downtrodden.
if they used an image of a man working and a woman washing the dishes, they would be accused of gender stereotyping, so why do they continue to use this stupid image, that always portrays the woman as a victim, weak and defenceless, at the mercy of the much stronger man.
Always that picture that’s used why not switch it for a woman with a clenched fist
why not switch if for no image at all – or an image that shows calm
As most beatings are men doing such to women, why the ‘issue’?
stereotypes are BECAUSE it is ‘usually’ the norm. Exceptions are just that, exceptional.
And hence we have a problem. Because you think this is the ‘norm’, some morons carry on condoning such behaviour. Norm implies normal, surely? Any abuse is not normal, simply an aggressive display of temporary power used to cover up feelings of self loathing and inadequacy. Bullies. Simple. Kick ’em in the whatsits, men or women, then run like hell!
so then edward – as the majority of this country (87%) are white people, do we ensure that all advertisements show white people.
As the majority of the country is gender content, heterosexuals, do we not allow any considerations for LGBTQ.
It is an issue Edward, because some women are the perpetrators and the image also conveys the message that the woman is a weak, downtrodden species, in comparison to an overbearing, strong male species.
It gives the impression that abuse is only one way and that all women are weak and all men are abusers – this is wrong and the image and the narrative should show that abuse happens both ways and that the way it is written, should not be gender specific so that it includes all humans in it.
Have you checked out a prison, best check your ‘stats’ I think