1.
Introduction
Welsh
Women’s Aid is the national charity in Wales working to
prevent domestic abuse and all forms of violence against
women[1]
and
ensure high-quality services for survivors that are needs-led,
gender-responsive and holistic. Established in 1978, we are an
umbrella organisation that represents and supports a national
federation of 23 local independent charities delivering specialist
domestic abuse and violence against women prevention services in
Wales, as part of a UK network of provision. These specialist
services constitute our core membership, and they provide
lifesaving refuges, outreach, and community advocacy and support to
survivors of violence and abuse - women, men, children, families -
and deliver innovative preventative work in local communities. We
also deliver direct services including the Welsh Government funded
Live Fear Free Helpline; a National Training Service; refuge
and advocacy services in Colwyn Bay and Wrexham; and the national
Children Matter project which supports local services to
help children and young people affected by abuse and to deliver
preventative STAR group work in every local authority in
Wales.
Welsh
Women’s Aid is able to draw on our members’ expertise
and survivor voices to address the question of whether Welsh
Government policies and programmes are effective at reducing the
adverse impact of violence against women and domestic abuse on
children within the first 1,000 days.
Below,
we outline our feedback on considerations to be taken into account
when reviewing whether Welsh Government
policies and programmes supportthe early years
period for parents and children, and how effective these are in
supporting children’s capabilities and development, with
regards to:
2.
Promoting and protecting the health and wellbeing of children from
pregnancy through recognising the adverse impact of all forms of
violence against women, domestic abuse and sexual
violence
2.1 There is good
evidence of interventions that can prevent or mitigate factors
which increase the risk of poor outcomes at age 2 (such as domestic
abuse, exposure to violence and abuse, poverty and disadvantage,
exposure to problematic substance use, mental ill-health and poor
emotional well-being of mothers) and these have been well described
in research and within professional and NICE guidance (eg NICE
Domestic Violence Guidance). However there are significant
challenges in ensuring that this evidence is implemented and
embedded into professional practice.
2.2
Early identification and appropriate intervention and access to
independent specialist support services in the third sector will
promote and protect the health and wellbeing of children adversely
impacted by violence against women, domestic abuse and sexual
violence. Significant progress can be made to improve women and
children’s lives during the early years period through
informed, structured training of public sector staff and clear
referral pathways to specialist services. New public sector duties
within the Violence against Women, Domestic Abuse and Sexual
Violence (Wales) Act 2015, require trained public sector
professionals including health professionals to make direct
enquiries, called ‘Ask and Act’.
However within the National Training Framework , it remains unclear
how and when the Welsh Government will cascade this statutory
training across all relevant public bodies in Wales.
2.3 Within health settings, a good practice example that can enable
early intervention and therefore the effective protection of the
health and wellbeing of children affected by violence against
women, domestic abuse and sexual violence, is the PATHway Pilot at
St Mary’s Maternity Hospital. This pilot examined the impact
of co-locating a dedicated Independent Domestic Violence Advisor
(IDVA) on the maternity unit. As a result, midwives stated that
they felt more confident in asking the routine enquiry questions,
secure in the knowledge that if they did receive a disclosure, they
had a clear and effective pathway for making a referral to the
IDVA.
Similarly, there is significant evidence that co-locating
specialist domestic abuse support workers in GP practices (e.g.
IRIS), mental health services and A&E facilitates early
intervention and access to support for women who would otherwise
not seek help or disclose abuse access help. If applied to Welsh
maternity wards and other healthcare settings, the co-location of
specialist domestic abuse support workers (advocates) could
heighten the impact of current ‘Ask and Act’ practices,
set out in the National Training Framework, by strengthening the
quality of support available to mothers and children and the speed
and efficiency of referral pathways, while also supporting
staff. One PATHway client stated: “I was worried
about the baby (in pregnancy), did not want to entertain the idea
of going to the police or social services, but when the midwife
offered me to talk to someone who could help me with the abuse, I
was glad.”
2.4 Additionally, health professionals have been integral to early
identification and contributing qualitative and quantitative data
around the crime of female genital mutilation of girls, which is
further supported by the Serious Crime Act 2015 making it mandatory
for frontline professionals to report safeguarding concerns in
relation to FGM. This has helped to highlight the prevalence of the
practice, as well as increasing the number of cases reported to the
police and Social Services,
with the aim of preventing girls and women from experiencing FGM
and eradicating this by 2030. Further work is needed in Wales to
ensure robust data and responses to the prevention of FGM is
embedded across all services, working in partnership with and being
led by specialist BME services like BAWSO, who are leading the way
on developing community prevention of FGM in Wales.
2.5 It is important to listen and hear the voices of children and
young people, including their experiences as infants. This needs to
be done in an age-appropriate manner, as well as – if
appropriate and safe – listening to the needs of the
non-abusive parent. Survivor-informed specialist violence against
women organisations have an expert understanding of the impacts of
violence against women, domestic abuse and sexual violence on
children and can also facilitate the involvement of survivors and
their children in any early years services and systems development
and review. Welsh Women’s Aid has launched the Survivor
Empowerment and Education Services (SEEDS) project, which enables
voices of survivors to be heard in the development of policy and
practice around addressing ACEs.
We can facilitate the process of ensuring that the voices of
survivors and children across Wales are central to the Welsh
Government’s programme to tackle children’s exposure to
ACEs.
3. Supporting effective child development outside of the health
service through specialist violence against women and domestic
abuse services and community approaches
3.1 Due to the current lack of evidence, it is not possible to
offer a definitive statement on whether specific programmes in
Wales are effective and/or cost-effective for reducing the harm
caused by violence against women and domestic abuse during a
child’s first 1,000 days.
However, there are many interventions that are examples of
promising practice for children and young people and for pregnant
and post-partem mothers, including the following programmes run by
Welsh Women’s Aid members.
3.2 Port Talbot and Afan Women’s Aid (PTAWA) has been
providing the Video Interaction Guidance (VIG) Project since
October 2015, which is a unique project in Wales that uses the
method of Video Interaction Guidance to help women with infants
(under the age of 2) who have been effected by domestic abuse,
promoting positive parenting and rebuilding the relationship
between non-abusive parent and child.
3.3
Llanelli Women’s Aid is one of several specialist domestic
abuse services across Wales which delivers dedicated
children’s and young people’s support for children in
refuges, which is age appropriate from age 0-18, offering help and
support through one-to-one and group sessions. This is a joined up
approach in partnership with Social Services, playgroups, schools,
and other children’s organisations to offer coordinated
support to mitigate the trauma experienced by children who have
been exposed to ‘adverse’ experiences.
3.4
In addition, many member services use Welsh Women’s Aid
Children Matter S.T.A.R. suite of services. This includes age
appropriate group work programmes that support children and young
people who have experienced domestic abuse and parallel group
support programmes for their mothers, to enable them to support
their children and increase their protective factors which in turn
mitigates the impact of trauma.
3.5
Welsh Women’s Aid and Women’s Aid Federation England,
working with local authorities, has launched the ‘Ask
Me’ scheme to train ‘community ambassadors’ in
Powys, as part of the new Change that Lasts early
intervention service model. This enables more opportunities for
safe disclosure and sign-posting to help and support within local
communities through local businesses and community centres. This is
particularly important in cases where perpetrators have used
language and integrational barriers in, for example, Black and
minority communities to further isolate survivors, and in some
cases denying expectant/new mothers some or all maternity and
post-natal care, therefore effectively bypassing any access to good
‘Ask and Act’ practices.
‘I was totally cut off. I was taken away for my daughter to
be born, I had no midwife or health visitor in this country, they
didn’t even know I had children. Training and posters
wouldn’t have meant anything… I was just too
frightened, that’s the biggest barrier. Being physically
locked up, isolated, kept like a prisoner, and being
frightened.’ (Survivor, FG)[6]
3.6
Perpetrators understand survivors’ fears that any involvement
of Social Services may result in their children being taken from
them, and such fear can be used to silence and control
mothers. Survivors
stated that the safety of them and their children should be
paramount in cases of violence and abuse. Safeguarding training was
a particular concern for some survivors who recommended that there
is further
training to ensure professionals have a trauma-informed, needs-led
and gender responsive understanding of violence against women,
domestic abuse and sexual violence.
‘Safeguarding training for agencies just isn’t enough.
It gives a bit of knowledge but there’s no information or in
depth understanding of domestic abuse included in safeguarding
courses.’ (Survivor, FG)[7]
3.7
Survivors
have told us that they feel judged and sometimes asked to mediate
with the abuser by professionals working with children, which
places both women and their children at increased risk of
harm. Welsh
Women’s Aid is currently working with CAFCASS Cymru to
deliver a programme of work to enhance their understanding of
coercive and controlling behaviour and the impact on children and
young people to enhance their response to women and children using
the family court.
‘…what happens time and again is they expect women to
mediate with their own abusers when they’ve lived with them
in a war zone, and if you don’t do this you’re judged
by agencies for failing in some way or for not doing what they
expected you to do.’ (Survivor, FG)[8]
4. Reducing the adverse impact on the child
4.1 A whole-education approach to preventing violence against
women, domestic abuse and sexual violence is imperative in order to
mitigate the impact of adverse childhood experiences associated
with exposure to domestic abuse and sexual violence that happened
or began during a child’s first 1,000 days. All education
institutions should develop and implement a whole-education
approach, as outlined in the Welsh Government ‘Good Practice
Guidance’[9],
which promotes staff and student learning on violence against
women, domestic abuse and sexual violence, as well as gender
equality, respect, and healthy relationships. In addition, staff
should be informed about all forms of violence against women and
appropriate ways of opening the discourse around this within the
whole school setting.
4.2 Welsh Women’s Aid’s national Children Matter
Project delivers training programmes and services for professionals
working with children and young people (including young mothers of
infants) across Wales to ensure adverse childhood experiences
associated with violence against women, domestic abuse and sexual
violence are identified early and addressed effectively. The
S.T.A.R. suite of services (Safety, Trust and Respect) include
preventative healthy relationship programmes which are available to
all children and young people across Wales, as well as group work
for survivors and younger children who have experienced domestic
abuse.
4.3 Perpetrator programmes are an integral part of stopping abusive
behaviour of perpetrators in both existing and future
relationships. Changed behaviour can improve the safety, health and
wellbeing of children who have been adversely affected by violence
against women, domestic abuse and sexual violence. It is essential
for the safety of survivors and their children that all domestic
abuse perpetrator work and parallel partner safety work must adhere
to the Respect accredited standard
and must form part of a wider coordinated community response that
includes sufficient specialist provision for survivors, including
refuges and community based support and advocacy.
5. Recommendations:
5.1
Welsh Women’s Aid recommends that secure, long-term funding is essential if specialist
violence against women, domestic abuse and sexual violence services
across Wales are to be sustainable and can deliver needs-led
support and grow to meet demand. There is significant inconsistency
across Wales when it comes to available funding for dedicated
violence against women, domestic abuse and sexual violence support
services for children and young people.Feedback
from survivors shows that specialist services (that offer gender
responsive provision) are essential in order for support to be
effective and achieve desired outcomes.[11]
Specialised
violence against women, domestic abuse and sexual violence services
offer a safe and confidential space for a survivor independent from
any statutory route that can enable them to disclosure at a time
that is best suited to their experience.
5.2 Welsh Women’s Aid recommends that the definition of
‘domestic violence’ within the Adverse Childhood
Experiences (ACEs) research and policy be broadened from the narrow
scope of parents/adults “slapping, hitting, kicking, punching
or beating each other up”.
UK law, strategy and policy recognises that domestic abuse is
controlling, coercive, threatening behaviour violence and abuse
that includes psychological, physical sexual emotional and
financial abuse. We also recommend that all forms of violence
against women, domestic abuse and sexual violence are fully
recognised within work to mitigate trauma associated with adverse
experiences in childhood and as adults.
5.3 Welsh Women’s Aid recommends that the voices of child
survivors of violence against women, domestic abuse and sexual
violence need to be heard within the Welsh Government’s
policy framework with clear connections made across policy on
Adverse Childhood Experiences and early years work, and the
delivery of the Violence against Women, Domestic Abuse and Sexual
Violence (Wales) Act 2015, the Social Services and Well-being
(Wales) Act 2014 and the Well-being and Future Generations Act
(2015).
5.4 Welsh Women’s Aid recommends the roll out of ‘Ask
and Act’ and ‘Ask Me’ to ensure that public
sector professionals and community members intervene early to
sign-post and refer survivors to specialist services across all
communities in Wales. This needs to be supported by high quality
Welsh Women’s Aid training.
Further evidence on the extent and impact of domestic abuse and
sexual violence on children, young people, and their mothers,
during the early years period, can be provided as supporting
evidence on request.
Welsh Women’s Aid would again like to thank the National
Assembly for Wales’ Children, Young People and Education
Committee for the opportunity to comment on this important issue
and we look forward to working together in the near
future.
