Camden invests additional £400k into services to tackle domestic abuse
Camden Council’s Cabinet have agreed to invest an additional £400,000 a year to expand services to tackle domestic abuse and further support survivors and their families.
Yesterday (15 December), a report from the Camden Women’s Forum outlining a set of proposals to tackle and prevent domestic violence and abuse (DVA) within Camden was agreed by Cabinet.
The report goes into the findings of the forum’s latest inquiry which was launched last year to look into ways to end DVA in the borough and how violence at home affects women, children and young people.
The new funding is in addition to the £2million that has been invested in domestic abuse and support services in Camden and will go towards implementing a number of recommendations mentioned in the report to improve the Council’s response to DVA.
This includes offering free legal advice to domestic abuse survivors, creating dedicated specialist domestic abuse programmes for children and mandatory DVA training for all council staff.
A Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) board is also due to launch in March to bring together police and community and voluntary organisations to begin a new programme of action to end gender-based violence in Camden.
The pandemic and the recent murders of Sarah Everard, Sabina Nessa, Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman and closer to home Nicole Hurley, have put into sharp focus that there is an epidemic of violence against women.
Now is the time to put in place long overdue protections for women and girls against unacceptable violence - not just action against domestic homicides, rape, and street harassment, but also a strategy to tackle attitudes that underpin the abuse women and girls face. I’m pleased that Camden’s Cabinet have agreed to take forward our proposals which will make a huge difference to so many children and people’s lives.
In Camden, we have remained committed to doing everything we can to respond and tackle domestic violence and abuse in our borough.
Our recommendations in this report are framed as survivor-based outcomes, based on what the experience of survivors should be like within Camden, with a series of practical next steps under each outlining how we think we can progress following our work. We believe listening to, understanding, and amplifying the stories of those with lived experience of domestic abuse is key to creating change, which is why that’s been a focus of each of the forum’s inquiry sessions. Domestic abuse is everyone’s business, and we want to work together with the shared endeavour of tackling this.
In 2019, the Camden Women’s Forum was established to bring together a range of experts from across the borough to discuss complex issues and barriers facing women and girls in Camden.
In addition to this work, a DVA Action Plan was approved by Cabinet earlier this year which led to a new DVA policy to support council house tenants.
The action plan highlighted four key themes the Council is working under to tackle domestic violence and abuse, including Prevent, Identity, Support and Disrupt and Enforce.
For more information on this work, please visit: camden.gov.uk/camden-women-s-forum
How to access support
If you are experiencing domestic abuse, of any form, need support or advice, or you are worried about a friend or relative’s relationship, please contact:
Camden Safety Net, Mon-Fri 9am-5pm, Tel: 0207 974 2526, email: Camdensafetynet@camden.gov.uk
In an emergency always call 999, or for non-emergency matters with which you require police assistance please call 101.
For more information and support on domestic violence, including information on spotting the key signs of domestic abuse or unhealthy relationships head to camden.gov.uk/domestic-violence