Women’s Aid publishes updated figures on the annual investment needed to fund the domestic abuse support sector in England
The national annual cost is estimated at £409m
In 2019 Women’s Aid produced a national assessment of the investment needed annually to fund the domestic abuse support sector, Funding specialist support for domestic abuse survivors (1). These estimates were based on the development of a unit cost for every 10,000 population and gave one cost for refuge services and another for community-based support services.
Women’s Aid has updated its assessment to account for population rise and inflation. We now estimate that a total annual investment of £181m is needed to fund a national network of refuge services which meets the needs of women and children, and a further £228m to fund community based support services – at total investment of £409m a year.
Investment needed to fund domestic abuse services in England |
|
Type of cost: |
Cost for England (5,655 units) |
Refuge services: |
£180,931,852 |
Community based support services: |
£228,376,027 |
Total: |
£409,307,879 |
As before this is subject to the six prerequisites shown below:
- Ring-fenced funding within the settlement for the ‘by and for’ expert sector
- Availability within the domestic abuse sector of the full range of service types
- Effective and sustainable funding of the wider support sector
- Provision for women with no recourse to public funds (NRPF)
- Availability of housing benefit to cover housing costs for refuge services
- Funded coordination and oversight/monitoring.