Women’s Aid respond to the critical underfunding of services for children revealed in new report from the Domestic Abuse Commissioner

Nikki Bradley MBE , Director of Services at Women’s Aid, said:

“The Domestic Abuse Commissioner’s report has highlighted the critical underfunding and stretched capacity of domestic abuse service provisions for children across the country. While the findings of the report are alarming, Women’s Aid are, sadly, not surprised by this information.

Since the introduction of the Domestic Abuse Act four years ago today, children have been legally recognised as survivors of abuse in their own right. Despite this, adequate funding commitments for specialist children’s support services have not been made, and children continue to be failed in the response they receive.

For example, a contact at all costs approach places abusers access to their children above the safety and security of the children themselves. Family decision making and group programmes for ‘low risk’ perpetrators are often run by unqualified unsupported staff without specialist DA training who will be under pressure to close cases and reach a ‘solution’. In many cases involving children and young people, whether that be in social care or children excluded from schools, domestic abuse should be a key consideration in decision-making. Local authorities and agencies should work with (both commissioned and non-commissioned) specialist domestic abuse services in an aligned but independent way to centre children’s needs.

Concerningly, our 2025 Annual Audit, which analyses service provision for domestic abuse across the country, found that 31.4% of organisations providing services for child survivors are operating without dedicated funding. Given that 1.8 million children experience domestic abuse last year alone, there is an urgent risk that without adequate investment in these services, the Government’s laudable commitment to halve Violence Against Women and Girls in a decade could see child survivors being left behind.

As survivors in their own rights, children deserve to be given the same protections as adults. Physical abuse is never acceptable, however ‘chastisement’ against children is accepted in law is if it is done ‘in isolation’. We know through our work that these incidents are rarely in isolation but instead, are often part of a pattern of abuse. The defence of ‘reasonable chastisement can enable an abusive parent to use the law to avoid taking responsibility for their actions.

Domestic abuse has a profound impact on the mental wellbeing and physical safety of children, which can have long-lasting effects if they are not given the proper support they need to heal and move forward. As the Commissioner’s report finds, specialist support, which is centred around children and their needs, plays an essential role in reducing the impact of domestic abuse on children, and allow them to not only live, but to thrive after abuse.

Women’s Aid are urging the government to commit to specialist funding for children in the upcoming spending review through the introduction of a Children and Young People Support Fund of at last £46 million, to ensure that all specialist domestic abuse services, as a minimum, have a dedicated Child Support Worker. Alongside this, we need to see wider commitments to domestic abuse services, so that mothers and their children can get the support they need to rebuild their lives in safety. We support the recommendations made by the DAC in their report and call the Government to implement them with a matter of urgency.”