Women’s Aid statement on organisational change
Farah Nazeer, Chief Executive of Women’s Aid, said:
“Like many others in the charity sector, Women’s Aid has faced a difficult and uncertain few years, with rising costs and a tougher funding environment creating real pressures for our organisation. These challenging times have forced us to make some difficult decisions about how we operate moving forward. However, supporting women and children who have survived domestic abuse will continue to be at the centre of everything we do.
To ensure we’re sustainable in the long-term, and that survivors can access the support they desperately need, we’re changing how we run some of our services. The current model for our Live Chat service was created during the Covid-19 pandemic, with emergency funding, and as with many charities, we’ve continued to deliver this life-saving work despite not having dedicated funds for a number of years. Sadly, we can no longer afford to do so. We’ll be ending Live Chat on the 31st of July 2025 and are carrying out a phased closure, with full details on our website between now and then. This doesn’t mean we will be stepping away from direct support. We’ll continue to run a reduced version of our Email Service so we can support survivors within a set timeframe, and we’re looking into ways we might be able to offer an alternative service to Live Chat in the long term. We’ll also be clearly signposting survivors to the government-funded helplines that are run by other organisations within the sector. Our focus is, and will always be, making sure that women and children stay safe and get support when they need it, by working with our network of 185 member services across the country.
We’ll be focusing our core funding on the areas where our members say we can make the biggest difference to the greatest number of survivors; campaigning for change, raising awareness, systemic change, maintaining our direct delivery services for some of the most marginalised survivors and supporting the services that women rely on every day. With our members who deliver frontline services we aim to make the whole system work better for survivors who urgently need it.
The decisions we’ve had to make are not easy and they are not a reflection of the incredible dedication or impact of our team. Instead, they’ve been to protect our ability to lead nationally and keep supporting survivors in the long term.
At the heart of our organisation is our vital work to keep as many women and children safe from harm, and able to access our members services when and where they need them. The experiences of survivors and those working with them on the frontlines have helped guide where we focus our energy – and will continue to shape everything we do next.”