Domestic violence support must go further to help victims warns Portsmouth charity leader

Domestic violence support needs to improve, a charity leader has urged. Photo posed by models.

Zoe Jackson, operations manager at Portsmouth-based Aurora New Dawn, has appealed for the government to improve its strategy on dealing with domestic violence.

Her comments came after chancellor Rishi Sunak announced a £19m boost to the government’s efforts to tackle the abuse during his Budget speech in the Commons.

Mr Sunak told MPs that ‘one of the hidden tragedies of lockdown has been the increase in domestic abuse’, and said the £19m would be on top of the £125m already announced at the spending review, for victims of domestic abuse and their children.

The chancellor added the cash was intended to ‘reduce the risk of reoffending, and to pilot a network of “respite rooms” to provide specialist support for vulnerable homeless women.’

But Mrs Jackson warned the domestic abuse sector had been grossly under-funded and had struggled to cope with the surge in demand during lockdown.

She said: ‘Lockdown has been an incredibly difficult time for victims. We have seen an increased demand for our services when services were already under-resourced.

‘But what we desperately need to see longer term is consistent sustainable funding and a response to domestic abuse that is proactive, rather than reactive.

‘Additional funding is of course always welcome. This is an overstretched sector that’s been affect by austerity.

‘But it is that proactive response that we’re after now. This needs to be sustainable and not just an ad hoc response as we go.

‘We need sustainable funding to be able to address the issues in a longer term way.’