A report written by Heather Wakefield for Women’s Budget Group, Triple Whammy – the impact of local government cuts on Women explores the crisis that has been created by finding cuts to local government since 2010. The reports key findings include:  

The NSPCC has produced a CASPAR briefing summarising the Department for Education’s (DfE’s) draft statutory guidance about how Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) and Health Education should be implemented in all schools in England by 2020. The briefing sets out key points covered in the guidance, including: developing a policy, content, parents’ right to withdraw, whole school approach and safeguarding.

The Home Office has published its refreshed violence against women and girls (VAWG) strategy. The refreshed action plan, which was first launched in 2016, sets out new measures to help protect women and girls. This includes a cross-sector, end-to-end review into how rape and sexual violence cases are handled across the criminal justice system. Other policies among the 54 commitments being made are pledges to:

While domestic violence is not unique to any one community in Britain, research by the charity Safe Lives found that Black, Asian or minority (BAME) victims of domestic abuse, particularly migrant women, are trapped in abusive relationships one and a half times longer than white-British women. Read the full article from the Immigration Advice Service here. 

AVA and Agenda have launched the report Breaking Down The Barriers, with the National Commission on Domestic and Sexual Violence. The report warns of devastating consequences for women and their families because they are not able to get the support they need. Time and again the signs of abuse are not picked up by professionals. Too often women are bounced around or even turned away from services. Mothers are particularly let down, with the fear of losing their children preventing them from accessing help.