How is Welsh Government working with UK Government to ensure a smooth rollout of funding through the children affected by domestic abuse fund?
On 4 January, the Home Office announced funding for programmes across England and Wales to support children affected by domestic abuse. Welsh Women’s Aid has secured just over £2.5 million from this fund for 2022/23 – 2024/25. In partnership with 15 of their specialist member organisations across Wales, the funding allocated to Welsh Women’s Aid will strengthen capacity to support children and young people who have experienced or been affected by domestic abuse.
Welsh Government officials meet with both Home Office officials and Welsh Women’s Aid regularly and will continue to engage with them to understand the impact of this funding in Wales. Through these meetings we can ensure this fund will complement ongoing Welsh Government funding to ensure a whole system approach to providing trauma informed support for children and young people.
In Wales, the VAWDASV National Strategy, a requirement of the Violence Against Women, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence (Wales) Act 2015, was published in May 2022. One of the objectives in the strategy is to provide all victims, including children and young people, with equal access to appropriately resourced, high quality, needs-led, strength-based, intersectional and responsive services across Wales. The strategy will be delivered through a Blueprint approach, a well-established model which brings together devolved and non-devolved organisations, as well as strengthening the partnership between public, private and specialist sectors, with a specific workstream dedicated to addressing the impact of VAWDASV on children and young people. This workstream will ensure that service responses are appropriate and that harms are prevented and addressed for child victims of domestic abuse and sexual violence.