Progress, Not Process

Making sure the Violence Against Women Bill delivers for women in Wales: Violence against women is a hidden social epidemic and the most life-threatening form of gender inequality facing women in Wales today. Up to three million women across the UK experience such violence each year, and the annual cost to society in England and Wales is £40 billion.

Welsh Women’s Aid has long been campaigning for improved responses to tackle the forms of violence that women face experience because they are women. We have seen some very welcome progress from the Welsh Government in this area over the last two years, including the introduction of Wales’s first national strategy to tackle all forms of violence against women – including domestic abuse, sexual violence, forced marriage, so-called ‘honour’-based violence, trafficking, female genital mutilation, stalking and harassment (The Right to be Safe, launched March 2010).

However, while Welsh Government policy has improved significantly in this area, there are often significant gaps between policy and practice. That is why we warmly welcomed the First Minister’s announcement in his legislative programme last year of a Domestic Abuse (Wales) Bill, expected in the 2013/14 legislative year – and why we’re particularly pleased that since then, the scope of the Bill has been broadened to include all forms of violence against women.

Welsh Women’s Aid is working with the Welsh Government and colleagues across the third sector to ensure that the Bill focuses on progress, rather than process; we want to see concrete, positive change for women affected by violence, and their children. In particular, we are keen that the Bill achieves the following outcomes:

1. A reduction in the prevalence of all forms of violence against women, and support for women who experience such violence. This has to be the ultimate aim of any legislation designed to tackle violence against women: support for women currently experiencing or fleeing violence, coupled with longer-term initiatives to reduce the prevalence of such violence.

2. Guaranteed access to adequate and sufficient services for women in Wales. The Bill will place a statutory duty on public bodies. This duty must ‘have teeth’; it must be much stronger than a duty to ‘have due regard’ to violence against women, and should instead ensure that public bodies must guarantee adequate and sufficient services.

3.  Compulsory initiatives in schools and other educational settings to prevent violence against women before it starts, and for supporting pupils affected by such violence. Schools and other educational settings are vital sites both for preventing violence against women before it starts through preventative education, and for supporting children and young people who are affected by such violence – whether at home or within their own relationships.

3. Appropriate and timely referrals and signposting occur as a result of improved health responses to violence against women. Many women who are experiencing domestic abuse want their GP to ask them about it, because the GP’s surgery is one of the few places where she may be allowed to go alone. The Bill should ensure that GPs ask women about domestic abuse and other forms of violence against women and refer or signpost appropriately.

4. Employers know how to identify and help female employees affected by violence. Women make up two-thirds of public sector employees in Wales. All public sector organisations should have a workplace violence against women policy in place to identify and assist female employees who are victims of violence.

5. All women affected by violence have equal access to specialist support services, regardless of their location. Every woman who experiences violence in Wales should have access to a specialist service, tackling the postcode lottery and ensuring the best possible service provision from third-sector organisations with decades of experiencing in women’s specific needs.

To debate these and other ideas, the Wales Violence Against Women Action Group is organising a free one-day conference. ‘Progress, Not Process: Making Sure the Violence Against Women Bill delivers for women in Wales’ will take place on Wednesday 28^th March (9.30am – 4.30pm) at the Novotel, Cardiff. For more information and to book, contact [email protected].

Hannah Austin is Policy & Campaigns Officer for Welsh Women’s Aid ([email protected])

www.welshwomensaid.org  @welshwomensaid