By Mark Langabeer, Newton Abbot Labour Party member.
I remember a Channel 4 Dispatches programme, aired in 2019, which is particularly relevant today. It was called Safe at Last: A Women’s Refuge and we now know that as a result of the lockdown the number of calls to the National Domestic Abuse line has more than doubled.
That programme was months ago, but there has been a big increase in domestic abuse in the last few weeks and it is an international problem, emphasising the continued wholesale oppression of women in the home right across the world, twenty-first century or not. According to an article in Guardian recently, “Around the world, as cities have gone into lockdown to stop the spread of coronavirus, the mass efforts to save lives have put one vulnerable group more at risk. Women and children who live with domestic violence have no escape from their abusers during quarantine, and from Brazil to Germany, Italy to China, activists and survivors say they are already seeing an alarming rise in abuse.”
Here in the UK, a BBC report from a few days ago noted that since the lockdown, the charity Refuge has said it has had a 25% increase in calls to its helpline. “Campaigners have warned,” the report says, “the [lockdown] restrictions could heighten domestic tensions and cut off escape routes.”
Refuge 200 miles away
The original Channel programme was filmed a refuge based in Surrey, with a capacity of eleven beds. Dispatches interviewed a number of women at the refuge. One woman, with two children and one on the way, was accepted at the refuge but had lived 200 miles away. Staff struggled to secure transport for her because she only had the clothes that she was wearing.
The first task of staff is to assess the extent of abuse and the women’s needs. This might included therapy as well as basic needs. It was reported that the level of abuse would often rise during pregnancy. All the women interviewed had suffered violence. Some had been raped and suffered from controlling behaviour by their partners, which included, for example, having no income or no social contact with family and friends.
Six out of ten refused a refuge
There are 302 women’s refuges in England and Wales, it reported, with an average of 230 calls a day. Six out of ten are refused refuge because of a shortage of available beds. It cost the refuge in Surrey £375,000 annually to run. A quarter of the cost was funded by the council who are going to be cutting their grant. The manager feared that the service would be reduced to simply providing a roof over a woman’s head. One in six refuges have closed since 2010 because in that period funding has been cut by a quarter. Representation was made directly to Theresa May by this refuge manager, but he received no assurances on extra funding.
Given that the police receive around a hundred calls a day and two women are murdered every day by a partner, spending is crucial in protecting those from domestic abuse. May brought in new legislation which encourages victims to report abuse, but there’s little point if there are no refuge places available.
The programme highlighted some of the problems faced by refuges. Many women ended up returning to their partners in the hope that the abusive behaviour would change. Breaking away completely from a partner always proves difficult, simply because of the economic constraints and the extreme difficulties in finding an income and, more important, a place to live safely. On average, victims leave abusive partners seven times before they finally leave for good. It’s also vital that the location of the refuge or new permanent accommodation remains secret from an abuser and that too is often difficult. The impact on children, particularly teenagers, can be devastating as they are often uprooted and end up in another area of the country.
Decent homes should be available for all
So bear in mind that the Channel 4 programme, which was bad enough, was aired long before the pandemic and subsequent lockdown; even so, it is worth viewing today. One very distressing moment in the programme was a recording of a distressed woman requesting a refuge place, only to be told that there were none available.
The Labour Party must demand at the very least, the restoration of spending in real terms to pre-2010 levels, so that no victims of domestic abuse are refused support and there also needs to be a massive house-building programme so that decent homes can be provided for all those who need them.
The programme also broadcast the freephone, 24-hour National Domestic Abuse Helpline number, at 0808 2000 247
The Channel 4 programme can still be seen here on catch-up.
