• Putting measures in place to tackle perpetrators such as electronic tagging and creating a new register for domestic abusers
• Setting out key actions to prevent domestic abuse from happening in the first place
• Supporting the health, emotional, economic and social needs of victims and survivors
• Improving the systems and processes that underpin the response to domestic abuse across society

• The hidden face of domestic abuse
• The history and lived experience for victim-survivors
• Lack of data, research opportunities from the Domestic Abuse Act 2021
• What are we doing at Age UK?

• Outlining the experiences of DVA for BME women and girls such as greater barriers to accessing services and inappropriate professional responses from agencies
• Establishing specialist DVA services catering from BME women to tackle their needs
• Observing an escalation in both the prevalence and intensity of abuse during lockdowns
• Examining the issues specific to racially minoritised victims and survivors of DVA during the pandemic and the impact on BME/DVA specialist independent services

• An overview of the analysis of 302 DHRs - the importance of seeing domestic homicide as occurring across the lifespan and ensuring risk assessments are cognisant of this
• In keeping with the definition of domestic abuse in England and Wales, the session draws attention to adult family homicide abuse as this is often neglected in discussions of domestic abuse and domestic homicide
• It identifies the key learning from the DHRs and makes recommendations for enhancing policy and practice responses to domestic abuse

• Ensuring that young people feel comfortable to speak about their experiences and that they can access support
• Developing a survey to understand which aspects of domestic abuse were of most concern to young people
• Putting young people’s concerns and ideas into the domestic abuse partnership strategy and developing the youth council’s understanding of the issue
• Designing an awareness raising campaign by young people for young people with a focus on coercive control

• Providing a support and advice centre to support survivors of domestic abuse to access various avenues of support
• Embedding awareness of domestic abuse among staff by introducing mandatory e-learning on domestic abuse
• Discussing different scenarios and what the potential signs of domestic abuse might be when attending someone’s home
• Building the confidence of housing operatives to deal with different scenarios such as disclosures made by victims and survivors

• The impact of the cost-of-living crisis on survivors and Refuge’s services
• Insights from Refuge’s specialist economic abuse service
• The need for government reform of the benefit system to help survivors bearing the weight of the crisis
• Support for survivors from financial services such as high-street and mobile banks

This session will share updates since the passing of the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 on the role of the Commissioner in using new powers to tackle domestic abuse, as well as her priorities for 2022/23. Key points of discussion will include:

• The role, remit and powers of the Commissioner
• The Commissioner’s priorities for 2022/23 including family courts, migrant survivors, children, criminal justice systems and outcomes, and mapping of services
• Reflections since the passing of the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 and challenges

• Identifying a perpetrator focussed programme to promote equity of service and reduce the abuse committed by perpetrators across the region
• Engaging perpetrators and seeking to address the lack of support and confidence of professionals to work with perpetrators leading to their continued abuse
• Securing funding from each local authority and the police to make a successful bid to the Ministry of Justice
• Achieving a sustained reduction in incidents of domestic violence and abuse and a reduction in impact of negative behaviour on victims and children

*programme subject to change without notice