£8M for Children Affected by Domestic Abuse

£8 million will be going to charities and organisations that support children who have been affected by domestic abuse in order to get early interventions in place.

The financial boost is part of a £20 million fund already allocated in the government budget to helping people who have experienced domestic abuse.

Charities, local authorities and other relevant organisations can put in an application before 19 September to fund projects which will get early help to children who have been directly or indirectly affected.

“It is heart-breaking to think that all too often children are unwittingly caught up in the effects of domestic abuse and for some, the mental scars of such early exposure will significantly impact on their lives,” Minister for Crime, Safeguarding and Vulnerability Victoria Atkins said.

However, we can intervene early to give these young people a lifeline and organisations are already providing services, which this government will help support through the fund we are opening today.”

More than 2 million people in the UK are affected by domestic abuse each year.

Children’s charity NSPCC statistics show that around 1 in 5 children experience or witness domestic abuse during childhood. A 25 per cent of girls and 18 per cent of boys aged 13 to 17 years of age have also said they have been a victim of physical violence from their own partners.

Experiencing domestic abuse during childhood has a knock-on effect, with those children being four times as likely to either commit the crime or experience it in later life. It also left the children more vulnerable to substance abuse, criminal behaviour or underage pregnancy.

NSPCC Head of Policy, Almudena Lara said: “The NSPCC receives thousands of contacts every year about frightened children living with domestic abuse across the country, and we know that it can cause serious harm to children’s emotional and physical wellbeing.

“We want all children, and their parents, who have suffered domestic abuse to have access to the right services to help keep them safe and recover from these traumatic experiences.”

The charity runs a support service for mothers and children who have experience domestic violence. The NSPCC’s Domestic Abuse, Recovering Together (DART) runs special group work and activities in three areas and have further trained 15 other organisations to provide the service in additional areas.

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