CEO’s Report
Chief Executive Officer Claire Lambon says 2020 has been a year of resilience, adaptability and flexibility. Stop Domestic Abuse consolidated its role as the principal provider of Hampshire’s domestic abuse services after last year’s expansion across all 11 Hampshire districts plus Portsmouth.
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e did not know we would experience a new challenge which would test the organisation’s resilience, adaptability and flexibility on an unprecedented scale. In early 2020, along with the rest of world, we were watching the COVID-19 pandemic spread. (See page 7) Being told to ‘Stay Home’ to stay safe meant seeking sanctuary with home considered a place of safety. For those trapped in intimate relationships with people who use violence and abuse, staying at home was far from staying safe and far from a place of sanctuary. Working from home This pandemic is a dynamic situation and our plans have changed according to new information and advice. I am grateful to my colleagues who remained in client-facing roles in order to keep the refuges open throughout lockdown. Community-based staff started working from home in late March 2020, providing support via video calls and phone to clients. We successfully adapted group work programmes to be delivered via Zoom. For younger children where remote support wasn’t suitable, we supported their non-abusive parent so they could help their
child. The Up2U Programme for perpetrators of domestic abuse was adapted for remote delivery. I extend my thanks to my colleagues for their dedication which ensures we continue to support our clients during this pandemic. Domestic Abuse Bill failed us in some areas While Covid-19 has focused media attention on domestic abuse, the Domestic Abuse Bill itself was under the spotlight. I have continued to lobby our local MPs in order to influence the Bill. This Bill is a once-in-ageneration opportunity to deliver a step change in the response to
STOP DOMESTIC ABUSE
domestic abuse and other forms of violence against women and girls. It includes some welcome measures, particularly the guarantee that all survivors will be in ‘priority need’ for housing. There are changes to the family and civil courts (a ban on cross examination and a guarantee that survivors can access special measures in these court settings), a recognition of children in the definition of domestic abuse, a guarantee that survivors can retain a secure lifetime tenancy if they need to move or leave their home due to domestic abuse, a statutory duty on local authorities to provide refuge space and the removal of the so-called “rough sex defence”. Attempts by Conservative MP Philip Davies to include a genderneutral definition of domestic
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