Why the NHS 10 year plan needs to address violence against women and girls

The NHS ten-year plan is imminent and its been great to bring a project together for Standing Together Against Domestic Abuse (STADA) with an important message for government:

The NHS is key to achieving your goal of halving violence against women and girls in a decade. Equip it accordingly.

From initial concept with key STADA staff, through to delivery, its been an honour to be part of the publication of an important new report -  Never again. Again” authored by Alison Ashton – complete with coverage in the Guardian.

The report looks into Domestic Homicide Reviews – reports that are written after every domestic abuse related death - from a health perspective. It finds that nearly 90% of these reviews have recommendations about what the NHS could do differently to help save lives. But it also finds that these recommendations are being repeated time and time again.

We’ve had enough “Never again. Again”s. An NHS fit for the future must know how to help domestic abuse survivors.

So many great organisations/specialists have ideas, evidence and experience about how get the NHS fit for the future when it comes to spotting and responding to domestic abuse. Many of them helped with this project.

The views of those with lived experience formed a crucial part of the report. We were particularly honoured to get input on our plans from the mother of Jessica Daly, Phyliss. Jessica took her own life in the context of domestic abuse.

Government must learn from every domestic abuse related death and equip the NHS to help prevent them. We await the NHS ten-year plan and new VAWG strategy and hope the Home Office and the Department Health and Social Care are making sure their plans align to make women safer.

You can read the full report here.