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VISION responds to Parliamentary, government & non-government consultations

Consultation, evidence and inquiry submissions are an important part of our work at VISION. Responding to Parliamentary, government and non-government organisation consultations ensures that a wide range of opinions and voices are factored into the policy decision making process. As our interdisciplinary research addresses violence and how it cuts across health, crime and justice and the life course, we think it is important to take the time to answer any relevant call and to share our insight and findings to support improved policy and practice. We respond as VISION, the Violence & Society Centre, and sometimes in collaboration with others. Below are the links to our published responses and evidence from June 2022.

UK Parliament – International Development Committee – Inquiry: Women, Peace and Security. Our submission was published in March 2026
UK Parliament – Public Bill Committee – Call for evidence: Crime and Policing Bill. Our submission was published in 2025
UK Parliament (Library) – POSTNote – Approved Work: Violence Against Women and Girls in schools and among children & young people. Two VISION reports were referenced in their POSTNote published in August 2025
- Weir, R. et al. (2025). VISION Policy Brief: Addressing abuse in teenage relationships. City, University of London
- Cullen, K. (2024). Summary of the Vision Adolescent Domestic Abuse activities and events in 2024. City, University of London
UK Parliament – Public Accounts Committee – Inquiry: Tackling Violence against Women and Girls (VAWG). Our submission was published in April 2025
UK Parliament – House of Lords Select Committee on Social Mobility Policy – Call for Evidence: Exploring how education and work opportunities can be better integrated to improve social mobility across the UK. Our submission was published in 2025
UK Parliament – Women and Equalities Committee – Inquiry: Community Cohesion. Our submission was published in February 2025
UK Parliament – Call for evidence on the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill. Our submission was published in February 2025
UK Parliament – Public Accounts Committee – Inquiry: Use of Artificial Intelligence in Government. Our submission was published in January 2025
UK Parliament – Public Accounts Committee – Inquiry: Tackling Homelessness. Our submission with Dr Natasha Chilman was published in January 2025. See the full report
Home Office – Legislation consultation: Statutory Guidance for the Conduct of Domestic Homicide Reviews. Our submission was published on the VISION website in July 2024
UK Parliament – Women and Equalities Committee – Inquiry: The rights of older people. Our submission was published in November 2023
UK Parliament – Women and Equalities Committee – Inquiry: The impact of the rising cost of living on women. Our submission was published in November 2023
UK Parliament – Women and Equalities Committee – Inquiry: The escalation of violence against women and girls. Our submission published in September 2023
Home Office – Legislation consultation: Machetes and other bladed articles: proposed legislation (submitted response 06/06/2023). Government response to consultation and summary of public responses was published in August 2023
Welsh Government – Consultation: National action plan to prevent the abuse of older people. Summary of the responses published in April 2023
Race Disparity Unit (RDU) – Consultation: Standards for Ethnicity Data (submitted response 30/08/2022). Following the consultation, a revised version of the data standards was published in April 2023
UK Parliament – The Home Affairs Committee – Call for evidence: Human Trafficking. Our submission was published in March 2023
UN expert – Call for evidence: Violence, abuse and neglect in older people. Our submission was published in February 2023
UK Parliament – The Justice and Home Affairs Committee – Inquiry: Family migration. Our submission was published in September 2022 and a report was published following the inquiry in February 2023
Home Office – Consultation: Controlling or Coercive behaviour Statutory Guidance. Our submission was published in June 2022

For further information, please contact us at VISION_Management_Team@city.ac.uk

Photo by JaRiRiyawat from Adobe Stock downloads (licensed)

VISION researcher receives funding for secondary data analysis

Dr Annie Bunce, Research Fellow at VISION, received funding from the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy for her application, Exploring resilience, self-empowerment and wellbeing outcomes of women referred to specialist domestic abuse counselling services.

With the support of Dr Estela Capelas Barbosa, VISION co-Deputy Director, and in collaboration with Sarah Davidge, Head of Membership, Research and Evaluation at Women’s Aid, Annie will investigate whether and how receiving counselling from a specialist domestic abuse (DA) support service is associated with change in wellbeing.

She will analyse quantitative data from national DA charity, Women’s Aid, which includes information on various aspects of victim-survivors’ wellbeing at the start, during, and end of accessing services. Data analysis will reveal whether victim-survivors who receive counselling experience greater improvements in their wellbeing than those who receive other community-based services.

Annie will also examine whether counselling may be associated with greater wellbeing gains for some groups than others, and whether change in wellbeing is associated with the type/s of abuse experienced and other services received.

The analysis will show which factors influence the effect of counselling on changes in wellbeing the most, and which wellbeing indicators are most improved following counselling.

Findings will be shared via an academic report, blog, policy briefing, webinar and conference presentations.

The research will help to improve understanding of the relationship between counselling and wellbeing in the context of DA, feed into Women’s Aid’s ongoing work to ensure they are measuring the things most important to victim-survivors when it comes to their wellbeing and promote consistency in measuring wellbeing-related outcomes across DA services more widely.

Please contact Annie at annie.bunce@citystgeorges.ac.uk for further information.

Image from Adobe Stock subscription.

The establishment of the National Working Group on Teenage Relationship Abuse

Teenage relationship abuse remains one of the least understood forms of domestic abuse, particularly among those under 16 years of age, who fall outside the statutory definition within the 2021 Domestic Abuse Act.

To close the gap between research, policy, and frontline practice and ensure that young people are no longer overlooked, VISION researcher and co-Deputy Director of the Violence and Society Centre at City St George’s, Dr Ruth Weir, co-established the National Working Group on Teenage Relationship Abuse with Gloucestershire Deputy Chief Constable Katy Barrow-Grint in 2024. The group consists of researchers, practitioners, policymakers, third sector organisations, and young people with lived experience of teenage abuse from across the health and justice sectors for a holistic understanding of the problem.

Membership has grown over the two years and now includes the Home Office, Department for Education, the Cabinet Office, the Domestic Abuse Commissioner’s Office, College of Policing, local government (Islington Council), universities (City St George’s, Essex, Lancashire), NHS bodies, multiple police forces such as Thames Valley and the London Metropolitan Police, school trusts, and charities like SafeLives, Respect, Youth Realities, Changing Relations, and Victim Support just to name a few.

The group brings their expertise to shape ongoing national conversations on how teenage relationship abuse is defined, recognised, and responded to, particularly for those under 16.

Please contact Ruth at ruth.weir@citystgeorges.ac.uk for further information.

VISION presenting at the Prevention Research 2026 conference

Nine VISION colleagues have had workshop, symposium and individual abstracts accepted at the upcoming Prevention Research 2026 conference in March. The Population Health Improvement UK and the National Institute for Health and Care Research, in partnership with VISION funder, the UK Prevention Research Partnership, organised the event to explore the latest research and collaborative strategies for preventing non-communicable diseases and reducing health inequalities across the UK. This year’s theme is Connecting Research, Policy, and Practice for Health Equity.

VISION research is interdisciplinary and as such, several colleagues collaborated on symposiums and the workshop. We are partnering with Groundswell, Kailo and PHI UK Population Mental Health as well as the Violence, Abuse and Mental Health Network, and High Trees Community Development Trust amongst others.

Individual presentation

Violence across the life course and physical and mental health trajectories in later life

Anastasia Fadeeva, VISION Research Fellow, City St George’s University of London

Symposiums

Lessons Learned from Lived Experience Engagement in Violence and Trauma Research

Sian Oram, Professor at Kings College London and VISION Co-Investigator
Kimberly Cullen, VISION Knowledge Exchange Manager, City St George’s UoL
Alicia Stillman, Violence, Abuse and Mental Health Network at Kings College London
Polina Obolenskaya, VISION Research Fellow, City St George’s UoL
Annie Bunce, VISION Research Fellow, City St George’s UoL

Policy insights from a population understanding of mental health inequalities: using England’s mental health survey series, the Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Surveys (APMS)

Presenters include:

Sally McManus, Professor at City St George’s UoL and VISION Co-Deputy Director
Elizabeth Cook, Senior Lecturer at City St George’s UoL and VISION Co-Investigator

Centring the voices of young people – Learning from four participatory, place-based approaches to violence prevention

Presenters include:

Elizabeth Cook, Senior Lecturer at City St George’s UoL and VISION Co-Investigator
Ruth Weir, VISION Senior Research Fellow at City St George’s UoL

Understudied Commercial Drivers of Health: Exploring Industry Practices & Developing a Prevention Research Agenda

Presenters include Sally McManus, Professor at City St George’s UoL and VISION Co-Deputy Director

Workshop

Using Systems Approaches to Connect Communities and Tackle Complexity in Prevention

Workshop leads include Olumide Adisa, VISION Co-Investigator at City St George’s UoL

Anastasia Fadeeva shares thoughts on Data Impact Fellowship placement studying healthy ageing

Dr Anastasia Fadeeva

VISION researcher and Data Impact Fellow, Dr Anastasia Fadeeva, has written a personal blog, Reflections from being a Data Impact Fellow: a placement in Japan, about her time in the country visiting universities and discussing healthy ageing.

In the blog, Anastasia reflects on her short-term placement at Chiba University and Kyoto University, meeting fellow researchers interested in population health and a focus on studying the ageing population and promoting healthy ageing.

As a Data Impact Fellow, Anastasia is researching the issues of violence in older age, the long-term impacts of violence on mental health, and the lack of reliable data. The placement to Japan is one component of the fellowship.

For further information, please see VISION member awarded Data Impact Fellow to study violence and mental health in older age to find out more about her fellowship or contact Anastasia at anastasia.fadeeva@citystgeorges.ac.uk

Top photo supplied through Adobe Stock subscription and bottom photo supplied by Dr Anastasia Fadeeva.

“How are young people supposed to stay safe when we have nowhere safe to go?”

VISION was pleased to support the Lambeth Peer Action Collective (LPAC) with funding and mentoring in their recent project, Built on Trust: The role of youth spaces and trusted adults in reducing young people’s exposure to violence. Working at the community level and with young adults was inspiring – and the impact was powerful particularly for Dr Elizabeth (Lizzie) Cook, Dr Estela Capelas Barbosa and Dr Alexandria (Andri) Innes, the mentors. Many congratulations to High Trees, LPAC and their partners for the hard work and brilliant report. Please read the blog below, written by the young adults who conducted the research and wrote and delivered their report which can also be found below. They are an amazing group!

“How are young people supposed to stay safe when we have nowhere safe to go?”

by Anisa Hassan on behalf of the Lambeth Peer Action Collective

The Lambeth Peer Action Collective (LPAC) recently published their newest research Built on Trust: The role of youth spaces and trusted adults in reducing young people’s exposure to violence. LPAC was launched by High Trees Community Development Trust in 2021. It’s made up of young people and six local youth organisations working together to create better futures for young people in Lambeth through youth-led research and social action.

What was the research about?

This round of research explored what can be done to reduce young people’s risk of experiencing violence. With the support of High Trees, VISION, Partisan and other LPAC partners, we worked on this project for nearly 18 months, conducting and analysing 46 peer interviews. We found that with access to trusted adults and trusted spaces young people were less likely to be exposed to different types of violence.

This produced four key findings:

The violence affecting young people takes many forms and is often complex in nature.
Youth organisations provide unique spaces where young people can feel safe and build belonging.
When youth practitioners can build trust with young people, they are able to provide them with practical and emotional support to navigate violence.
Youth organisations offer young people alternative pathways and visions for their future.

An afternoon of conversation and community

The launch event was a chance for the LPAC team to connect and show stakeholders and community members our research, get feedback and start to think about how we can work together to make change. Attendees described the event as “hopeful”, “inspiring”, and “empowering”, with many of them pledging support. The team left the event with hope for the next phase of the project – social action that builds long-lasting change for young people in our communities.

What’s next?

“No research without action”

Since the research launch in October, the LPAC team have been busy, taking action in response to our findings.

We were invited to the Lambeth Safeguarding Children Partnership’s Annual Conference to present our research findings to organisations at the forefront of protecting young people. This event gave us an opportunity to highlight key insights from our research and how they can shape safeguarding practices and policies.

We have also been designing our own trusted adult training workshop, which takes inspiration from interviews with young people focusing on characteristics and practical advice that youth practitioners can use to build and maintain trust. We are planning to trial the training with local youth workers early next year.

LPAC team members have also attended workshops hosted by the Met Police and the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC), where we had the opportunity to ask questions and make suggestions about their MPS Children’s Strategy based on young pe ople’s experiences that they told us about through our research.

LPAC at High Trees were thrilled to win the Power of Community award at the Locality Awards 2025 in Liverpool. The award celebrates community organisations working with local people to shape their own future and to build a fairer society where everyone in the community thrives.

We are also proud to announce that in the new year LPAC will be starting a new round of research, funded by the Youth Endowment Fund, focusing on mental health support for young people affected by violence, and we are excited to continue our collaboration with VISION on this project.

If you’re interested in finding out more about LPAC’s work visit www.lambethpac.com or get in touch with us on action@high-trees.org.

Photographs provided by LPAC.

Re-imagining responses to gender-based violence

Dr Olumide Adisa

VISION Co-Investigator, Dr Olumide Adisa, has written a personal blog, Behind the book, highlighting her journey behind the scenes writing, compiling, and publishing her first edited book, Tackling Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence: A Systems Approach.

In the blog, Olumide discusses her drive to have a meaningful impact in the fight against gender-based violence. Her enthusiasm, advocacy and growing expertise for systems theory and complex systems approaches combined with ongoing work across different systems and with various collaborators led to the project and was an invaluable experience.

For further information, please contact Olumide at olumide.adisa@citystgeorges.ac.uk

Photo supplied through Adobe Stock subscription.

VISION member, Prof Mark Bellis, attends WHO European Network on Healthy Ageing

In December 2025, Professor Mark Bellis – a member of VISION and Chair of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Violence Prevention – attended an invite-only meeting of the WHO European Network on Healthy Ageing in The Hague, The Netherlands.

This meeting represented a significant step in joining WHO leads with academic and research partners to support the rollout of the forthcoming WHO European Strategy on Healthy Ageing: Ageing is Living – Promoting a Lifetime of Health and Well-being (2026–2030).

Over the course of one and a half days, participants worked to:

Support the development of technical products, toolkits, guidance, and policy briefs to operationalise the Strategy.
Identify key research gaps across the four action areas: prevention, transforming health and care systems, creating age-friendly environments, and reimagining ageing.
Strengthen collaboration through the Strategy’s five enablers: leadership, investment, innovation, capacity building, and data and evidence.

Professor Bellis will continue to contribute to the implementation of the Strategy by enhancing global, European, and national evidence on abuse and vulnerabilities among older people, and by promoting the importance of a life course approach to prevention.

“United to End Sextortion”: Launching a New Animation for the 16 Days of Activism

By Dr Nadia Aghtaie, Associate Professor in Criminology, University of Bristol

Sextortion is one of the fastest-growing – and least understood – forms of abuse facing young people today. Yet it is still rarely discussed in schools, families or policy debates.

Our new animation, launched as part of the UN 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, aims to start those conversations in a way that is accessible, sensitive and grounded in research.

What do we mean by “sextortion”?

We use sextortion to describe situations where someone threatens to share explicit, intimate or embarrassing sexual images without consent in order to force a person to do something – often to send more images, carry out sexual acts, hand over money, or provide other favours (see Ray & Henry 2024; Wolak et al. 2017).

There is still no consistent terminology. Different organisations talk about “image-based sexual abuse”, “online blackmail”, “sexual extortion”, or “sexual corruption”. This lack of shared language makes it harder for young people, parents, teachers and professionals to recognise what is happening and to know where to turn for help.

Why a sextortion animation for young people?

Sextortion doesn’t affect all young people in the same way. Research by NSPCC points to gendered patterns in both who is targeted and what is demanded: boys are often targeted by organised cybercrime gangs demanding money, while girls are more likely to face pressure from people they know – peers, partners or ex-partners – to share more nudes or agree to unwanted sexual acts. Whatever the context, sextortion can be devastating, combining sexual abuse, psychological control, financial exploitation and, for many, intense shame and fear.

These are also experiences that are very hard to talk about. Shame, fear of being blamed, worries about family reactions or community honour, and concerns around immigration status can all create silence. Animation gives us a different way in: it lets us tell a story that feels recognisable without identifying any individual, show clearly that victims are not to blame, signpost routes to support, and open up honest but non-graphic conversations in classrooms, youth groups and families. By launching this animation during the 16 Days of Activism, we place sextortion firmly within global efforts to end violence against women and girls, while recognising that boys and gender-diverse young people are affected too.

From Iran-focused campaign to a wider audience

The initial animations (Coercive Control, Economic Abuse, Active Bystander and Technology Facilitated Abuse) grew out of a wider project on violence against women and girls (VAWG) that began with a focus on Iran. The aim was to design a research-based, evidence-informed animated campaign, United to End Violence Against Women and Girls, to raise awareness of different forms of VAWG and to support intergenerational conversations that might help reduce violence over time.

Although the early work centred on Iranian contexts and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, our previous studies, together with conversations across NGO networks and a school in the UK, quickly showed that these issues are relevant beyond national borders.

Collaboration, creativity and cultural sensitivity

The animations have been funded by VISION Consortium and Bristol ESRC Accelerator Award and shaped by a multidisciplinary team including academic colleagues from City St George University (Dr Ladan Hashemi & Professor Sally McManus); the University of Bristol (Associate Professor Nadia Aghtaie); Leeds Beckett University (Dorreh Khatibi-Hill); Goldsmiths (Dr Atlas Torbati) and University for the Creative Arts (Professor Birgitta Hosea). We have worked closely with two NGOs as advisory partners and an animation team:

An Iran-based NGO working with women from diverse backgrounds and running specialist programmes for survivors of gender-based violence. We do not name the organisation here for security reasons, as this could limit how widely the animations can be shared.
IKWRO, a London-based charity supporting women and girls from Middle Eastern and North African communities who are facing “honour”-based abuse, forced marriage and other forms of VAWG.

“Resilient Anonymous Creators”: An animation team based in Iran. For security reasons, we cannot name them publicly. The name “resilient anonymous creators” is a reflection of both their creativity and the structural barriers they are forced to navigate. We are deeply grateful for their courage, commitment and artistry; this work is only possible because of them.

Ultimately, our goal is simple: to give young people, and the adults who support them, a starting point – a shared language, a shared story and a shared commitment to challenging sextortion and other forms of digital-based abuse wherever they occur.

Link to Women’s Research Hub YouTube Channel

Link to Women’s Research Hub Instagram Account

For further information, please contact Ladan at ladan.hashemi@citystgeorges.ac.uk

Confronting ‘Honour‘-Based Abuse: Reflections on IKWRO’s 2025 Conference

By Ladan Hashemi, Senior Lecturer in Sociology of Health and Health Policy at City St George’s University of London

VISION was proud to sponsor their second collaboration with IKWRO (Women’s Rights Organisation) and host their annual conference. This year’s theme was Confronting ‘Honour‘-Based Abuse (HBA) in Policy, Technology, and Collective Action and held at City St George’s, University of London on 22nd October 2025.

The event brought together around a hundred survivor advocates, academics, frontline practitioners, and policymakers to critically examine urgent responses to HBA in today’s rapidly evolving world.

The conference featured three panels examining the flagship “Crime, Not Culture” campaign, the growing role of technology and media in shaping harm, and the resilience and leadership of survivors and community advocates. Throughout the day, speakers and attendees returned to a central question: How do we ensure HBA is recognised and treated as a serious crime rather than dismissed or misunderstood as ‘culture’?

Narratives, Evidence, and the Power of Speaking Out

The day opened with powerful survivor testimonies – deeply personal accounts of control, coercion and systemic failures. These stories underscored the need for meaningful training across policing, healthcare and the family courts. As one panel chair reflected, “It’s not that the government lacks the budget. It’s about priorities. Women from ethnic minorities are not a priority.” The consequences of this neglect, she noted, echo across public services, placing a substantial and avoidable burden on institutions such as the NHS and the police.

Scholars challenged common assumptions about “culture” and emphasised the importance of evidence-informed policy. Their discussions invited the audience to interrogate the ways colonial narratives have shaped understandings of honour, family, and gender norms.

Technology, Media, and Emerging Threats

The second panel explored the fast-changing digital landscape. Speakers examined how technology-facilitated abuse, sextortion, online misogyny, and surveillance increasingly interact with HBA. The panel highlighted that marginalised women and girls often face compounded risks: gendered, racialised, and technologically amplified.

Two short animations produced by the Women’s Research Hub team in collaboration with VISION, on HBA and sextortion were screened during the session. These visual narratives helped ground the discussion in the lived realities of young people navigating online harms – showing not just the risks, but also how digital tools can be used to educate, empower, and support.

One speaker captured the spirit of the day: “It seems it wasn’t enough to be oppressed by patriarchal systems; now we also face the same inequalities reflected back at us through AI and social media.”

Collective Action and Pathways to Change

The final panel focused on resilience and community action. Speakers discussed the importance of survivor leadership, culturally informed practice, and training that centres real voices rather than “death by PowerPoint.” Their reflections highlighted that effective change relies on collaboration between organisations, communities, and those with lived experience.

The conference closed with remarks from Jess Phillips MP, who reinforced the urgent need to strengthen protections and ensure survivors are heard and believed. Her contribution was a fitting conclusion to a day centred on solidarity, listening, and the collective responsibility to challenge harmful practices and support those affected.

One of the quilts created by survivors of ‘honour’-based abuse and IKWRO

A Day of Reflection and Resolve

The event showcased what happens when survivors, activists, academics, and practitioners come together with a shared purpose. Across panels, one message was clear: understanding and preventing ‘Honour‘-Based Abuse requires research, policy attention, resources, and above all, a commitment to centring the voices of those most affected.

VISION was proud to support this important gathering for a second time sparking further conversations about how evidence and collaboration can drive meaningful, long-lasting change.

Key to the event was the organisation and support of VISION’s Knowledge Exchange Manager, Kimberly Cullen and the IKWRO conference organising committee.

For further information, please contact Ladan at ladan.hashemi@citystgeorges.ac.uk

Photography supplied by IKWRO