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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.

  1. UK Parliament – International Development Committee – Inquiry: Women, Peace and Security. Our submission was published in March 2026
  2. 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
  3. UK Parliament – Public Accounts Committee – Inquiry: Tackling Violence against Women and Girls (VAWG). Our submission was published in April 2025
  4. 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
  5. UK Parliament – Women and Equalities Committee – Inquiry: Community Cohesion. Our submission was published in February 2025
  6. UK Parliament – Call for evidence on the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill. Our submission was published in February 2025
  7. UK Parliament – Public Accounts Committee – Inquiry: Use of Artificial Intelligence in Government. Our submission was published in January 2025
  8. UK Parliament – Public Accounts Committee – Inquiry: Tackling Homelessness. Our submission with Dr Natasha Chilman was published in January 2025. See the full report
  9. Home Office – Legislation consultation: Statutory Guidance for the Conduct of Domestic Homicide Reviews. Our submission was published on the VISION website in July 2024
  10. UK Parliament – Women and Equalities Committee – Inquiry: The rights of older people. Our submission was published in November 2023
  11. UK Parliament  – Women and Equalities Committee – Inquiry: The impact of the rising cost of living on women. Our submission was published in November 2023
  12. UK Parliament – Women and Equalities Committee – Inquiry: The escalation of violence against women and girls. Our submission published in September 2023
  13. 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
  14. Welsh Government – Consultation: National action plan to prevent the abuse of older people. Summary of the responses published in April 2023
  15. 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
  16. UK Parliament – The Home Affairs Committee – Call for evidence: Human Trafficking. Our submission was published in March 2023
  17. UN expert – Call for evidence: Violence, abuse and neglect in older people. Our submission was published in February 2023
  18. 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
  19. 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

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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.

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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.

Exploring survivor wellbeing after abuse: A joint VISION and VAMHN symposium

 

Professor Sian Oram

By Sian Oram

In November 2025, the VISION consortium and the Violence, Abuse and Mental Health Network (VAMHN) co-hosted a symposium at King’s College London’s Science Gallery. The event brought together 40 researchers, survivor advocates, providers, and policymakers to explore what meaningful support for survivor wellbeing looks like – and what it will take to deliver it.

The day was structured around two core sessions. The morning focused on VAMHN’s recently refreshed Theory of Change (ToC) and the network’s strategic priorities for the next phase. The afternoon featured a symposium of short talks and group discussions, including exploration of how survivor wellbeing is defined, supported, and measured across clinical, community, and policy contexts.

Across both sessions, a powerful theme emerged: that systems must be reshaped around the lives, needs, and priorities of survivors, not the other way around.

Reimagining the Pathways to Change

The morning roundtable discussions affirmed the relevance of the four pathways within VAMHN’s theory of change: improving understanding of recovery and wellbeing; strengthening psychological and support services; increasing survivor leadership and participation; and influencing policy and systems.

Attendees strongly welcomed a shift away from crisis-driven, risk-based models toward a more holistic, strengths-based approach to survivor wellbeing. There was broad support for launching a survivor-informed outcomes framework, co-designed to work across research, commissioning, and frontline services. Others emphasised the importance of cross-sector knowledge exchange, meaningful survivor leadership (not just consultation), and reducing fragmentation in how services respond.

There was widespread support for VAMHN’s ambition to launch an Evaluation Lab to support small and specialist services with participatory, trauma-informed evaluation, and an ask for the network to take a greater role in amplifying the voices of smaller NGOs in national policy spaces.

What Does Meaningful Support Look Like?

The afternoon symposium featured five speakers who reflected on evidence, practice, and lived experience. Across talks on psychological interventions, survivor voice, systems design, and clinicians as survivors, a call emerged for more responsive and humane systems. Key takeaways included:

  • Survivor wellbeing is relational and systemic, not only clinical or individual. Responses must hold space for complexity, intersectionality, and evolving needs over time.
  • Continuity, trust, and listening matter. Survivors spoke of exhausting experiences of re-telling their stories; a “passport” system or shared record was suggested to avoid re-traumatisation.
  • Support should be built around people – not service structures. Attendees reflected on the need to prioritise basic needs, reduce referral fatigue, and enable survivors to steer their own support journeys.
  • Frontline practitioners need care too. Recognising and supporting professionals with lived experience of abuse is vital.

Participants urged deeper collaboration across sectors and systems. There was strong appetite for developing shared approaches to wellbeing, meaningful evaluation, and ethical survivor involvement across VISION partners.

Looking Ahead

This event marked an important milestone in aligning survivor-centred priorities across the VISION Consortium and VAMHN. We are grateful to everyone who contributed their time, insights, and lived experience to this conversation.

For further information, please contact Sian at sian.oram@kcl.ac.uk

To access the resource: Supporting Survivor Wellbeing After Domestic Abuse Resources

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Webinar: Using animation to campaign against VAWG

This event is in the past.

As part of VISION’s campaign to support the 2025 United Nations’ 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, “End Digital Violence Against Women and Girls”, we invite you to a lunchtime webinar on Monday, 8 December.

We will showcase a series of animations created to raise awareness about digital violence including technology-facilitated abuse and sextortion (image-based abuse).

The webinar will explore research behind the animations and how animation can be used as a creative, accessible tool to engage audiences, share lived experiences, and promote safer digital spaces for all.

Feel free to bring your lunch and join us!

8 December 2025, 12:00 – 13:00, online 

To register for the event and receive the Teams link, please email: VISION_Management_Team@city.ac.uk

For further information on the animation project, funded by VISION, City St George’s University of London and University of Bristol, please see the VISION blog: United to End Violence Against Women and Girls: An Online Animated Campaign

 

Practitioner in Residence: Improving services for those experiencing teenage relationship abuse

Aisling Barker

Aisling Barker, Violence Against Women and Girls Workforce Development manager at Islington Council, and qualified social worker, is the latest practitioner to join the City St George’s University of London (CSGUL) Practitioner in Residence programme. She became aware of the programme through her work on teenage relationship abuse with co-Deputy Director of the Violence and Society Centre (VASC) at CSGUL and VISION consortium Senior Research Fellow Dr Ruth Weir.

Aisling and her team in Islington have been supporting professionals in their practice with adolescents for five years. They identified concerning trends in violence and abuse in relationships where the victim was as young as 13 years of age but the person causing harm was also as young as 14 or 15 years old. An alarming lack of support available for these young people was apparent – particularly those who were causing harm to their partners at that young age.

Aisling presented the work of her team at the first conference on Adolescent Domestic Abuse hosted by VISION in April 2024. Driven by curiosity the team began to analyse cases to understand where there were system strengths and gaps. They found knowledge and practice gaps in services responding to young people where there was harm in their relationships. They also found that young people often had good relationships with practitioners such as youth workers, gang workers and youth justice case workers. Identifying an opportunity for practice improvement, Aisling and her team developed a training and support package for services working with young people affected by criminality and offending behaviour. Aisling also presented the findings from their case analysis and a case study at the second National Working Group on Teenage Relationship Abuse roundtable in November 2024 also hosted by VISION.

With the support of Ruth and the VASC and VISION teams, Aisling’s focus as a Practitioner in Residence will be documenting and examining the impact of this training and support package as an innovative approach to the prevention and early intervention on violence against women and girls.

For further information, please contact Ruth at ruth.weir@citystgeorges.ac.uk

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Assisted dying bill: Safeguards against domestic abuse and coercion must be strengthened

One in four women and one in seven men in England and Wales have experienced domestic abuse. Coercive and controlling behaviours are core to domestic abuse. They result in loss of autonomy and independence and are intended to isolate and reduce self-worth. Such behaviours are common but hard for health professionals to detect.

If passed, the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill will allow people who are terminally ill and expected to die within six months to request assistance to end their lives. VISION researchers Gene Feder, Elizabeth (Lizzie) Cook and Sally McManus have written an opinion published in The BMJ that calls for safeguards in the bill need to be strengthened to prevent coercion in the context of domestic abuse.

Assisted dying requires a careful consideration of the risks posed by domestic abuse and coercion. The current bill does not fully tackle specific safeguarding concerns for patients experiencing domestic abuse which can include economic, emotional, physical, and other forms of abuse from a partner or other family member. To safeguard against domestic abuse and associated coercion, Gene, Lizzie and Sally propose a set of principles that should be part of the UK bill.

  1. For doctors responding to any request for assisted dying, training must be extensive, specialist, in person, and backed up by referral pathways.  Independent domestic abuse advocates, with expertise in recognising coercive control, could contribute to assessment of assisted dying requests. 
  2. Commitments to confidentiality and data security must not obscure assisted dying decisions and the contexts in which they occur. The bill must ensure transparency.
  3. The bill must establish accountability. Transparent data about each stage of the approval process would also enable monitoring and regular scrutiny of the processes and outcomes of assisted dying legislation.
  4. Lawmakers must resist expansion. Dementia and mental health conditions are now being considered for eligibility. These are conditions prevalent in survivors of domestic abuse. The UK bill should include clauses that limit any expansion of scope to other conditions and situations.

To read the opinion piece: Safeguards against domestic abuse and coercion in the assisted dying bill must be strengthened

To cite: BMJ 2025;390:r1914

For further information, please contact Gene at gene.feder@bristol.ac.uk

Impact of verbal abuse as a child just as harmful as physical abuse

Globally, one in six children are estimated to suffer physical abuse within domestic and family relationships. As well as immediate health risks associated with the physical trauma of abuse, physical abuse can have lifelong impacts on mental and physical health and well-being. Thus, even as adults, individuals who have been physically abused as children show higher levels of anxiety and depression as well as more problematic alcohol and drug use.

As a source of toxic stress, verbal abuse, like physical abuse, may affect the neurobiological development of children, leading to immediate and long-term impacts on health and well-being. Like physical abuse, verbal abuse has also been linked with poor mental and physical health outcomes during childhood and across the life course. Increasingly, empirical evidence supports verbal abuse causing damage to child development.

For the study, Comparative relationships between physical and verbal abuse of children, life course mental well-being and trends in exposure: a multi-study secondary analysis of cross-sectional surveys in England and Wales, VISION researcher Professor Mark Bellis and his team, combined data from multiple studies measuring child abuse across England and Wales. They tested the associations with poorer mental well-being across the life course with experiencing physical abuse or verbal abuse as a child individually as well as the impact associated with combined exposure to both abuse types.

Their research showed that exposure to childhood physical or verbal abuse has similar associations with lower mental wellbeing during adulthood. In fact, results identified around a 50% increase in likelihood of low mental wellbeing related to exposure to either form of abuse. With regard to verbal abuse, children who experienced ridicule, threats or humiliation from a parent / guardian have a 64% higher chance of poor mental health as an adult. The researchers also discovered that whilst physical abuse reduces over time, verbal abuse increases.

Verbal abuse may not immediately manifest in ways that catch the attention of bystanders, clinicians, or others in supporting services with a responsibility for safeguarding children. However, as suggested here, some impacts may be no less harmful or protracted. The potential impact of verbal abuse should be better considered in policy, and parenting and child protection interventions. The potential role of childhood verbal abuse in escalating levels of poor mental health among younger age groups needs greater consideration.

Recommendation

Interventions to reduce child abuse, including physical chastisement, should consider both physical and verbal abuse and their individual and combined consequences to life course health.

To download: Comparative relationships between physical and verbal abuse of children, life course mental well-being and trends in exposure: a multi-study secondary analysis of cross-sectional surveys in England and Wales

To cite: Bellis MA, Hughes K, Ford K, et al. Comparative relationships between physical and verbal abuse of children, life course mental well-being and trends in exposure: a multi-study secondary analysis of cross-sectional surveys in England and Wales. BMJ Open 2025;15:e098412. http://doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2024-098412

For further information, please contact Mark at m.a.bellis@ljmu.ac.uk

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A Lived Experience perspective of the 2025 VISION annual conference

by Justin Coleman, Violence, Abuse and Mental Health Network

The UK Prevention Research Partnership VISION consortium’s 4th annual conference on violence prevention was a truly impactful day. As part of the Violence, Abuse and Mental Health Network Lived Experience Advisory Group (VAMHN LEAG), representing a lived experience perspective, I found the discussions both thought-provoking and essential. The event skilfully blended academic rigor, professional expertise, and, crucially, profound lived and learned experience, prompting vital questions about how we truly move forward in creating a more inclusive and effective violence prevention landscape.

The Imperative of Inclusive Practice: Who Are We Really Serving?

A key takeaway was the urgent need for radical inclusivity. While Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) was rightly highlighted and the clear and marked volume and % percentage numbers are stark, I question if we’re inadvertently creating gaps for other survivors. As a male survivor of abuse, as a child, I wonder if our messaging and funding focus heavily on one demographic, how do we ensure male survivors, LGBTQ+ individuals, and marginalised communities (young and older) feel seen and supported? True trauma-informed practice, to me, means moving beyond “what’s wrong with you?” to “what happened to you?” for everyone who is impacted by all forms of violence and abuse. No matter who you are, this simply shouldn’t happen to anyone.

Data, lived experience, and investment: Are we looking at the full picture?

The power of data in policy was clear, but it also raised concerns. Are investment strategies relying on outdated statistics? If resource allocation isn’t based on continuously updated, comprehensive data, are we truly capturing the evolving landscape of violence and the needs of all survivors today? Quantitative data alone can miss nuanced realities that lived experience and ethnographic insights provide. We need a dynamic balance where current lived realities inform and refresh our understanding, ensuring our leadership is deeply connected to ‘our’ diverse lived experiences.

Redefining safety and dignity: Beyond the checklist

The concept of “safety” in support spaces commented on at the conference resonated deeply. Can we ever guarantee “safety,” or should we strive for environments that are continually “safer” and more “supported”? This shift moves us beyond ticking a box to an ongoing commitment. The most impactful word was “dignity.” Shouldn’t ensuring dignity be a fundamental aim at every stage of a survivor’s journey, enabling genuine opportunity for healing and empowerment?

Breaking silos: The path to unified prevention

Effective violence prevention demands a cross-government, cross-sector approach. We need to collaborate beyond our immediate professional bubbles, integrating insights from areas like the criminal justice system to inform victim services. While “whole-family” approaches were discussed, I questioned if we can expand this to truly embrace “whole-community” approaches, ensuring LGBTQ+ individuals, isolated people, and every member of society has an equitable voice and space in prevention, responsibility, and repair.

Moving forward: A collective responsibility

This conference was a crucial step, bringing vital voices to the table. The co-produced animation with VAMHN and SafeLives, available on the City St George’s University of London YouTube channel, https://youtu.be/z6LbYDGfBZw?si=3-tJYXDqLfM16pE-, is an excellent resource for understanding lived experience engagement. To truly mobilise an effective cross-government response, we must continue to ask:

  • Are our investment decisions agile enough to respond to current data and the evolving needs of all survivors?
  • Does promoting the financial cost of crime and low conviction rates discourage reporting?
  • How can we ensure every violence prevention initiative is genuinely trauma-informed and inclusive, making all children, male, LGBTQ+, and all marginalised survivors feel equally seen, heard, and supported? What is the cost of not being inclusive?
  • Are we creating enough opportunities for genuine connection and partnership across diverse stakeholders at events like this, rather than just delivering information?
  • Are we bravely embracing “safer” and “dignity” as guiding principles, continuously improving how we support survivors?
  • Are we actively breaking down silos to build robust and equitable prevention and support systems?

The future of violence prevention depends on challenging existing paradigms, embracing inclusivity, advocating for trauma-informed practice and care, and working together from all perspectives with updated knowledge and a shared commitment to a safer journey towards dignity for all. This VISION conference stimulated valuable questions and directions, strengthening my determination to build connectivity, dignity, and safer spaces for survivors.

To read the latest Violence, Abuse and Mental Health Network newsletter: June VAMHN newsletter

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Perpetrators of domestic abuse against older adults: A rapid evidence assessment

Despite increased research on issues related to aging and older age, abuse of older adults (defined as 60 or over in this study) is a neglected area of academic study. Most of the available evidence is currently found within the elder abuse field; although there is no agreed definition of elder abuse, most incorporate abuse by perpetrators outside of the family (such as carers, people in positions of trust and in some cases strangers) meaning evidence on intimate partner and family member perpetrators is subsumed within these studies. Most studies on domestic abuse have paid limited attention to older age, and in many cases restrict the focus to intimate partner violence among young adults.

PhD student, Merili Pullerits at the Violence and Society Centre at City St George’s University of London, collaborated with colleagues Hannah Bows (Durham University), who led the study, and Natalie Quinn-Walker (University of Wolverhampton), to examine the existing, published research on the demographic and health characteristics, and the offending behaviours and histories of perpetrators of domestic violence and abuse against adults aged 60 and over. 

Using a systematic methodology, searches were conducted in five databases: MEDLINE Complete, APA PsychInfo, CINAHL Complete, SociINDEX with Full Text, Criminal Justice Abstracts with Full Text, and Web of Science (Core Collection), resulting in 75 papers being included in the review.

Their rapid review found that much of the available evidence comes from the elder abuse field, with only a fifth of the included studies taking a specific domestic abuse perspective. Because elder abuse studies often group together all abuse types across varied relationship contexts, such studies make  becomes difficult to extract findings on domestic abuse, potentially hiding important differences. Additionally, the review found that non-intimate partners, that is (adult) children or other family members, tend to be the most frequently reported perpetrator group, although this varied according to the design and methodology of the studies. Most perpetrators tend to be male, and, where information is available, poor health, and drug and alcohol problems are often reported.

The research team concluded that more evidence is required on perpetrators of domestic violence and abuse using a broader range of data sources and research methods.

Recommendation

Evidence on those that use domestic violence and abuse on older people should be situated within the conceptual lens of domestic abuse. Policy and practice should urgently review whether existing risk assessment tools and perpetrator programmes are suitable given that a substantial proportion of domestic abuse against older adults is perpetrated by younger sons, daughters or other family members.

To download: Perpetrators of domestic abuse against older adults – a rapid evidence assessment

To cite: Hannah Bows, Merili Pullerits, Natalie Quinn-Walker, Perpetrators of domestic abuse against older adults – a rapid evidence assessment, Aggression and Violent Behavior, Volume 82, 2025, 102056, ISSN 1359-1789, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.avb.2025.102056.

For further information, please contact Hannah at hannah.bows@durham.ac.uk

Funding: This study was funded by a Home Office (Domestic Abuse Perpetrators) grant.

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