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VISION workplace violence research and resources

 

This page sets out the research carried out within the VISION socio-economic inequalities thread, led by Professor Vanessa Gash with Dr Niels Blom. The workstream covers violence experienced at work AND violence experienced at home that follows people into work.

 

Summary

Many of us, at some point in our working lives, will experience difficult or harmful behaviours from others, including violence at home or at work. Some people get the support they need to recover. For many others the effects are lasting: damaged health, time out of work, job loss, and long-term financial harm. Yet although violence at work and violence at home are both common, we know very little about what they do to people’s working lives. This research programme sets out to close some of those gaps.

 

The challenges this research addresses

Data gaps

Very few representative datasets record employment and labour market status alongside exposure to violence, so the two are rarely studied together.

Unknown costs

The UK does not currently measure the productivity losses attributed to workplace violence and current costs of domestic violence do not examine the risks of job loss. We show that approximately 4% of victim-survivors of intimate partner violence have lost their job due to this violence, while this is almost 10% for violence by co-workers, and just over 1% of violence by service-users.

Research is siloed with uneven coverage

The vast majority of research on workplace violence is focused on one sector, mostly on health workers’ exposure to service user violence. This is important research but re-enforces sub-sectoral solutions, instead of national strategies.

We therefore examined prevalence across all industrial sectors using a nationally representative data, rather than sector specific samples, which was highlighted as key to research in the field in a recent Editorial.

Similar issues of uneven coverage were apparent in the available literature on the employment consequences of intimate partner violence. We found much of the evidence based on non-representative samples, specific to the United States. These may offer limited insights for different national and cultural contexts, including differences by ethnicity or socioeconomic class. Furthermore, we found limited data on perpetration or systematic analyses of different risks for women and men.

Measuring violence

Understandably, people often do not want to disclose their experiences of violence or abuse, which means survey questions must be designed and tested with great care. Our research showed that survey questions regarding violence exposure, including feeling unsafe, used in the Crime Survey for England and Wales compared to Understanding Society survey, led to some different risk profiles for different groups.

 

The impact of our research

Taken up in evidence to Government and Parliament

Findings on the employment consequences of domestic abuse were presented to the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Domestic Violence and Abuse, the Work and Pensions Committee, and to Home Office Violence Against Women and Girls and domestic abuse teams. The research therefore contributed timely evidence to parliamentary forums regarding workplace support for victim-survivors and safeguarding vulnerable claimants, as well as informing the costings of domestic abuse.

Our findings on the prevalence of workplace violence, its mental health effects, and the employment consequences of intimate partner violence were submitted as part of written evidence to the House of Lords Social Mobility Policy Committee (SMP0044, 2025). The submission drew on the findings to argue that violence is a barrier to social mobility, and to call for better enforcement of existing regulation, confidential reporting channels and access to leave for recovery. This moved the evidence beyond occupational health and criminal justice, and into debates about opportunity and employment policy.

Informing national measurement beyond the UK

Our assessment of the violence measures in Understanding Society and the Crime Survey for England and Wales is cited in Measuring the Prevalence of Adult Sexual Violence in Ireland (ESRI, 2025), an evidence review commissioned by Cuan, Ireland’s statutory agency for domestic, sexual and gender-based violence, and published by the Irish government, to inform the design of Ireland’s forthcoming national prevalence surveys.

A new workplace violence module

Professor Gash is Principal Investigator on a new battery of workplace violence indicators fielded through the Understanding Society Innovation Panel; it will uniquely provide researchers with the ability to examine workplace violence within a longitudinal format on a representative national sample. A programme of working papers follows from it.

Better national measurement

The team proposed amendments to the Understanding Society mainstage adult questionnaire regarding items on harassment and violence, fielded at three-year intervals, to better capture violence at work. These will be adopted from 2028 onwards.

Guidance shaped with people with lived experience

We co-produced employer-facing guidance on workplace violence safeguarding with people who have experienced violence at work, so that what we recommend to employers reflects what victim-survivors say they need.

Fragmented Evidence

Most research on workplace violence is focused on one sector, mostly on health workers’ exposure to service user violence. This is important research but re-enforces sub-sectoral solutions, instead of national strategies. We have shown prevalence across all industrial sectors using a nationally representative data rather than sector specific samples,which was highlighted as key to systemic change (Jaspers, S., Karlsen, I. and Aust, B. (2025) ‘Workplace violence: a complex challenge demanding a systemic response’, Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health, 51(5), pp. 349–354. https://doi.org/10.5271/sjweh.4249).

 

Policy briefs

  1. Gash, Vanessa; Blom, Niels (2026). Criminal Workplace Victimisation, Job Loss and Reporting in England and Wales. City St George’s, University of London. Report. https://doi.org/10.25383/city.32760954
  2. Blom N. & Gash, V. (2026). Examining the Impact of Intimate Partner Violence on Job Loss and Time Off Work. City St George’s, University of London. Report. https://doi.org/10.25383/city.32090710
  3. Gash V. & Blom N. (2024). Violence in the Workplace in the United Kingdom: Business and Individual-Level Exposure. City St George’s, University of London. Report. https://doi.org/10.25383/city.27248124
  4. Blom, N. and Gash, V. (2024) ‘Impact of Intimate Partner Violence on Job loss and Time Off Work in the UK’, UKPRP VISION Policy Brief no.01, Violence and Society Centre, City St George’s, University of London. Violence in the workplace in the United Kingdom – City Vision
    •  The link directly above is for the blog of the 2024 report which was updated in 2026 and that revision is #2.

 

Published academic journal articles

  1. Gash, V, Blom, N. ‘Workplace violence and fear of violence: an assessment of prevalence across industrial sectors and its mental health effects’. Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health 2025;51(5):370-379. https://doi.org/10.5271/sjweh.4230
  2. Blom, N.; Gash, V. Measures of Violence within the United Kingdom Household Longitudinal Survey and the Crime Survey for England and Wales: An Empirical Assessment. Soc. Sci. 2023, 12, 649. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci12120649

 

Illustrations created by Geisa D’Avo

New VISION Policy Briefing Series on ethnicity inequalities and violence

In collaboration with Imkaan, the UK’s only national feminist umbrella organisation dedicated to addressing violence against Black and minoritsed women and girls, VISION Research Fellow, Dr Hannah Manzur, wrote two policies on the intersectionality of ethnicity, sex, gender, and violence focussing first on access to specialist services and second, through a systems theory approach.

The first policy briefing, Ethnic Inequalities in Violence Series: Specialist Services, is based on VISION research on ethnic inequalities, gendered violence, and specialist services. The research team finds critical inequalities in Black and minoritised women’s access to support and emphasises the need for a sustainably funded ‘By and For’ Sector.

The second policy briefing, Ethnic Inequalities in Violence Series: Systems Response, also uses VISION research on ethnic inequalities but looks at violence risks, harms, and service responses from a systems theory approach. This briefing identifies compounding disadvantages, intersecting inequalities, and critical gaps and disparities in victim-survivors’ services access and treatment.

 

Supporting Specialist Services for Black and Minoritised Women Victims of Violence: Access, Impact, & Resources

Specialist services provide life-saving support to people experiencing domestic and sexual violence, including trauma-informed and VAWG-sensitive care, counselling, legal and medical support, safety planning, advocacy, and crisis interventions delivered by trained caseworkers and practitioners. Led by Black and minoritised women, specialist ‘By and For’ services[1] are particularly important in offering essential holistic, wrap-around support, including intersectional advocacy, tailored to the specific needs and experiences of Black and minoritised women victim-survivors. Despite this, specialist services, particularly the ‘By and For’ sector, are constrained by chronic underfunding, limited inclusion and recognition of their expertise, and increased demand for services in an increasingly hostile political landscape for Black and minoritised communities and victim-survivors of violence.

Key Recommendations

  1. Funding: adequate, secured, and sustainable funding for specialist services with increased and ring-fenced ‘By and For’ funding.
  2. Recognition: formally recognise ‘By and For’ services as a distinct and essential model of VAWG prevention.
  3. No Recourse for Public Funds (NRPF): urgently repeal the NRPF condition.
  4. Data: introduce a data firewall for migrant victims, improve national ethnicity data, fund specialist services’ data-infrastucture projects, and engage ‘By and For’ expertise.
  5. Accessibility: evaluate national accessibility to specialist services, especially ‘By and For’ closures and reductions.
  6. Training: statutory services training in service provision tailored to Black and minoritised women victims.
  7. Collaboration: investment in collaborative partnerships, training, and referral protocols, led by ‘By and For’ expertise.

 

Ethnic Inequalities in Violence: Addressing Compounding Disadvantage and Institutional Engagement through a Systems Response to Violence

From data to policy to services, the systems designed to address the complex needs of violence victim-survivors of violence often fall short. Disjointed services, difficult pathways to support, and critical gaps in service provision create a complex system which victim-survivors, particularly those experiencing domestic and sexual violence, are expected to navigate to access support. For Black and minoritised victim-survivors of domestic and sexual violence, violence  causes and contexts, risks, harms, and support needs are shaped by both intersecting inequalities and compounding disadvantages. The combination of existing social disadvantages, under-funded and non-specialist public and specialist services, and disjointed and complex systems[2] requires urgently addressing from an intersectional and systems-based response to violence prevention and victim support.

Key Recommendations

  1. Systems-level responses: Targeted interventions and support provision must be integrated into a systems-level approach through cross-sectoral and multi-agency collaboration. Include funded advisory roles for specialist ‘By and For’ services representatives as systems leaders, not only referal partners.
  2. Build data and evidence linkages and expand cross-sectoral comparative research.
  3. Remove cross-sectoral barriers to support, including repealing the NRPF, introducing data-sharing firewalls, and enhance statutory duties.
  4. Invest in comparative and intersectional research which integrates multiple social contexts and axes of inequality.
  • [2] VISION’s systems theory approach was led by Dr Olumide Adisa. See for example: Adisa 2024, 2025.

 

To download the briefings:

To cite the Specialist Services briefing: Manzur, H. 2026. Supporting Specialist Services for Black and Minoritised Women Victims of Violence: A VISION Research and Policy Briefing in collaboration with Imkaan. London: VISION, Imkaan. https://doi.org/10.25383/city.33524527

To cite the Systems Response briefing: Manzur, H. 2026. Ethnic Inequalities in Violence: Addressing Compounding Disadvantage and Institutional Engagement through a Systems Response to Violence. A VISION Research & Policy Briefing in collaboration with Imkaan. London: VISION, Imkaan. https://doi.org/10.25383/city.33527260

For further information: contact Hannah at hannah.manzur.4@citystgeorges.ac.uk

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5th VISION annual conference: Presentations and illustrations now available

The fifth VISION annual conference was held on 7 July at The Light Auditorium in Friends House. The theme was Violence prevention in dialogue: Research and Policy.

After five years of research looking at violence prevention and the resulting health inequalities and focusing on improved measurement, policy, and practice, and delivering through a strong cross-sector partnership, we showcased our research in partnership with stakeholders Refuge, High Trees, Migrants’ Rights Network, Gloucestershire police constabulary, and Revolving Doors. In addition, we invited those working in violence prevention to critically assess our contributions and identify where further research and prioritised focus are required.

Jo Todd of Respect and Professor Gene Feder, VISION Director, reflected on 25 years of working in violence prevention as frontline practitioners and researchers. Drawing on their extensive experience, they highlighted both the progress made and the challenges that remain. While collaboration between government, academia, and the third sector has improved, longstanding silos—particularly across the health and criminal justice sectors—persist. Overcoming these barriers requires sustained commitment to relationship-building and cross-sector working.

They noted that significant progress has been made in violence prevention policy, including the publication of the government’s Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) strategy last year. However, there remains considerable interest in how the incoming Prime Minister will take forward the Labour government’s commitment to halve violence against women and girls within a decade, and what this will mean for future policy, practice, and investment.

Professor Liz Kelly from London Metropolitan University was our 2nd keynote speaker and shared her thoughts on the language and naming of violence in the 21st century. Liz highlighted that  language changes not just what we say but what we know and recognise. The words we use in the field as researchers, analysts, policymakers, officials, and practitioners matter and should be clear and grounded in victim / survivor agency and freedom.

VISION research was highlighted in three symposiums:

  • Insight: Key findings on definitions and measurement within violence prevention
    • Dr Vishal Bhavsar (Kings College London) and Professor Miranda Horvath (University of Suffolk) presented on intimate partner violence perpetration.
    • Dr Madeleine Janickyj (University College London) and Emma Pickering (Refuge) presented on technology facilitated abuse.
  • Inclusion: Violence prevention research with marginalised populations
    • Dr Alexandria Innes (City St George’s UoL), Aya Khedairi (Migrants’ Rights Network) and Professor Gargi Bhattacharyya (University College London) presented on insecure migration status. Andri and Aya discussed their project, Understanding Violence: the risks for migrants with rising far-right fascism and the resulting output, Workbook: Migrant Community Insights on Building Safety. Gargi highlighted how the far right is misusing genuine work and research and that media discussion of VAWG frequently descends into racism and incitement.
    • Dr Annie Bunce (City St George’s UoL) and Lauren Bennett and Anthony Donohoe from Revolving Doors presented their work on developing principles for co-analysis with Lived Experience.
  • Involve: A look at two ongoing, impactful pieces of VISION research with partners
    • Dr Elizabeth Cook (City St George’s UoL) and Harry Jenkins (High Trees) presented their collaborative research developing Built on Trust, a report with youth from Lambeth in London on the role of youth spaces and trusted adults in reducing young people’s exposure to violence.
    • Dr Ruth Weir (City St George’s UoL) and Sophie Jarrett (Gloucestershire Police) presented on their system-wide partnership with central and local government, police, education trusts, and the third sector to understand and prevent teenage relationship abuse (TRA). This work has resulted in the establishment of a national group on TRA and a local group wtihin Gloucestershire.

VISION co-Deputy Directors, Professor Sally McManus (City St George’s UoL) and Dr Estela Capelas Barbosa (University of Bristol) closed the conference by reflecting on the achievements of the VISION consortium and outlining priorities for the future of violence prevention research, policy, and practice. Sally highlighted the wide range of datasets, tools, resources, and publications developed by VISION over the past five years. Looking ahead, Estela emphasised the need for further research on violence affecting LGBTQI+ communities and minoritised women and children. She also stressed the importance of breaking down the persistent silos between the health and criminal justice sectors, noting that the impacts of violence extend across both systems. Effective prevention and support therefore require joined-up services, coordinated policies, and cross-sector collaboration.

Visual artists, Abigail and Chloe Baldwin, from Buttercrumble, beautifully captured the day in a series of illustrations which can be downloaded below along with the keynote and symposium presentations.

To download the presentations:

  1. Insight Symposium: Insight Symposium_Perpetrators of IPV; Insight Symposium_Tech Abuse
  2. Inclusion Symposium: Inclusion Symposium_Insecure migration status; Inclusion Symposium_Co-design of analysis principles
  3. Involve Symposium: Involve Symposium_Partnering with young people; Involve Symposium_Teenage Relationship Abuse
  4. Professor Liz Kelly, 2nd Keynote: Keynote 2_The language and naming of violence
  5. Professor Sally McManus, VISION Achievements: VISION achievements

To download the illustrations:

  1. Conference Summary
  2. 1st Keynote – Jo Todd and Gene Feder and 1st Keynote – 2nd illustration
  3. 2nd Keynote – Liz Kelly
  4. Insight Symposium – Data and Definitions
  5. Inclusion Symposium – Marginalised Populations
  6. Involve Symposium – Partnerships
  7. VISION Achievements
  8. Violence Prevention in Dialogue

We keep each other safe – a guide for migrants in the UK

 

A negative shift in how migrants, including refugees and people seeking asylum, are viewed in the UK has been documented in research, including VISION work, and media. Rhetoric about migration has become more aggressive and emboldened racist demonstrations and attacks on asylum accommodation.

VISION partnered with Migrants’ Rights Network (MRN) to co-develop a research project with migrants that maps experiences of harm and identifies community-led safety strategies. The research centred on two cities, London and Belfast, working with communities who have experience of the asylum system / no recourse to public funds. Through a series of focus groups and workshops, migrants shared their experiences of far-right violence, and how they are already keeping themselves and each other safe. ​

The project brings together MRN’s narrative work, which actively challenges disinformation about migration, while trying to better understand and document the impact of hostile language on people currently in the immigration system.

The key findings and themes​ of the research are:

  • Impact on mental health and change in behaviours ​
  • Role of the state in making migrants unsafe, and low trust in institutions​
  • Everyone is experiencing it, but no one is talking about it​
  • We keep each other safe – what are we already doing, and what else can we do together

These insights coalesced into a free workbook available for downloading on the MRN website. The practical guide is for migrants in the UK co-developed with migrants and migrant-led organisations. It features shared knowledge, scenarios, and messages of solidarity.

To download the free resource: We keep each other safe workbook: Migrant community insights on building safety

For further information on the VISION – MRN collaboration, please see the blog, Understanding Violence: The risks for migrants with rising far-right fascism, written by Aya Khedairi, MRN Community Engagement Manager.

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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

Cover photo supplied via Adobe Stock subscription.