Domestic Violence Refuges: Funding
Debate between Laurence Robertson and Jess PhillipsWestminster Hall is an alternative Chamber for MPs to hold debates, named after the adjoining Westminster Hall.
Each debate is chaired by an MP from the Panel of Chairs, rather than the Speaker or Deputy Speaker. A Government Minister will give the final speech, and no votes may be called on the debate topic.
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Mr Laurence Robertson (in the Chair)
Before I call the mover of the motion, it might be helpful to hon. Members if I say that, given the level of interest in the debate, I will impose what looks like being a four-minute time limit on other Back-Bench speeches.
Jess Phillips (Birmingham, Yardley) (Lab)
I beg to move,
That this House has considered funding for domestic violence refuges.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Robertson. I believe that is the customary thing to say.
Refuge accommodation is not a bed space; it is a lifeline, a community, and an experienced and knowledgeable place for recovery. Refuge is a place where people are rebuilt, where families find each other. A bed is a place where we sleep; a refuge is far more remarkable, and we would not necessarily know it unless we had seen it.
I remember a woman coming into the refuge where I worked. She could not speak or eat, because she had been starved as part of her control. I will never forget watching a refuge worker sit with her for hours, gently feeding her some lukewarm baked beans, teaching her how to feed herself again.
I remember another family where the mother had been so belittled and so dehumanised by her abuser that she could not parent her kids any more. She had no power or influence over them at all, and her 11-year-old daughter had become the mother to a seven-year-old and a three-year-old. Refuge family support workers had to rebuild that family: teach mom what parenting was and, more importantly, teach her daughter to be a kid again. I will never forget that once-serious child twirling, dancing and giggling along with the other children living in the place, after weeks and weeks of structured activity to give her the freedom of any child. If I close my eyes and think of refuge, it is not sad; it is not the image so often seen in hard-hitting domestic violence posters of a battered woman cowering in a corner. What I see is that child’s face; I see her spinning, carefree in the atrium between the flats. She is a phoenix.
I start this debate by saying that I do not agree with the Government’s proposed new funding model. I do not agree that it is the right approach yet.