Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many domestic abuse charities specialising in support for older people receive funding from the Government.

Tackling domestic abuse is a key commitment for this Government. That is why we introduced our landmark Domestic Abuse Act to further protections to victims as well as strengthen measures to tackle perpetrators. Last month, we published our Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan which sets out four key areas to improve the response to domestic abuse; Prioritising Prevention, Supporting Victims, Pursuing Perpetrators and creating a Stronger System.

We understand the importance of specialist and ‘by and for’ services in providing the tailored support that victims and survivors of domestic abuse need. That is why in the Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy, the Government committed £1.5 million of funding to specialist services. This funding’s core objective is to ensure there is no funding gap in specialist ‘by and for’ service provisions, including, but not limited to, elderly victims.

The Home Office has also funded Hourglass, a specialist elder abuse charity, for a number of years. In 2020/21, we provided Hourglass with £50,000 of funding to support activity. An additional £106,000 was provided to further bolster their services as part of the response to the Covid-19 crisis, to ensure victims could continue to access support. In 2021-22, the Home Office provided Hourglass over £200,000 to support their work in enhancing their helpline, providing casework support, and training specialist IDVAs, with over 3000 victims being supported in 2021-22 alone. The most recent grant award was £33,000 for an eight-month period of funding for 2022.

Alongside this, our Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan commits over £230 million of new funding, including £140 million on supporting victims of domestic abuse and up to £7.5 million for improving doctors, nurses, midwives and other healthcare professionals’ ability to spot, support and refer victims to appropriate services.

The Home Office and the Department of Health and Social Care are also jointly leading the Safe Care at Home Review. The review is looking at the protections and the support available to adults at risk of or experiencing abuse in their own homes from people providing their care. As part of the review, we are coordinating inputs from organisations representing those with lived experience, including the elderly, carers and other interested parties. The Review is expected to complete before the end of 2022 and the Terms of Reference for the review have been published on Gov.uk.