Hi, I’m Jo Todd, CEO at Respect.
The last few years at Respect have seen a great deal of change, and this year has been no different. Perpetrator work is gaining momentum as a key part of the solution to ending domestic abuse and our team continues to work hard to influence the government to ensure this attention translates into safe, effective responses to perpetrators that centre the needs of survivors, including children.
We have worked through a challenging funding period, laying the foundations for a stronger, more robust business development approach, and securing funding for key projects including the Drive Partnership, Make a Change and Safe & Together.
We continue to actively embed the principles of equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) across all areas of our work. We have been busy developing our EDI policy, creating a workplace culture which celebrates diversity and enables everyone to thrive, ensuring equity of opportunity for professional development and setting out the ways Respect will ensure all of our staff can bring their whole selves to work.
We worked with our Drive Partnership colleagues at SafeLives and Social Finance to commission a consortium led by H.O.P.E. Training and Consultancy, which developed and delivered two training courses: one supporting charity leaders to challenge systemic racism, and one focused on supporting staff from Black and minoritised communities to assert and grow their leadership skills. A number of Respect colleagues benefited from the two programmes, and we are seeing the impact of this work, with graduates from the leadership development course accessing further development opportunities within Respect.
Externally, Respect continues to provide strong leadership for the perpetrator sector, acting as the secretariat for the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Perpetrators of Domestic Abuse, and — through the Drive Partnership — providing the secretariat for the Domestic Abuse Commissioner’s Strategic Reference Group on Perpetrators, both of which help us to connect with key changemakers, and advocate for the needs of the sector.
We continue to support our members, using our position as a sector leader to influence and amplify the great work that they do. Our Accredited Members CEOs group meets monthly and gives us all (me included!) a confidential space to share concerns, discuss key sector issues and support each other – and it also ensures that I can take issues raised by our accredited members into our influencing work. One example of this has been our work to influence the Ministry of Justice to restore a domestic abuse perpetrator programme (DAPP) pathway through the family courts since its dissolution in 2022. We held a workshop with our accredited members to understand their concerns and worked closely with MoJ officials as part of the DAPP Steering Group to propose a solution. Unfortunately, the Ministry of Justice has not implemented it, so we have been supporting our members to navigate complexities around service provision.
As Covid restrictions lifted, it has been possible to meet in person more often. In May 2022 we invited friends, colleagues, trustees, and academics to York to celebrate Respect’s 20th anniversary. The event, delayed two years by the pandemic, brought us together to not only celebrate Respect’s achievements over the years, but also to look forward to new challenges and opportunities. October 2022 saw Respect staff come together for the charity’s first in-person away day in two years, a much-needed and much-appreciated opportunity to share ideas and enjoy being together again.
Behind the scenes, we’ve developed (and now launched) a new Respect strategy for 2023-28, setting out a refreshed vision and mission, focus and values, alongside our ambitious plans for the coming five years.
This Impact Report once again makes me so proud of my brilliant team – they continue to innovate and deliver in challenging circumstances, because they are all so committed to our mission: stopping the harms done by those who perpetrate domestic abuse. I hope that you enjoy reading more about their work, and are inspired, as I am, by their achievements this past year.