Our campaigning work

We work with organisations across the Violence Against Women and Girls sector and engage with our membership to campaign for policy that prioritises the needs of survivors and recognises for the importance of safe, high quality perpetrator work.

DAPP referral pathway in CAO proceedings

In April 2022, Cafcass England and the Ministry of Justice announced that, from 30 June 2022, Domestic Abuse Perpetrator Programmes would no longer be commissioned by Cafcass England and that no alternative provision would be in place until 2024/5.

Respect is deeply concerned about the impact of the current gap in provision on adult and child survivors of domestic abuse in the family court arena; DAPPs played a crucial role in helping courts to understand and assess whether an abusive parent is capable of making, and sustaining, changes to their behaviour so that children can be appropriately safeguarded. They also provided support and advocacy for resident parents, ongoing risk management, and a means by which new risks can be identified and communicated to the court.

We are currently campaigning for a solution to this issue.

• On 15 July we submitted an open letter to the MOJ calling for a meeting to discuss the issue.
• Since then, we have experienced a significant uplift in calls to the Respect Phoneline from perpetrators attempting to self-refer to Respect programmes. As there is no now no way of ensuring information-sharing and safeguarding between the DAPP and the family courts, Respect has briefed members running DAPPs not to take on self-referrals. We have produced this letter to support accredited members who are being approached.
• We have also provided selected MPs and Peers with a briefing on the issue and will be meeting with a number of parliamentarians in the autumn.

Victims’ Bill

The Domestic Abuse Commissioner’s Office has convened a coalition of organisations across the sector to influence the Victims’ Bill, including Respect. 

In particular, we are working to influence for statutory funding for community-based services and support for by-and-for organisations. 

In our joint Drive response to the Victims’ Bill pre legislative scrutiny consultation, we also asked the Government to review the approach the Bill is taking to commissioning services alongside the existing duty for specified authorities to collaborate and develop joint local strategies for supporting victims.