The research team are responsible for providing the Commissioner with a robust evidence base that underpins her advice to national government and local decision makers.
An early priority for our team is to map and monitor the provision of domestic abuse services in England and Wales, in order to shine a light on good practice as well as identify where improvements need to be made. This includes several ‘deep dive’ projects which will focus on the provision of specific types of services. Through these mapping projects the Commissioner will be able to identify gaps in provision, and make recommendations for how to improve provision and practice. This is our first step to addressing the ‘postcode lottery’ of domestic abuse services.
The research team provide the Commissioner and her office with data and research briefings to inform our understanding of the scale and nature of domestic abuse. This includes the collation of data from a wide range of sources, such as the Office for National Statistics, the Crown and Prosecution Service, and frontline services. We also keep a close eye on research undertaken by both academia and sector organisations, and ensure this is effectively amplified to policy decision-makers.
An ethical approach is integrated at the heart of all our research projects. This includes working with our sector and survivor advisory groups (once recruited) to develop our research methods, and inform our work. Our team abide by Government Social Research ethical principles, and also apply the domestic abuse specific Research Integrity Framework. The framework was written by the four Women’s Aid federations from Scotland, England, Wales, and Northern Ireland in partnership with academic researchers.
National Survey for victims and survivors of domestic abuse
Mapping services
Delivery partner: In house
Timings: Survey opens on December 7th 2021
Have you been subject to domestic abuse, live in England and Wales, and used support services or thought about getting support in the past three years?
If so, the Domestic Abuse Commissioner wants to hear from you about your experiences, as part of her national mapping work. This is the first step towards ending the ‘postcode lottery’ in the provision of services that support victims, survivors and their children, and is a critical opportunity to feed into this important work.
The survey should take you 15 – 25 minutes and will be open until 11.59 on 14th February 2022.
The survey is anonymous and will not ask you about your experiences of abuse, but about what help you wanted to receive and how easy or difficult it was to get this help. Please note you must also be over 16 to take part.
Information is available in the survey on how to cover your tracks online, and you might want to think about where you can access the survey privately and safely.
Take the survey by following this link: https://bit.ly/3GhT2yN
If you would like an Easy Read version of the survey or if you would like to access the survey in Polish, Punjabi, Urdu, Bengali, Gujarati, Arabic, French, Chinese, Portuguese, Spanish, Romani, British Sign Language or any other language not currently available, please contact commissioner@domesticabusecommissioner.independent.gov.uk
Please remember help and support is available – you can find a list of contacts on the resources page of our website.
Survey about domestic abuse services
Survey about domestic abuse services – British Sign Language version
Easy Read Survey about domestic abuse services
Domestic abuse services – national mapping
Mapping services
Delivery partner: Delivered in-house, with support from Women’s Aid Federation England, Welsh Women’s Aid and Tonic
Timings: National Survey open until 3rd August 2021
The Domestic Abuse Commissioner is mapping the provision of domestic abuse services across England and Wales, which will seek to better understand what services exist where, and for who.
To do this, we have sent out a survey to all service providers across England and Wales, which is now live and will be open until Tuesday 3rd August.
All services across England and Wales should have received a link to an online survey. If you run a service but have not been sent the survey, please contact us by emailing commissioner@domesticabusecommissioner.independent.gov.uk
Further information about our mapping work, including detailed guidance on how to complete the online survey, is available below.