[WiLT] Victims of domestic violence left out of social exclusion agenda

[WiL Admin]

Victims of domestic violence left out of social exclusion agenda

Cabinet office admits information too patchy for domestic violence to
be included

Women's groups have reacted angrily to a government admission that
victims of domestic and sexual violence have been omitted from its
social exclusion agenda.

Ann Watt, deputy director of the Social Exclusion Task Force, told a
national, cabinet-supported conference last week that information was
too patchy for domestic violence to be featured in a public service
delivery agreement that aims to increase the proportion of socially
excluded adults in settled accommodation and employment, education or
training.

But women's groups are incensed because they argue that victims of
domestic and sexual violence under-report and are already marginalised
from mainstream services.

Helen Rice, chair of the Women's Resource Centre (WRC), said: "Are
they really saying that victims of domestic violence are too socially
excluded to be included by the Social Exclusion Taskforce? Basically
what they're saying is that we can't be bothered to find out any more
data because actually it's too hard. If they haven't got the data,
then it's their job, surely, to get the data, otherwise that group
will remain socially excluded."

She warned that the omission meant that, "When local area agreements
are formed, it won't be a priority for local authorities to include
domestic violence in their strategic planning."

The WRC, which supports and trains women's organisations, argues that
sufficient data does exist and it criticises the government for
pigeon-holing violence against women into criminal justice, which it
says misses out other crucial impacts domestic violence can have on
women's health, employment and education.

Nicola Harwin, chief executive of Women's Aid, said her organisation
had been collecting data for the past 35 years and called for a review
of the entire public service delivery agreements (PSAs), in which she
believed that domestic violence suffered too low a profile.

PSA 16, from which domestic violence is excluded, is one of 30 PSAs
set out in the 2007 Comprehensive Spending Review that reflect the
government's top priorities and help determine which issues local
authorities will fund. It focuses on four vulnerable groups: adults
with secondary mental health problems, adults with moderate to severe
learning disabilities, offenders under probation supervision and care
leavers.

A cabinet spokesman said: "At the time we were developing this PSA, we
had to find robust local authority level data on employment and
accommodation rates for each of the target groups. Unfortunately, we
were not able to get the data we needed on victims of domestic
violence. It's the first PSA on socially excluded adults, and we knew
that it would not include every vulnerable group."

Anita Pati guardian.co.uk, Tuesday October 28 2008 10.46 GMT
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/oct/28/socialexclusionagenda-domesticviolence