Hestia responds to Domestic Abuse Commissioner report on children and domestic abuse 29 April 2025 The Domestic Abuse Commissioner has published a new report - Victims in their own right?Babies, children and young people’s experiences ofdomestic abuse- looking at the experiences of babies, children and young people who experience domestic abuse. The Domestic Abuse Act 2021 recognises children as victims in their own right, regardless of whether they were present during violent incidents. The report highlights a previous review that found there was no dedicated funding for services for children for approximately one-in-four refuge and community-based services. Sarah Fulham, Director of Domestic Abuse Services at Hestia responded to the report, saying: “We welcome the publication of this report from the Domestic Abuse Commissioner, which gives a voice to the many children across the UK who have experienced domestic abuse and need support. "To date, we have seen no move to fill the critical gap in funding for children’s services. This means that Hestia is having to fundraise to supplement local authority refuge contracts so that we can provide vital, specialist no statutory funding to provide specialist support for children in our refuges -, so as a charity we fundraise in order to be able to provide such as our dedicated Children & Family Workers. "We are the first organisation to introduce Child Wellbeing Practitioners offering CBT sessions within domestic abuse refuges, as well as specialist EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing) to help young people safely process and recover from difficult and traumatic experiences. "Providing easily accessible, specialist support at the right time is vital to ensure that children can successfully recover and move forward with their lives. We believe that specialist support for children should be a minimum standard across all domestic abuse refuges.” Manage Cookie Preferences