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Home | Other projects | Domestic Violence | Projects

WEU domestic violence projects

The Women and Equality Unit (WEU) is looking to develop innovative social partnerships that will raise awareness of domestic violence and that can provide women experiencing domestic violence with safe and discreet ways of obtaining information.

London black cabs to drive forward domestic violence campaign

'Domestic violence — together we can put an end to it' is a new campaign to provide helpline information through black cabs to women experiencing domestic violence. The year-long drive was launched in April.

In collaboration with the Public Carriage Office, Transport and General Workers Union (cab section), Refuge and Women's Aid, drivers of black cabs in London will be issued with check lists, setting out useful information on domestic violence, and receipts carrying helpline numbers to give to women.

In addition, 325 cabs will carry the campaign's logo on tip-up seats, and all new cab drivers will receive awareness training as part of their 'finals talk' before gaining their license. Drivers are also to be issued with special taxi receipts which they can give to women who they suspect might be at risk.

Download cab drivers' check list

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Research on the economic and social costs of domestic violence

Domestic violence is a complex, devastating and far-reaching social problem. It causes poverty, ill health, social exclusion, loss of potential and loss of life. It generates immediate costs in terms of the responses of public services, and longer-term costs in terms of its impact on health, productivity, families and dependency.

However, the scale of these economic and social costs continues to be unclear. Difficulties in identifying reliable data and attaching cost values to these data mean that the production of robust estimates of costs is a complex process.

In view of this, the Women and Equality Unit has commissioned research which is the first national study of its kind that aims to calculate the true costs of violence against women in the home, by looking at what is known about its impact on service providers, employers, and women and their families.

This research aims to:

(a) produce cost estimates based on data that are currently available, and

 

(b) begin the longer-term process of providing a framework for the comprehensive assessment of the economic and social costs of domestic violence borne by service providers, employers and women themselves.

The findings from this research will be available in Spring 2004. In the meantime, you can read the key findings of an interim report: view interim findings.

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Developing domestic violence policy in the workplace

Often the workplace can be a place of safety for women. They may confide in their colleagues about their experiences. It is a place where others can notice what is going on, and where there is an opportunity to help women to access the support they can so desperately need.

To tackle domestic violence requires a range of strategies and partnerships. For example, the Women and Equality Unit has been working with the Trades Union Congress (TUC) to develop workplace methods of tackling domestic violence.

Working with Opportunity Now and Women's Aid, the Women and Equality Unit has also produced a good practice guide for employers on 'Domestic Violence and the Workplace'. The guide, which is available free to employers, is designed to:

• Alert employers to the possibility of domestic violence

 

• Help employers create a safe and productive workplace

 

• Advise on reducing the costs of domestic violence to employers and thus increasing productivity

 

• Inform employers of their legal obligations and how they can carry out best practice

The Government is also working closely with the GMB and CBI on this issue.

The TUC has recently published a workplace guide. This document sets out guidance on why domestic violence is an issue in the workplace, how to provide a workplace policy, negotiating points and useful information contacts.

See Making work a safe haven from domestic violence (external link).

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