Children Are Victims Too

At school, a child’s biggest concern should be who stole their rubber or what their Mum’s going to say when they come home having lost their jumper (again!). They should not fear going home, but unfortunately for many, this isn’t the case. There is no safe, loving home to go back to. 

Domestic Abuse and Violence has a huge impact on children and young people’s welfare and increases the risk of harm to a child. It can seriously impact both their physical and mental wellbeing, which can last into adulthood. Children and young people experiencing Domestic Abuse and Violence may display behavioural issues and become withdrawn, timid and emotional. Some parents and carers share concerns that their children are having suicidal thoughts or had attempted suicide. 

For years the Government has spoken about highlighting the effects of Domestic Abuse on children and making a change but despite changing the law in 2020 to officially recognise children and young people as victims of Domestic Abuse, no further action has happened - that's where all support ended.

It is positive that children are recognised as victims in their own right by law, however, we are calling for the Government to create an actionable law with guidance on how it should impact decision making for professionals such Cafcass, The Courts, Youth professionals and Social Workers. There is no guidance for professionals on how to effectively use this law to help better protect children and help to ensure they are recognised and supported as victims. Children are victims too - they need the support to recover from their experiences of witnessing Domestic Violence.

Current law gives children NO legal rights. Creating a law with guidance for professionals working with them, will ensure they really are truly counted as victims of Domestic Abuse, that their voices are heard and that change occurs as a result. Children are victims too - and should be treated as such.

We have asked the Government to recognise this on a number of occasions and have been ignored, so we are asking you to help us to call them out on this matter. We want paramount consideration that even if the perpetrator has not been directly abusive to the child, the child is still a victim, not just from being present in the home, but from seeing the parent who is a victim suffer, whether that be physically, financially or emotionally. The cost of living crisis will have had a detrimental impact on the number of victims of financial abuse, it will have exacerbated the needs of those who are already suffering from lower socio-economic backgrounds, who often make up a larger proportion of victims.  

Just recently there have been reports in the media of parents choosing to flee the country with their children to keep them safe from a perpetrator parent. This comes after Family Courts order children to live with their Fathers despite the constant reports of Domestic Violence. Unfortunately, abusive partners are successfully using parental alienation as a way to convince the courts to allow access to their children. We feel so unbelievably sad that parents feel they have to do something as extreme as fleeing to another country to protect their children and something must be done to stop this.

We need to reach 100,000 signatures to get this discussed in the House of Commons. We hope that the Government will finally take notice and create a real actionable law that will actually make a difference to Child victims of Domestic Abuse.