Taking Breaking Down the Barriers to Greater Manchester

By Jemima Olchawski, Chief Executive at Agenda and Donna Covey, Chief Executive at AVA

“They [services] need to work more with the people who have lived this experience. Coz they are the only people who have lived it, the real life, the reality and know what it’s like.”

This is what one woman told us as part of Breaking Down the Barriers and one of the recommendations we’re taking to Greater Manchester today.

Women experiencing multiple disadvantage, that is those who face mental health problems, substance misuse, involvement with the criminal justice system and issues around housing or homelessness, have very complex, overlapping needs. They are at the sharpest end of inequality. Their experiences of disadvantage underpinned by histories of extensive violence and abuse.

Breaking Down the Barriers, the National Commission on Multiple Disadvantage and Sexual and Domestic Violence, found that too many of these women, survivors of domestic and sexual violence, are being failed by the system meant to help them, with devastating consequences for women and their families.

The final report from the Commission set out a series of recommendations including that local authorities must take the lead in ensuring that local and regional systems work for the most disadvantaged women, by co-ordinating and encouraging local and regional bodies to work together better.

We want to ensure that the findings of Breaking Down the Barriers are taken into account in policy and practice - ensuring it has a real, practical legacy for women across the country.

Steps must be taken to ensure the needs of marginalised groups of women are met and that vital specialist women’s organisations are given the support they need to survive and thrive.

We know national change is needed to do this but local and regional decision-makers also have real power to make a difference and must take the opportunity to think about how they can make systems and services work better for women in their area.

This is why we’re excited to start work in Greater Manchester. We’re gathering with partners from across the women’s, homelessness, substance use, criminal justice, and health sector to hold a seminar that presents a vital opportunity to create real positive change for women.

Using the findings of Breaking Down the Barriers we aim to influence policy and practice in the area, to ensure survivors of domestic and sexual violence are able to get the support they need.

We want this work to influence decision-makers locally and regionally, before bringing the findings to a national audience, so we can ensure every survivor of domestic and sexual violence gets the support they need, how and when they need it.

Read the full report here.