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Why Idvas are so important

Only 4 police forces in England and Wales have enough Idvas to support all victims at high risk of serious harm or murder

Independent Domestic Abuse Advisors (Idvas) support victims of domestic abuse to become safer, sooner. They work tirelessly to be an advocate for victims at their most vulnerable.

When someone discloses about an abusive partner/ex-partner/family member – they may need to engage with a whole host of confusing and sometimes conflicting services: the courts, probation, housing, mental health, children services, substance misuse. It is never as simple as ‘just leave’.

Idvas are their rock; they navigate these services. They work with local specialist services to provide longer-term support for women. They don’t talk for victims of domestic abuse, but in partnership with them.

“Due to lack of provision and high demand for our service we are under constant pressure and often exceed capacity. This is potentially dangerous for victims at high risk”

We train Idvas. We advocate for Idvas. We also listen to them. For the last three years, we have gone out to Idva services across England and Wales to find out how many Idvas are working in England and Wales, and the pressures they face.

2 out of 3 Idva services tell us they don't have access to sustainable funding

We use this insight from services to better understand what it is like for Idvas, and to do everything we can to support them so they can provide the best possible services to their clients.

We know Idvas work to make people safer; we need them to be able to give the quality service that you would want for your best friend, for your sister, for yourself.

Idvas want to provide victims with this level of support; we need to ensure they are able to do so.

We will be publishing our full findings throughout our #16Days #SaferSooner activity. 

“We attract staff quite easily but retaining staff is much harder due to the high turnover and pace of the work, burnout or stress means we lose staff and are constantly replacing staff and having to retrain them.”

 

Find out more:

The national definition of an Idva

About domestic abuse