Home Office Extraordinary Funding for Domestic Abuse Support Services

On 2 May 2020, the Government announced a package of £76m extra funding to support victims and survivors of domestic abuse, sexual violence, vulnerable children and their families, and victims of modern slavery, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Funding to support victims of domestic abuse has been allocated to the Home Office, Ministry of Justice and Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government. The overarching aim is to ensure that the funding is allocated widely across the domestic abuse sector in England and Wales, reaching charities of all sizes and supporting the full range of support services provided by those charities.

The Home Office will be allocating £2m of funding to charities with a national or regional presence and for which the other domestic abuse-focused funding streams are not specifically designed. Funding is intended to address costs associated with COVID 19 pressures from 24 March 2020 (the first day of lockdown) and will end on 31 October 2020.

Eligibility to Bid

The Home Office will be allocating £2m of funding to charities with a national or regional presence and for which the other domestic abuse-focused funding streams are not specifically designed.

Specifically, organisations eligible for the Home Office fund would include: • Organisations which provide a national service (i.e. covering all of England, all of Wales, or both) • Organisations where the supported victims are very geographically dispersed over multiple Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) areas, and/or no one PCC area is the clear base for the majority of victims • Umbrella or second tier organisations (Second tier organisations are those which do not provide direct front-line support, but who undertake capacity-building work with front line organisations, such as providing training or advice, or membership organisations which support front-line member services.) • Organisations which undertake capacity building, or which support other organisations to support victims and survivors (for example with training, or expert advice and guidance). This includes those supporting the police in their response to domestic abuse. It also includes those supporting local authorities or other statutory bodies.

To be eligible for funding, the primary purpose of the organisation's service must be to improve the response to domestic abuse, either through providing support to female and/or male victims who have experienced domestic abuse, or through providing support to front-line services, including other charitable organisations or the statutory sector, to better respond to victims. Organisations must be a registered charity, a charitable incorporated organisation, or a social enterprise, including companies limited by guarantee and community interest companies. Organisations which do not currently receive funding from a statutory body are eligible to apply.

Additional information: Details on how to bid and the application form can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-home-office-extraordinary-funding-for-domestic-abuse-support-services

The deadline for applications is 19:00 BST on Monday 08 June 2020. Home Office will not accept any submissions after this deadline.