The Annual Audit 2025

Key findings 

Demand 

• On Track national referral estimates suggest that less than one in ten women and less than one in ten children who experienced domestic abuse received support from a refuge or community-based support service. 

• Estimates show that 60.1% of referrals into refuge services were rejected over the past year. The most common reason for rejection was that the refuge service did not have the capacity to support the client (45.7% of rejected referrals). This means that when a survivor was referred into refuge, there was a 27.5% chance that the refuge did not have the capacity to support her. 

• Just over half (51.4%) of referrals into community-based domestic abuse support (CBS) services were rejected. The most common reasons for rejection were that the client did not want support (25.7%), the survivor was already being supported by the organisation (23.5%), and the service could not contact the client (22.6%). 

Provision 

• Despite a net growth in the number of bed spaces available, the number of bedspaces still falls short by 1,160 spaces of the Council of Europe’s recommendation, representing a total shortfall of 20.3%. 

• On 1st May 2024 throughout England there were 246 providers running 414 local services. This is a net increase in all service types between 1st May 2023 and 1st May 2024, with the biggest increase in service type being counselling. 

• Despite the year-on-year increase in refuge bedspaces, findings from our previous annual audit reports have demonstrated that the number of vacancies posted on Routes to Support has been going down each year since 2019/20. 

• There were 72 services run exclusively for specific groups of survivors, including services run exclusively for Black and minoritised women (45), and women with substance use and/or mental health support needs (3). Availability of these services continues to be low: spaces in dedicated services made up just 11.6% of all refuge spaces in England, and 42.0% of these spaces are in London. 

• The proportion of vacancies which could consider a woman with no recourse to public funds increased slightly from 11.7% of all vacancies in 2022-23 but remain low at 12.3% in 2023-24.  

• Vacancies suitable for wheelchair users are incredibly scarce and dropped from 1.0% of all vacancies in 2022-23 to just 0.7% (52) of vacancies in 2023-24. 

Funding 

• The proportion of organisations that were running Children and Young People’s domestic abuse services in the community without dedicated funding doubled this year, from 15.7% to 31.4% 

• Over a third (35.0%) of respondents to the annual survey this year were running an area of their domestic abuse service without dedicated funding during 2023-24. The most common area of service that organisations were running without dedicated funding include domestic abuse prevention or educational work 

• A notable number of respondents to the annual survey expressed concerns relating to the sustainability of their services, with more than one in ten (15%) respondents telling us they had to close or reduce an area of work in their service over the past financial year. 

• A concerning three quarters (71.4%) of domestic abuse organisations responding to the annual survey who were running a service without dedicated funding used their organisational reserves to cover the costs. 

Commissioning 

• There was a marked increase in domestic abuse providers finding commissioning processes complex this year, with over half (59.1%) respondents to the annual survey either agreeing or strongly agreeing that ‘commissioning processes have been complex.’ 

• Just over a third (34.0%) of respondents thought that domestic abuse commissioning had had a mixed impact for survivors over the past year, and 30.0% thought it had had a mostly positive impact. 

• Over half of respondents (53.0%) either disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement ‘There is more funding available for our service in 2023-24’, and two thirds (65.8%) disagreed that ‘Funding is easy to access’. 

System response 

• Whilst most respondents to the Women’s Aid annual survey felt that commissioning agencies ‘somewhat’ effectively collaborate (32.0%) on VAWG CBS service funding currently, a quarter felt that collaboration is either ‘not effective (17.0%) or ‘very ineffective’ (8.0%). 

• Almost half of respondents (49.0%) had not been contacted about the new duty to collaborate as part of the Victims and Prisoners Act 2024. 

Other trends and issues 

• On Track data found that more than a quarter (26.9%) of women in CBS services and almost half of women in refuge (49.0%) reported experiencing increased economic and financial abuse since the increased cost of living began. 

• Over half (53.5%) of survivors in refuge and a third (32.5%) in CBS services were left unable to afford food and many were unable to keep up with debt repayments (11.6% in CBS services, 20.3% in refuge). 

• A notable number of respondents cited recruitment and retention of specialist staff as a main challenge over the past year, which had been further exacerbated by the increased cost of living. 

• Escalating international conflicts, such as Gaza and Israel have been prominent in the news over the past year. Whilst over half of respondents reported no related impact, some domestic abuse providers, particularly ‘by and for’ services, described concerns that the conflicts had created deeper divisions in their own local communities. Services called for greater support for migrant women and women with no recourse to public funds (NRPF), emphasising how the conflict had led to greater demand for immigration services.