Domestic abuse provision: Routes to Support
These dashboards use data from Routes to Support. Routes to Support is the UK-wide online database for domestic abuse and other violence against women services. It provides details of services available for women and children throughout the UK, including up-to-date refuge vacancies.
These dashboards contain details on domestic abuse service provision in each region across England. Information on service types and refuge spaces comes from snapshots taken from Routes to Support in May each year from 2010.
The data is presented regionally, but it should be noted that women and children often have to travel across the country to access services, refuges particularly, providing a national network of vital services. Services also vary considerably in terms of size, and the support needs they accommodate. These factors which impacts the capacity of each service should be considered when interpreting the data.
As the data is taken from a snapshot of the availability of service provision on one date of the year, the dashboards show net change in service provision year-on-year and do not illustrate fluctuations that happen throughout the year.
We explore the Routes to Support data from each year and the trends that are affecting domestic abuse service provision in more detail in our Annual Audit reports.
This section shows the number of each service type available to women in England, broken down by the nine of the government regions in England. The information used comes from snapshots taken from Routes to Support on 1st May each year from 2010 onwards.
This section shows the number of refuge spaces (or units) in England in each year since 2010. A refuge is a service which offers accommodation and support for women and children fleeing domestic abuse. The address will not be publicly available and there are only a set number of places. Refuge accommodation varies and can be shared housing, self-contained units and dispersed housing, meeting the diverse needs of survivors. Residents will receive a planned programme of therapeutic and practical support from staff and access peer support from other residents. Refuges operate as a national network of services often working together and referring between each other to find the most suitable accommodation for women and their children fleeing abuse.
Also shown in this dashboard is the number of available refuge bedspaces in each year compared to the Council of Europe minimum recommendation of one bedspace per 10,000 population.
This section shows the proportion of refuge vacancies which were posted on Routes to Support in each year which were available to women with specific support needs.
When a bedspace becomes available, refuge services use the Routes to Support system to upload information about the vacancy which other organisations can view and refer into. This data shows how many times refuge bedspaces become available throughout each year and how many of these vacancies were available for women with the following additional support needs:
- Two or more children,
- Three or more children,
- Requiring full wheelchair access,
- Suitable for someone with limited mobility,
- Available to someone with no recourse to public funds.
Women with these and other support needs (e.g., around mental health and drug and alcohol use) often face additional barriers when attempting to access refuge. We explore the reasons for this and the trends impacting the availability of refuge vacances in our Annual Audit reports and Nowhere to Turn reports.
This section shows the number of services available to men in England in each year since 2016. This information is not an exhaustive list of services available to men but show the number of services primarily offering support to women who also work with male victims.
If you are looking for support for male victims or details of available support services, please call the Men’s Advice Line on 0808 8010327.
