Domestic Abuse Through a Child’s Eyes: Why It Matters for Safeguarding
Welcome to the Secure Foundations Blog
We’re excited to launch the Secure Foundations Training blog — a space where we’ll be sharing insights, reflections, and practical guidance around safeguarding children and young people. Drawing on our combined experience as a former teacher and a social worker, we aim to bring safeguarding to life in a way that’s real, relevant, and rooted in everyday practice.
For our very first blog post, we’ve chosen to explore a topic that’s both urgent and often misunderstood: "Victims in their own right? Babies, children and young people’s experience of domestic abuse."
We’ve started here because too often, children are seen as bystanders when it comes to domestic abuse — when in fact, they are victims in their own right. This blog post looks at how domestic abuse affects babies, children and young people directly, and how professionals working with families can respond with understanding, sensitivity and confidence.
It’s a subject close to our hearts and one that sits at the core of effective safeguarding. We hope it prompts reflection, conversation and, most of all, action.
Victims in Their Own Right? Babies, Children and Young People’s Experiences of Domestic Abuse
In April 2025, the Domestic Abuse Commissioner, Dame Nicole Jacobs, released a pivotal report titled "Victims in Their Own Right? Babies, Children and Young People’s Experiences of Domestic Abuse." This comprehensive document sheds light on the often-overlooked experiences of children affected by domestic abuse, emphasizing that they are not merely witnesses but victims in their own right.
Key Findings:
Legal Recognition vs. Practical Implementation: While the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 legally acknowledges children as victims of domestic abuse, the report highlights a significant gap between this recognition and the actual support provided to them.
Inadequate Support Services: Only 29% of victims and survivors reported being able to access the specialist support they desired for their children.
Funding Challenges: The report reveals that 27% of support providers had to turn away children due to capacity issues, 51% placed them on waiting lists, and 56% faced funding cuts over the past five years.
Children's Voices: Through the "Tell Nicole" initiative, over 100 children shared their experiences, expressing feelings of being "lost, alone, sad, different, worried, lose control, terrified, anger, unhappy, nervous, scared, not heard."
Recommendations:
The report outlines 66 recommendations across seven key themes:
Centring Children’s Voices: Ensuring that children's experiences and perspectives are integral to all responses.
Cross-Departmental Collaboration: Promoting stronger coordination among various government departments and agencies.
Holistic Funding: Advocating for comprehensive and sustained funding for services supporting child victims.
Data and Evidence: Improving data collection and research to inform policy and practice.
Specialist Training: Providing training for frontline professionals to recognize and respond effectively to child victims.
Safeguarding: Enhancing protective measures to ensure children's safety.
Specialist-Informed Practice: Ensuring that interventions are guided by specialists with expertise in child welfare and domestic abuse.
At Secure Foundations Training, we understand that recognising children as victims in their own right requires more than awareness—it demands action. Our training is grounded in real-life experience and equips staff in schools and other settings to spot the signs of domestic abuse, understand its impact on children, and respond appropriately and compassionately.
Unlike generic e-learning, we offer practical, face-to-face safeguarding training that gives professionals the tools, confidence and language to support child victims and work in a truly trauma-informed way. By helping staff feel prepared, we contribute directly to bridging the gap between legislation and lived experience.
We believe that every adult working with children has a role to play in creating safer environments—and we’re here to help them do just that.
Conclusion:
The report underscores the urgent need to move beyond mere legal recognition and to implement tangible actions that address the unique needs of child victims of domestic abuse. It calls upon policymakers, practitioners, and society at large to acknowledge and respond to these children's experiences with the seriousness they deserve.
For a more in-depth understanding, you can access the full report here: Victims in Their Own Right? Babies, Children and Young People’s Experiences of Domestic Abuse.
