England’s Frontline Domestic Abuse Charities Can Bid Now for £1.85m in Funding

A second round of Government funding is being made available to support domestic abuse safe accommodation services during the coronavirus/Covid-19 pandemic.

The Government has opened a second bidding round to allocate the remainder of the £10 million Domestic Abuse Safe Accommodation: COVID-19 Emergency Support Fund. Round 2 will award the remaining £1.85 million on a rolling ‘first come, first served basis’.

This fund aims to address the impact of COVID-19 on domestic abuse safe accommodation charities and the additional costs they are facing as a result.

The fund will support domestic abuse safe accommodation charities from 1 April to 31 October and will help ensure that:

• Safe accommodation services can continue operating and keep bed spaces open for victims and their children fleeing from abuse during COVID-19 emergency.
• Safe accommodation services can help more victims access these life-saving services.

The funding is to be used for revenue costs (costs associated with maintaining existing services and additional capacity to meet increase in demand) incurred as a result of the coronavirus/COVID-19 outbreak. This includes the following:

• Maintaining existing services (where not met by other income sources or fundable from existing resources of charity) such as:
  • Staffing costs for additional staff cover.
  • Purchasing of essential supplies, such as food and toiletries for residents where usual support channels are unavailable.
  • Meeting additional COVID-19 costs, such as deep cleaning.
  • Purchasing office equipment to enable remote working where this is practicable.
• Costs of services for additional capacity to help address increased demand, including accommodation costs of additional bedspaces and staff to support these additional victims.

Round 1 has awarded £8.15 million to 147 service providers through 103 successful bids across all regions of England.

Bids will be accepted from 5 June until 20 July 2020 or until the funding has been exhausted, whichever is sooner.

Full details…