Essex Businesses encouraged to help prevent domestic abuse by raising awareness
Essex Chambers of Commerce, Practical HR LTD and the Police Fire and Crime Commissioner are working to engage with the community
Last updated 31st Jul 2023
Essex businesses are being offered the opportunity to help prevent domestic abuse by raising awareness and training in how to help.
After it's overwhelmingly successful pilot last year, the Essex Police Fire and Crime Commissioner (PFCC) has agreed to fund stage two of the project.
The DAAWN Domestic Abuse Project Stage 2 Match Funding initiative aims to engage with business in our community to help raise awareness about domestic abuse.
The aim is for raising awareness to help lead to prevention, and to help prevent abuse or the escalation of abuse.
Essex Chambers of Commerce, Essex Police Fire and Crime Commissioner (PFCC) and Practical HR Ltd worked with many businesses across the county for their pilot stage of the project, and are now inviting SME's in Essex, with 1 – 500 employees, to receive up to £1500 match funding which can be used to implement the software and information to train up on domestic abuse.
Denise Rossiter, Chief Executive of the Essex Chambers of Commerce, says:
"Domestic abuse accounts for 20% of all recorded crime in Essex. This shouldn't be a crime issue.
"And there should be tools out there to prevent this happening before it becomes a crime. And what we're trying to do in a method of giving back through the Essex Chambers, we actually care."
The scheme also can help businesses for personal reasons, with domestic abuse costing the industry over 14 billion pounds a year. According to the PFCC, Practical HR Ltd and Essex Chambers of Commerce, this can be demonstrated in absence, poor engagement and performance and staff turnover.
"Huge stigma" involved
Paula Fisher is the Managing Director for Practical HR, she told Greatest Hits Radio it's important that people realise how many domestic abuse effects, and that this funding will approach every way that victims of domestic abuse are treated.
"When you look at the statistics around domestic abuse, you're talking about one in four women, one in six men experiencing in their lifetime, you're talking about 20% of crime.
"You're talking about the scope of domestic abuse - it's not just about physical violence. It's about coercive control. It's about financial control and it's so wide.
"There's genuinely or generally, a lack of understanding and knowledge about it, there's also huge stigma about it. So you've got all these figures and all those things have an impact on the business. And we know from research that domestic abuse is costing industry around £14 billion a year. That's not insignificant and the and the way that it impacts on a business is it impacts through absence, through poor productivity, through staff turnover, management time.
"Very often people don't know that that is the cause of an issue that's going on because there's so much stigma. Some of the research has been done shows that people would prefer to be dismissed, say, if there's an absence issue or a product, a performance issue around this, they might prefer to be dismissed than to actually disclose it.
"That's how much stigma. So what we're saying is that if we can remove the stigma, if we can start opening conversations and we can do that because the workplace is a safe place for many, many people. It's an incredible opportunity to raise that awareness. And very simply, if you raise awareness and you educate, you start to prevent or you prevent the escalation of abuse. And that is a win win for, for businesses, for individuals, for communities."
Growing the project
Denise and Paula believe the scheme is helping businesses in Essex to dedicate the time to learn about domestic abuse, and therefore become part of the prevention.
Denise told Greatest Hits Radio:"I think the quality of what we're doing and the organisations involved will lead us onto bigger and better things. So, for instance, we will take this to Parliament.
"We already are in talks with lots of different agencies and people like that and if we're lucky enough to go on to stage 3, which I feel that we will be, because, you know, it's been so successful, then the sky is not the limit for this.
"And if it can help people, if it if it saves 10 people, it's it's done its job. But we hope as business people that we can address a really fundamental issue in the workplace that remains hidden."
Businesses can apply for the funding and to be involved with the project through the Essex Chambers of Commerce.