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Alison is a former President of the Chartered Institute of Housing. She is a Board Member at Colne Housing Society. Alison is also on ...more
We must continue to fight against domestic violence – too many lives are being ruined
The #MakeAStand campaign has been a huge success, but the challenge of domestic violence means we cannot afford to stand still, writes Alison Inman
Being president of the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) was an incredible honour. My term of office came to an end in November and I still can’t get over the opportunity I was given to meet housing professionals across the country and see the work they do, the homes they build and the absolute sense of pride many feel in their achievements.
I was lucky enough to spend a fair bit of time with CIH Futures, a fantastic network of younger housing professionals, chomping at the bit to rip up the rule book, work differently with colleagues and communities, and ensure the greatest sense of purpose in what they do.
The highlight of the year, however, was the #MakeAStand campaign. It was at Housing 2017 in Manchester that I shared a platform on the (totally brilliant) Fringe with Polly Neate and Aisha Sharif, then at Women’s Aid and the Domestic Abuse Housing Alliance (DAHA) respectively, and first announced that I wanted to make domestic abuse, and in particular violence and abuse against women, the focus of my presidential year.
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To be honest, I wasn’t sure what the reaction of the housing world would be, but since that day I have never spoken about domestic abuse without having some kind of a disclosure from someone in the room.
You have all heard the statistics over and over again.
Too many women are dying, too many lives are being ruined, too many children are growing up in fear.
We are proud of what we do in the housing sector: although we don’t always get it right, we are united by striving to build, manage and maintain the best homes that we can.
For too many people though, home is not the safe place it should be and the original #MakeAStand pledge, for landlords, aims to help.
“Too many women are dying, too many lives are being ruined, too many children are growing up in fear”
We drew this up with DAHA and Women’s Aid and I would encourage landlords to go a step further and look at DAHA accreditation.
My successor at the CIH, Jim Strang, has very personal reasons for staying with the theme of domestic abuse during his year as president.
Any of you who have heard Jim speak about his childhood will never forget his testimony about the effect of abuse on children of all ages.
Last month Jim and I attended the launch of the #MakeAStand supporters’ pledge in Bristol.
The event was the brainchild of Jane Nelson, managing director of MD Group, and Jen Barfoot, chief executive of Homes in Sedgemoor, and was aimed at contractors and repairs staff.
Jane has created a toolkit and a training session to be used with trades staff and made this available, for free, to anyone who wants to use it. It can be downloaded – just print it out and stick your own logo on.
In addition, law firm Capsticks has produced free guidance on how to include questions on domestic abuse prevention within the procurement process for repairs and maintenance services.
Repairs staff are better placed than anyone to pick up signs of abuse and we hope that these resources will help them to do this.
The recent report Safe at Home, by Safe Lives and Gentoo, estimates that around 13% of all repairs jobs and 21% of repairs spend are potentially related to domestic abuse within the home.
This is an extraordinary figure and demonstrates the sweet spot that all socially minded businesses should have their eyes on: dealing with domestic abuse is both the right thing to do and the smart thing to do.
“I have never understood how precious we can be about whose campaign, whose initiative, who gets the plaudits”
One of the added bonuses to the #MakeAStand campaign has been the way the housing sector has worked together.
I have never understood how precious we can be about whose campaign, whose initiative, who gets the plaudits.
These things are irrelevant to the communities we live in and it has been great to work with local authorities, ALMOs, housing associations and contractors, as well as with the women’s sector and other third sector organisations.
This isn’t to say that there isn’t a place for competitiveness. And that place is the Housing Cup, a rounders competition being run by CIH Futures for the second year running. Last year’s worthy winner was WM Housing and more than £16,000 was raised for Women’s Aid and sister organisations across the UK. I reckon we can smash that this year.
Alison Inman, board member, Colne, Saffron and Tpas; and former president, CIH
Make a Stand
The ‘Make a Stand’ pledge has been developed by CIH in partnership with Women’s Aid and the Domestic Abuse Housing Alliance (DAHA) – made up of Standing Together Against Domestic Violence, Peabody and Gentoo. It was launched under the CIH presidency of Alison Inman in 2018, and then continued by her successor as president Jim Strang.
As of 6 February 2018, 300 organisations had signed up.
As part of the pledge, housing organisations can make four commitments to support people who live and work in housing who are experiencing domestic abuse.
These four commitments are:
* To put in place and embed a policy to support residents who are experiencing domestic abuse
* To make information about national and local domestic abuse support services available on your website and in other places which are easily accessible to residents and staff
* To put in place a HR policy and procedure on domestic abuse, or to incorporate this into an existing policy, to support members of staff who are experiencing domestic abuse
* Appoint a champion in your organisation to own the activity you are doing to support people experiencing domestic abuse
Click here to read a piece by former CIH president Alison Inman explaining more about the campaign