Domestic abuse and sexual violence

Domestic Abuse Commission

Find out more about the work of the Barking and Dagenham Domestic Abuse Commission

Domestic abuse and sexual violence services

Domestic and sexual violence comes in many forms and anyone living in the borough can contact the Barking and Dagenham Domestic and Sexual Violence service for help.

The following services can also help:

Barking and Dagenham

National services

London services

Sexual exploitation  

Sexual exploitation is a form of abuse that involves the manipulation and coercion of people into sexual activity. Sexual exploitation is also a form of modern slavery.

Sexual exploitation has occurred if sex takes place and:

• it is in exchange for basic necessities, such as food, shelter or protection
• it is in exchange for something that is needed or wanted
• an individual has felt frightened of the consequences if they refuse (coercion)
• the person who is exploiting stands to gain financially or socially 

If the person is under 18 then this is child sexual exploitation and you should call the Children’s Services Duty and Assessment team on 020 8227 3811.

Learn more about safeguarding children:

Safeguarding at risk children

There are services that can help adults who are being sexually exploited too:

Learn more about Child Sexual Exploitation, including signs, real stories and advice and support:

Stop CSE

Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) 

Forced marriage and so called ‘honour’ based violence

In forced marriage, one or both spouses do not consent to the marriage and some element of duress is involved. Duress includes both physical and emotional pressure and abuse.

So called ‘honour’ based violence (HBV) is a collection of practices used to control behaviour within families in order to protect perceived cultural and religious beliefs and/or honour. Violence can occur when perpetrators perceive that a relative has shamed the family and/or community by breaking their honour code.

Forced marriage can be a form of HBV, but HBV can include other types of abuse such as: 

• domestic violence (physical, sexual, emotional or financial abuse)
• sexual harassment and sexual violence (rape and sexual assault or threat of rape and sexual assault)
• threats to kill
• social ostracism or rejection and emotional pressure
• denial of access to children
• pressure to go or move abroad
• house arrest and excessive restrictions of freedom
• denial of access to the telephone, internet, or passport/key documentation
• denial of access to further or higher education without approval from family
• not being allowed to talk or interact freely with peers, or being allowed to enter a relationship 
• not being allowed to have sex before marriage or marry outside of a specified religion or cultural group
• isolation from friends and own family

A clear distinction must be made between a forced marriage and an arranged marriage. The tradition of arranged marriages has operated successfully within many communities and many countries for a very long time. In arranged marriages, the families of both spouses take a leading role in arranging the marriage but the choice of whether or not to accept the arrangement remains with the child/ young person.

If you or a friend, or family member are facing forced marriage or HBV there is help available:

Modern slavery

Millions of people around the world are trapped in modern slavery. The National Crime Agency estimates that there are tens of thousands of people being held in modern slavery in the UK.

It is a crime happening in our communities, takeaways, hotels, car washes, nail bars and private homes. Modern slavery takes many forms. Someone is in slavery if they are:

• forced to work through mental or physical threat
• owned or controlled by an 'employer', usually through mental or physical abuse or the threat of abuse
• dehumanised, treated as a commodity or bought and sold as ‘property’
• physically constrained or have restrictions placed on his/her freedom

There are different types of Modern Slavery. It can include any or several of the following: 

• sexual exploitation and sex trafficking
• forced labour
• debt bondage
• domestic servitude
• criminal exploitation 
• forced child labour 
• organ harvesting 

If someone’s life is in danger call 999.

You can find out more about modern slavery at Unseen:

Modern slavery - Unseen

You can also download the Unseen App.

Call the Modern Slavery Helpline on 08000 121 700 to get help, report a suspicion or get advice. 

Domestic abuse and employers

We revised our Domestic Abuse Policy for employees in 2019, developing it to provide practical guidance on facilitating disclosures and offering paid leave for people experiencing domestic abuse who need time to move home, access specialist support services. This is also open to people who are using abusive behaviour where they are using the time to engage with perpetrator behaviour change programmes. This is on a case by case basis.

Addressing domestic abuse at work - Standards and guidelines (PDF, 4.3MB)

The policy has the full support of our Members, Senior Leadership, Trade Unions and managers and let to several key milestones being met in 2019 and 2020:

• we signed up to the GMB Union’s Domestic Abuse Charter as a significant national and workplace public commitment
• we were awarded Everyone’s Business Award in January 2020 in recognition of our best practice approach. We were of the first 5 organisation to achieve it. Read more on the Hestia website
• we have delivered awareness training to over 450 managers across our council services (499 anticipated by end of 2020/21!)
• we have built in staff support to our locally commissioned domestic and sexual violence service specification and ensured our perpetrator interventions were open to staff where there is no conflict of interest
• we have built in domestic abuse questions to our employee Health and Wellbeing Surveys
• we have a domestic abuse ambassador scheme made up of trained employee volunteers who are supportive points of contact that can offer emotional and practical guidance and facilitate access to specialist service provision. Led by our MARAC coordinator, they come from different service areas. The Ambassadors have created posters for spaces where people might not have access to digital platforms and have used a symbol created by local survivors within their signature lines and as their MS Teams avatars to mark themselves as safe people to talk to. The symbol is a blossom tree - a symbol of hope and recovery
• in 2020, we won the Best Organisational Development Initiative Award at the PPMA Excellence in People Management Awards for our approach to domestic abuse

We want to be able to share our good practice, and the learning we have developed along the way. We would be happy to be contacted by HR colleagues in any sectors to discuss our employment policy and approach:

Gail Clark, Director of Workforce Change. Email: Gail.Clark@lbbd.gov.uk

Neil James, HR Manager (Workforce Strategy and Policy). Email: Neil.James@lbbd.gov.uk