9. Submissions by Ms Goshawk

Ms Goshawk: It’s okay, I will do my best to ad lib and make some tweaks.

So, Solace Women’s Aid appears without the benefit of legal representation at preliminary hearing, and therefore I speak on behalf of the organisation as an employee.

I was going to focus on the funding for legal representation but I will move past the issue and focus on a couple of other things to support points raised by our sister organisation, Southall Black Sisters, and in particular the Listening Exercise.

So we thank the support of – the written submission and this submission was prepared in-house with pro bono assistance from Southall Black Sisters’ legal representations, and we wanted to thank them for that.

To go on to issues other than the funding matter, we have seen the submissions filed by our sister organisation, Southall Black Sisters, and agree with their written and oral submissions, in particular wanting to focus on their submissions around Rule 9 requests, their instruction of expert witnesses on equalities and structural racism, including the intersectional experiences as far as the violence against women and girls, which we understand is still under consideration, and we thank the Inquiry for that.

And the Listening Exercise.

We were going to talk about the Rule 9 requests but we just wanted to thank the Inquiry for their confirmation about requests being sent to the Government Equalities Hub, Domestic Abuse Commissioner and Victims Commissioner, as Solace had called for alongside Southall Black Sisters in earlier preliminary hearings.

In relation to the Listening Exercise, we thank your Ladyship for your comments at the beginning of the hearing about providing further information about this exercise shortly.

We today reiterate the importance in ensuring that the voices of women and girls who experienced domestic abuse and wider forms of violence against women and girls during the pandemic and lockdown are heard. We believe this can be best achieved if those organising the Listening Exercise work closely with specialists who understand trauma-informed methods and, crucially, the experience of violence against women and girls. We welcome the commitment to a trauma-informed approach to the exercise, but it is not currently clear on how the current organisations running this exercise have the expertise to work with survivors who may have or may currently still be experiencing abuse and violence or did so during the pandemic. And we want to reiterate the importance of ensuring that this exercise creates and maintains psychological and physical safety during the process of sharing their experiences.

I think other than the funding issue, that was all we wanted to raise today, because we supported the submissions of Southall Black Sisters, so I won’t take any more of your time. Thank you.

Baroness Hallett: I’m very grateful, Ms Goshawk. Again, apologies for cutting across you.

I do understand the reservations you have about the Listening Exercise, perhaps as a result of some of the reporting about it. But can I emphasise again, as I hope Mr Keith emphasised this morning, there is a distinction between those who are currently advising us on how to communicate with particular groups and reach the seldom heard, for example, and those who will be working directly with people who have suffered domestic abuse or who have suffered bereavement or other kinds of suffering.

So I do hope people are now beginning to understand that when we are talking about the trauma-informed approach, the trauma-informed approach is not just in the way in which we communicate but in the direct contact with people.

From my work in another capacity, I am very conscious of the need to make sure that when you are trying to get people to give their accounts that you really do need to know what you are doing and the difficult areas that you are venturing into.

So thank you very much for your help and I promise you I will return to the question of funding to see whether or not there is any reconsideration there that can be done.

Thank you very much indeed.

Ms Gallagher.