The NHS will treat violence against women and girls “as the epidemic it really is”, Yvette Cooper announced as the Labour Party conference drew to a close.
The Health Secretary told party members she would invest almost £50 million in a new “public health approach” to supporting victims of domestic violence.
Addressing the conference in Liverpool on Wednesday, Ms Cooper said: “One of the biggest causes of ill health and harm for women, including in pregnancy, isn’t really treated on the NHS, and that is domestic abuse.
“It affected 2.2 million women last year, but we don’t treat violence against girls as the epidemic it really is.
“So here’s what will change: for the first time, we will take a public health approach to violence against women and girls.”
The money includes funding for a scheme dubbed “Steps to Safety” that will see GPs able to refer victims of domestic abuse to specialist services, as well as £15 million for victim support services across England.
As home secretary under Sir Keir Starmer, Ms Cooper played a key role in driving Labour’s pledge to halve violence against women and girls in a decade.
In Liverpool on Wednesday, she said: “When I stood here as home secretary two years ago and said our mission to halve violence against women and girls in 10 years covered the whole of government, I meant it.
“All of us have a responsibility to ensure everyone can live in freedom from fear.”
Labour MP Jess Asato, who advises the Department for Health and Social Care on violence against women and girls, said the programme was “ground-breaking”.
She said: “Many survivors I’ve spoken to say they wish someone had asked them about what they were experiencing rather than treating the symptoms instead of the cause of their abuse.
“This first stage of the rollout will help to train GPs and their staff to recognise the signs of abuse, ask sensitively and provide them with extra specialist support in the community to ensure their patients get a response which helps them to heal.”
Ms Cooper also used her conference address to announce the revival of New Labour’s Sure Start scheme, which she described as one of the party’s “greatest achievements”.
The plan – dubbed “Sure Start 2.0” by aides – will see parents get enhanced infant feeding and mental health support, help to form strong relationships with their babies along with contact with health visitors and midwives.
The Health Secretary said she would expand Sure Start health services into 1,000 family centres over the next two years.
And she announced a new national pension scheme for care workers, saying it was “just wrong that the people who work hardest to help others maintain dignity and respect in old age too often get nothing back for retirement themselves”.
TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said the pension scheme was a “bold and important measure” that would “make sure our dedicated care workers can look forward to the secure retirement they deserve”.
In his own address to the conference on Tuesday, Andy Burnham said he would establish a new National Care Service to provide free social care, funded by changes to the pensions triple lock.
He has clarified that those who go into care homes would still have to pay for bed and board, but told the BBC Radio Four Today programme: “I think if we had a proper preventative social care service in this country that was operated on a whole-person basis, we would have much higher standard of social care in people’s homes.”
While it has been suggested the reformed state pension guarantee could save £15 billion a year by the end of the 2030s, which could in turn be used to help fund a new system, the Institute for Fiscal Studies has described future savings as “very uncertain” and said “tax rises or other spending cuts will be needed to pay for social care”.
Ms Cooper said on Wednesday further details on the proposed new care system would come with the publication of Baroness Louise Casey’s review next year, but added there were “foundations that we can start to build now”.
As well as the new pension scheme, the Health Secretary said she would appoint a new champion for unpaid carers and deliver the legally binding fair pay agreement for the sector announced during Sir Keir Starmer’s premiership.
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