Posted on: 19 December 2025
CNWL’s eighth annual event marking the White Ribbon period brought together a powerful panel to move the conversation beyond “lessons learnt” towards preventative action on domestic abuse.
With the UK Government’s goal to halve male violence against women and girls within a decade, this year’s event challenged health services and partner organisations to reflect on their responsibilities in achieving this target.
Susan Bray, CNWL’s Domestic Abuse Lead, said:
"This year we really wanted to change the format. We wanted to pause and think collaboratively with experts from a range of different sectors about why it appears to be so difficult to break the cycle of male violence against women and girls. To ask ourselves some difficult questions about what it takes to bring about sustainable change."
Opening reflections
The panel opened with a call to action from Claire Murdoch, Chief Executive of CNWL:
“We have to think of action in the world as it is, not the world we wish we had… and that we can affect change. The challenge to the panel is taking real action, in a world where people are busy, the subject is difficult, and relationships between organisations are hard to knit together.”
She emphasised that solutions cannot come from any single service, organisation, or community - collaboration is essential. She also shared a sobering statistic:
“At least 51,000 NHS staff experience domestic abuse every year. 44,000 of those are women, 6,000 are men. Nurses, midwives, healthcare assistants are three times more likely to have experienced domestic abuse by a partner or ex-partner in the last year than the average person.
“It's us. It's our colleagues, it's our sisters, it's our friends, it's in families, it's in our communities and it's in our workplace.”
Why do we keep hearing the same lessons?
You can read more about our panellists below or watch the full recording of the event here.
The panel explored why, despite increased awareness, the same themes and missed opportunities persist. Panellists identified several barriers:
Claire Throssell MBE is a passionate advocate for children’s rights, and her personal tragedy drove her to fight for family law reform. Claire’s life changed after the tragic loss of her two sons, 12-year-old Jack and 9-year-old Paul, who were murdered by their father. She highlighted the importance of trauma-informed practice.
“Do we really see, hear, believe, and protect survivors well enough in our roles?”
David Challen discussed the significance of recognising patterns of coercive control and the escalation of harm. David is a domestic abuse advisor and successfully campaigned to free his mother in a landmark appeal raising awareness of the lifetime of coercive control she suffered.
Seema Haider, a GP and advocate, described the realities of frontline care and the need for better training and resources in medical schools.
“If a patient with domestic abuse presents to me, I have 10 minutes… it’s inconceivable, but that’s what’s being asked of us.”
Chris Green OBE, Founder of White Ribbon UK, reflected on the challenge of engaging men in the conversation.
“We’ve tried to do that at White Ribbon through engagement, through sport, through music, through trades unions, through faith groups, but it’s fraught with difficulties.”
Christabel Yeboah, Chief Vision Officer at the first national gender-based violence support service for Black femmes in the UK, spoke about the need for intersectionality and creating spaces for the most marginalised.
“We assume recommendations are for individual change rather than systemic change. Lack of accountability means structures aren’t held to move forward.”
Halaleh Taheri, Founder and Executive Director at MEWSO, spoke from the perspective of grassroots organisations, emphasising the need for collaboration between institutions and community groups.
Philippa Greenfield, Joint Presidential Lead for Women and Mental Health from the Royal College of Psychiatrists, focused on the lack of a true cross-sector strategy and the need for ring-fenced funding.
Angela Whitaker, National Domestic Abuse Coordinator, and Louisa Rolfe, Domestic Abuse Lead from the National Police Chiefs’ Council, highlighted the need for national coordination and professional curiosity. They talked about the importance of moving beyond binary solutions towards collective, people-focused responses. They recognised the importance of learning from innovative practice, so that every victim receives the support they need, wherever they disclose abuse.