Lived Experience Forum

2012-2014

1) Survivor insights training provided to police first responders & probation officers, Bristol & Bath
2) Talks given to midwives/health visitors/ women’s and community organisations
3) SEEDS Bath survey – Barriers to disclosure of DA
4) Action for Women group steering group members
5) Interpersonal Violence & Abuse Strategic Partnership Board members as survivors
6) Feedback as panel member of HMIC report on Avon & Somerset DA response 2014
7) Poem – Should I call you. Used by National College of Policing for DA training

2014-2016

1) SafeLives DASH-RIC feedback
2) Domestic Abuse Partnership Board membership as survivors (SEEDs then VOICES) initially, then as service provider of peer support groups.
3) SafeLives One Front Door concept – providing feedback

2016-2019

1) Family Friends and Survivors group, SafeLives – participation as survivors of DA VOICES members Aimee and Ursula meeting Camilla Duchess of Cornwall in 2016 hosted by SafeLives – initial meeting that sparked her connection with DA charities and eventual Patron of SafeLives
2) IRIS Steering Group for BANES, providing some lived experience perspective on the development of IRIS within BANES.
3) SafeLives Authentic Voice concept (growing out of Family Friends & Survivors group)

2019-2023

1) SafeLives Public Health approach to DA
2) UCL research partnership
3) Claire Powell Children’s Policy Research Unit (CPRU), UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health 2019-2022. Developing a core outcome set (COS) for use in studies evaluating the effectiveness of child or family focussed interventions for preventing or limiting the harm associated with domestic violence and abuse. Home Office funded and published, 2022.
4) Co-creating a booklet: MORE HARM THAN GOOD A guide for commissioners, policymakers and service managers. Making sure health and social care services work for survivors of child maltreatment and domestic abuse. Published 2023.
5) 2020 Ministry of Justice Lived Experience consultation with the Research Implementation Unit “Getting the Survivor insights was invaluable in understanding the
important issues and thinking about appropriate interventions. The project provided a solid evidence base for several of the measures that were being explored by the policy team (early intervention, incentivising mediation, and increasing post-court support where appropriate and safe, bearing in mind safeguarding issues) and we presented the findings and recommendations to Minister Chalk early March who was satisfied the department was broadly looking at the right things reform-wise.” (Farva Kaukab, Ministry of Justice Research Implementation Unit, 2021)Presenting at the Keynote Seminar: Westminster Legal Policy Forum on Next steps for family justice in England and Wales, talking about impact of family law experience on survivors of domestic abuse, chaired by Baroness Newlove.

6) VOICES involvement in Cafcass Learning & Improvement Board 2020-2023, including participating with other lived experience advocates in the first external audits of Cafcass cases in 2020 and 2021. Started by a meeting with Cafcass Heads at Parliament.

2023-Ongoing

1) VOICES invited to present at the Domestic Abuse Commissioner’s Festival of Practice on the Charity’s model of therapeutic recovery support, March 2023
2) VOICES presents its collaborative work in the family law arena, including the law clinic with the University of the West of England at the Local Family Justice Board annual conference May 2023, at UWE.
3) Presentation of the Legal Education Foundation-funded training for family lawyers developed by SafeLives and VOICES, Charles Russell Speechlys, London September 2023
4) Initiating and creating a Practitioner Network for BANES with other specialist services supporting families impacted by Domestic Abuse, 2023
5) VOICES joins the CAFCASS Practice Reference Group as a DA provider service, alongside Cheshire Without Abuse, 2023
6) VOICES initiates and chairs a new DA sub-group of the Local Family Justice Board from December 2023
7) IRIS+ Trial – ongoing research project in collaboration with Bristol University up to 2027 with VOICES overseeing LE work with Young People as PPI.
8) See below British Medical Journal and International Journal publications (Ursula Lindenberg and Karen Johns from VOICES).

a) Keynejad R, Baker N, Lindenberg U, Pitt K, Boyle A, Hawcroft C. Identifying and responding to domestic violence and abuse in healthcare settings. BMJ. 2021 May 7;373:n1047. doi: 10.1136/bmj.n1047. PMID: 33962911.
b) Clark, S., Kimber, M., Downes, L., Feder, G., Fulton, E., Howarth, E., Johns, K., Lindenberg, U., d’Oliveira, A., Shaheen, A., Vindrola-Padros, C. & Powell, C., (2023) “Engaging domestic abuse practitioners and survivors in a review of outcome tools – reflections on differing priorities”, Research for All 7(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.14324/RFA.07.1.06
c) Powell C, Szilassy E, Cowan K, Feder G, Gilbert R, Howarth E, Johns K, Lindenberg U, Gregory A. Adapting a consensus process for survivors of domestic abuse and child maltreatment: a brief report about adopting a trauma-informed approach in multistakeholder workshops. BMJ Open. 2025 Jan 22;15(1):e090017. doi:
10.1136/bmjopen-2024-090017. PMID: 39843367; PMCID: PMC11784130.
d) Senior Researcher Claire Powell article Child mental health practitioners’ perspectives on providing support for families where there is intimate partner violence:
navigating complex family relationships and fear at home on April 10, 2025. Claire Powell a , Emma Jones a , Gene Feder b , Ruth Gilbert a , Antigoni Gkaravella c,
Emma Howarth d, Karen Johns e , Ursula Lindenberg e f , Lauren Herlitz a https://authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S0145-2134(25)00197-8

We have created a sound platform to do this important work! There is still much to do! This is and has always been why VOICES was created so we can make and impact on a National and International level.

Dr Claire Powell, from UCL, has described the impact of VOICES Lived Experienced engagement as follows:

“We have consulted with VOICES experts by experience group for several research projects to help ensure that our research design and process is ethical, does not cause harm to survivors and is relevant to people who use domestic abuse services.

VOICES has helped us re-evaluate how we deliver workshops online and face-to-face to ensure that participants feel safe and included. VOICES has also helped steer the direction of research projects to ensure that we think about questions of interest to experts by experience, and not just health professionals, from the beginning of studies. We cannot emphasise enough how much the expert advice, guidance and critique has supported us to improve the quality of our research and its dissemination.”