IRISi's response to the launch of the first Women’s Health Plan for Wales

IRISi warmly welcomes the launch of the first Women’s Health Plan for Wales today, Monday, 9 December 2024. This visionary 10-year strategy, developed by the National Strategic Clinical Network for Women’s Health under the NHS Wales Executive, represents a significant step towards addressing the gender health gap. It outlines a comprehensive framework to ensure women are listened to, their health needs understood, and their access to tailored healthcare services significantly enhanced.

The plan includes nearly 60 actions spanning eight priority areas to improve healthcare for women throughout their lifetime. Developed in consultation with around 4,000 women across Wales, it prioritises listening to women’s voices and acting on their feedback. Among its transformative proposals are a £750,000 investment in women’s health research and the establishment of women’s health hubs across Wales by 2026.

We are particularly encouraged by priority 7 of the strategy, which focuses on violence against women and girls (VAWG). Key actions include NHS Wales signing up for a ‘sexual safety in healthcare organisations’ charter, appointing VAWDASV (Violence Against Women, Domestic Abuse, and Sexual Violence) champions in each health board, and expanding education on VAWG for healthcare workers.

For nearly a decade, IRISi has led efforts to integrate responses to VAWG within healthcare settings, particularly through the IRIS Programme, which equips GP practices to identify and refer survivors of domestic abuse to specialist support services. Two years ago, IRIS was on track to be implemented across the whole of Wales (click here to read it). However, in 2024, the programme was decommissioned in three health boards:

Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board
Hywel Dda University Health Board
Aneurin Bevan University Health Board

This unfortunate loss affects 140 surgeries that were previously trained to identify and refer survivors, leaving GPs without structured referral pathways. Evidence shows that when IRIS services are decommissioned, referral rates drop significantly over time, clinicians lose confidence in identifying abuse, and survivors are left without timely access to specialist support. Additionally, voluntary sector organisations are burdened with meeting demands without allocated resources, further straining the system.

On a positive note, 2025 will mark 10 years of IRIS in Cardiff & Vale, where the programme has made a measurable impact. Our partner, BAWSO, reports:

Reaching older populations: IRIS supports survivors even decades after abuse has occurred.
Addressing medium and low-risk cases: IRIS provides continued support after abuse ends, reducing GP visits, improving well-being and preventing escalation.
Sustained growth: Referrals increase as services mature. By the end of 2024, Cardiff & Vale is projected to receive over 2,500 referrals.

Despite IRIS’ proven effectiveness, commissioners have attempted alternatives that have consistently failed to deliver comparable results, often justifying their decisions on the basis of cost. This overlooks that IRIS is 4.8 times more cost-effective than the flu jab, with a return of £16.79 for every £1 invested and a social return of £10.71. Decommissioning the programme is short-sighted, leaving survivors unsupported while ignoring its substantial financial and social benefits.

We urge First Minister Eluned Morgan, Minister for Mental Health and Wellbeing Sarah Murphy, National Clinical Lead for Women’s Health Dr Helen Munro, and Dee Montague-Coast of Fair Treatment for Women of Wales (FTWW) to integrate IRIS and ADViSE as cornerstones of the Women’s Health Strategy. These evidence-based interventions align perfectly with the plan’s priorities and provide a proven model for addressing violence against women and girls in healthcare settings.

Survivors deserve access to life-saving, specialist support – and IRISi has demonstrated time and again that its interventions work. Let us ensure that this strategy is not just a vision but a transformative, actionable plan for all women in Wales.

Partners

AVA

AVA is an expert, groundbreaking and independent charity working across the UK.

Their vision is a world without gender based violence and abuse. They aim to inspire innovation and collaboration and encourage and enable direct service providers to help end gender based violence and abuse particularly against women and girls.AVA’s work is focused around those areas where they can make the best contribution to ending violence and abuse. They do this by making sure that survivors get the help and support they need in the here and now, through providing innovative training that has a proven direct impact on the professional practice of people supporting survivors of violence and abuse

developing a range of toolkits, e-learning and other material that supports professionals to provide effective and appropriate support to survivors of violence and abuse

using our influence and networks to ensure survivors voices are heard. We work closely with AVA in many areas including the Pathfinder project

https://avaproject.org.uk

SafeLives

SafeLives are a national charity dedicated to ending domestic abuse, for good. We combine insight from services, survivors and statistics to support people to become safe, well and rebuild their lives. Since 2005, SafeLives has worked with organisations across the country to transform the response to domestic abuse, with over 60,000 victims at highest risk of murder or serious harm now receiving co-ordinated support annually. SafeLives are members of the Pathfinder consortium.

About us

IMKAAN

Imkaan is a UK-based, Black feminist organisation. We are the only national second-tier women’s organisation dedicated to addressing violence against Black and minoritised women and girls i.e. women and girls which are defined in policy terms as Black and ‘Minority Ethnic’ (BME). The organisation holds nearly two decades of experience of working around issues such as domestic violence, forced marriage and ‘honour-based’ violence.

They work at local, national and international level, and in partnership with a range of organisations, to improve policy and practice responses to Black and minoritised women and girls. Imkaan works with it’s members to represent the expertise and perspectives of frontline, specialist and dedicated Black and minoritised women’s organisations that work to prevent and respond to violence against women and girls. Imkaan delivers a unique package of support which includes: quality assurance; accredited training and peer education; sustainability support to frontline Black and minoritised organisations; and facilitation of space for community engagement and development. They are a part of the Pathfinder Consortium.

https://www.imkaan.org.uk

The University of Bristol CAPC

The Centre for Academic Primary Care (CAPC) is a leading centre for primary care research in the UK, one of nine forming the NIHR School for Primary Care Research. It is part of Bristol Medical School, an internationally recognised centre of excellence for population health research and teaching.

A dedicated team of researchers at the Centre work on domestic abuse projects and IRISi is a co-collaborator and partner on some of these projects including ReProvide, HERA and DRiDVA.

The Health Foundation

The Health Foundation is an independent charity committed to bringing about better health and health care for people in the UK. The Health Foundation’s Exploring Social Franchising programme aims to generate a deeper understanding of the potential of social franchising models for scaling effective health and social care interventions within the NHS.

We are one of four project teams participating in the programme to develop a social franchise to enable the sustainable spread of our intervention, the IRIS Programme. We receive funding and support from the Health Foundation, including technical expertise on social franchising, and attend programme learning events. The Health Foundation has also commissioned a programme-wide evaluation to support understanding of the use of social franchising in the UK health and care system. We and our franchisees will support the evaluation through co-designing data collection requirements, providing access to data as requested, hosting site visits and attending learning events.

https://www.health.org.uk

STADV

Standing Together Against Domestic Violence is a UK charity bringing communities together to end domestic abuse. They bring local services together to keep people safe

Most public services weren’t designed with domestic abuse in mind, and they often struggle to keep people safe. Poor communication and gaps between services put survivors at risk.

STADV aim to end domestic abuse by changing the way that local services respond to it. They do this through an approach that they pioneered, called the Coordinated Community Response. The Coordinated Community Response brings services together to ensure local systems truly keep survivors safe, hold abusers to account, and prevent domestic abuse.

Their model of a coordinated local partnership to tackle and ultimately prevent domestic violence is now widely accepted as best practice. They are also a part of the Pathfinder consortium.

http://www.standingtogether.org.uk

Spring Impact

Spring Impact is a not-for-profit social enterprise born out of the frustration of seeing social organisations constantly reinventing the wheel and wasting scarce resources. Spring Impact uses a combination of tested commercial and social principles and extensive practical expertise to support organisations to identify, design and implement the right social replication model to scale their social impact.

IRISi’s response to the launch of the first Women’s Health Plan for Wales

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