Terms of Reference

This is an online forum for professionals who support women survivors of domestic abuse to discuss law and policy relating to criminal and family law.

FLOWS Forum is part of the wider FLOWS – Finding Legal Options for Women Survivors – project and is funded by the Tampon Tax Fund. FLOWS is run in partnership between RCJ Advice and Rights of Women. You can find more information on FLOWS here.

FLOWS Forum is hosted and managed by Rights of Women.

Objectives

This forum aims to support frontline domestic abuse support services. Members are encouraged to avoid the use of technical legal language if possible.

The objectives of the FLOWS Forum are to:

facilitate peer-support and the sharing of best practice
strengthen the understanding of forum members on family and criminal law justice, and particularly legal and policy issues that affect survivors of domestic abuse
share advice-tools including templates and learning materials

Scope of the forum

FLOWS Forum focuses on family law in the context of violence against women. This includes, for example:

Eligibility for family law legal aid including the Domestic Violence Gateway
Access to family and criminal law advice and support
Specific areas of family law (such as domestic violence injunctions, disputes relating to children, divorce) and criminal law (such as charging processes and the Victims Code)
Court procedure and the experiences of women in the family and criminal courts

Membership

Membership is open to individuals and representatives based in England from:

charities, not-for-profit and voluntary organisations working with women survivors of domestic abuse;
legal professionals who work with women survivors of domestic abuse experiencing criminal and family law issues;
Academics with a focus on family law in the context of violence against women

To join

To join the FLOWS Forum please register. You will be asked to provide your full name (you can have a different screen name which will be visible to other members), job title and organisation / affiliation and work email address when you submit your join request.