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The US government spends millions on combating domestic violence. The UK spends nothing. But change is in the air…

On Sunday, Methodist churches reverberated to the sound of smashing china as a symbol of the extent of domestic violence within the church community. Within the Church, it affects one in four women and a smaller minority of men; figures which, according to research, reflects the proportion of those battered in society as a whole.

A few days earlier, footballer Paul Gascoigne and his ex-wife Sheryl, were pictured in the tabloids emerging from a plush hotel after a night spent together - on this occasion, with no blood spilt. Gascoigne has been dry for months after counselling in Arizona. Sheryl has also been the beneficiary of therapy. Both were smiling.

Recognition of the extent and consequences of domestic violence have improved but resources remain dire and the response of some institutions is still uneven. Many police forces fail to impose injunctions while the Crown Prosecution Service has also often refused to prosecute, or has downgraded the crime. This week, however, it announced a new policy of acting tougher.

The new approach is welcome but, as Sandra Horley, chief executive of Refuge, which supports more than 60,000 women and children a year, points out, what's desperately lacking is a strong co-ordinated government strategy linking all civil and criminal initiatives.

Last year, the US federal government allocated $1.3bn dollars to tackle violence in the home. Here, government gives nothing. Refuge struggles financially and only one in three women who call its help line for emergency housing can be found a place. Woman's Trust, a London charity that offers free counselling and workshops to more than 200 women a year affected by domestic violence, is in danger of closing in January because it can't raise the £90,000 annually required to stay in operation. It received a small grant from the National Lottery Charities Board in 1998 but has been told that it can have no more funding. Yet, a rare breed pet owners' help line is allocated £600,000.

Domestic violence is now the remit of the newly appointed women's minister, Barbara Roche. She sits on a newly created inter-ministerial committee on domestic violence which includes Harriet Harman, solicitor general, responsible for the new CPS approach. The committee's first task is to open the Cabinet's eyes to the reality of what happens when one individual beats another in the name of "love". And argue for hard cash and more action.  

- Woman's Trust Counselling and Support Services on 020 7352 7775, Refuge helpline 0870 5995443