Listen to the latest episode of PESPod for an important story you might not have expected. The Public Employment Service (PES) in Sweden has shown how its frontline services can identify and support victims of domestic abuse – and save lives.

Listen now to Episode 10 of PESPod to learn all about the work of the Swedish PES (Arbetsformedlingen) in identifying and supporting victims of domestic abuse. Learn how and why it decided to take on this potentially life-saving role and the measures it took to adapt its frontline services to the task – a journey that led the PES to winning the 2022 Swedish Gender Equality Award – all despite more than 20% cuts in staff numbers in 2019.

Åsa Frostfeldt, project manager of this pioneering work, explains how the potentially surprising connection between the work of the PES and this difficult social topic was made. When the National Board of Health and Welfare conducted a detailed review of domestic homicides in Sweden in 2016-2017, they found that “many of them were unemployed. Both the perpetrators and the victims”.

This meant that many of the people involved had been accessing PES services. “What was so obvious was that we had not talked about the violence,” remembers Ms. Frostfeldt. “We had not seen the violence so therefore we could not prevent it.” There was a collective realisation amongst authorities in Sweden that potential opportunities to save victims had been missed.

One of the key outcomes of the review was therefore a new mandate for the PES in 2018 to start working on this topic. “So that's what we've been doing now for the last 4 years,” explains Ms. Frostfeldt. “We've been working on this, changing our routines and doing a lot of gender awareness training for all the [frontline] staff that are actually meeting unemployed people.”

Hear more about this critical and inspiring work, including spotting the invisible signs of coercive control within domestic relationships, such as “digital and financial abuse”. Also learn how and why the PES also has a role in providing some of the solutions – alongside other service providers – to help vulnerable women achieve financial independence and physical safety. You may be surprised by some of the lessons learned along the way.

Listen to this moving episode of PESPod now and then also check out a related English-language podcast from the Swedish PES themselves entitled: Partner Violence - A Hidden Cause of Unemployment.

Any comments about PESPod or suggestions for future episodes? Write to us at: EMPL-PES-SECRETARIAT@ec.europa.eu. Finally, do not forget to subscribe to PESPod wherever you listen to your podcasts.