The Calderdale Domestic Abuse Strategic Board uses the Home Office definition of domestic abuse:
"Any incident or pattern of incidents of controlling, coercive or threatening behaviour, violence or abuse between those aged 16 or over. And who are or have been intimate partners or family members regardless of gender or sexuality."
This covers (but is not limited to) these types of abuse:
- Psychological.
- Physical.
- Sexual.
- Financial.
- Emotional.
Controlling behaviour: a range of acts designed to make a person subordinate and/or dependent by isolating them from sources of support, exploiting their resources and capacities for personal gain, depriving them of the means needed for independence, resistance and escape and regulating their everyday behaviour.
Coercive behaviour: an act or a pattern of acts of assault, threats, humiliation and intimidation or other abuse that is used to harm, punish, or frighten their victim (this definition includes so called 'honour' based violence, female genital mutilation (FGM) and forced marriage and is clear that victims are not confined to one gender or ethnic group).
National Context
An estimated 1.9 million adults aged 16 to 59 years experienced domestic abuse in the last year, according to the Office for National Statistics Crime Survey for England and Wales (2016/17). This equates to approximately 6 in every 100 adults.
Victims experience an average of 20 incidents of domestic abuse in a year, often with an increase in severity each time.
Safe Lives report that:
- High-risk victims live with domestic abuse for an average of 3 years before getting help.
- 85% of victims seek help five times on average before getting effective help.
- 68% of high-risk victims attempted to leave the perpetrator in the 12 months prior to getting help.
- 76% of high-risk victims had reported the abuse to the police in the 12 months prior to getting help. On average abuse had been reported to the police 2.4 times.
- Male victims, victims from the LGBT community, older victims and victims who are disabled are considered less likely to report domestic abuse and to access mainstream services.
Domestic abuse affects whole families and is not confined to a particular gender, ethnicity, age or sexual orientation. However, there are some recognised characteristics that can mean the individual is more likely to be abused. These include:
- Gender - the Crime Survey indicates that women are more likely to have experienced abuse than men (7.5% of the female population in comparison with 4.3% of the male population).
- Disability - Safe Lives report that disabled women are twice as likely to experience domestic abuse as non-disabled women and are four times as likely to report abuse from multiple perpetrators.
- Age - younger adults are more likely to be subject to interpersonal violence. The majority of high risk victims are in their 20s or 30s.
- Income - women in households with an income of less than £10,000 were 3.5 times more at risk than those in households with an income of over £20,000.
- Pregnancy - nearly one in three women who suffer from domestic abuse during their lifetime reported that the first incidence of violence happened while they were pregnant.
Some Victims of Domestic Abuse are not readily identified.
BAME Victims
Victims from Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds are harder to identify and are under-represented taking into consideration the size of the BAME population. The 2011 census identifies that approximately 13% of the population in the UK are from BAME backgrounds and Safe Lives data indicates that around 15% of high risk victims whose cases are heard at Marac are from BAME backgrounds.
The proportion of victims from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds seeking support with housing, especially refuge interventions, appears much higher than the general BAME UK population proportion, with Safe Lives indicating in the 2014/17 Insights Report that 21% of victims who accessed refuge provision being from BAME backgrounds.
Adults at Risk
An Adult at Risk is usually defined as someone aged 18 years or over who has care or support needs, is experiencing or is at risk of abuse or neglect and is unable or less able to protect themselves from the risk or the experience of abuse or neglect because of those care or support needs.
This can include disabled people, older people, people with mental health needs or people with learning disabilities, amongst others.
It is recognised that adults at risk may be more likely to be abused and also may have increased barriers to recognising and reporting domestic abuse and to accessing mainstream services.
For adults at risk, the perpetrator may be their main care giver, the victim may have limited opportunity to discuss concerns without the perpetrator present and injuries or distress may be incorrectly associated with health conditions, rather than recognised as potential signs of abuse.
Complex Needs
Significant numbers of victims have high levels of complex or multiple needs related to drugs and alcohol. Victims often report additional vulnerability related to financial problems. At least 20% of high-risk victims of abuse report using drugs and/or alcohol. Safe Lives suggest that 40% of high-risk victims of abuse report mental health difficulties. However, the rates of identification of complex needs are variable.
Forced Marriage and Honour Based Abuse
Forced marriage is a criminal offence. A forced marriage is one in which one or both spouses do not or (in the case of some adults with learning or physical disabilities or mental incapacity) cannot consent to the marriage and violence, threats, or any other form of coercion is involved. Coercion may include emotional force, physical force or the threat of physical force and financial pressure.
This should not be confused with arranged marriage, to which case both parties have consented to the union, but can still refuse to marry if they choose.
The Forced Marriage Unit has published national data for 2017, which shows that advice or support related to a possible forced marriage was given in 1,196 cases. Of these:
- 77.8% of cases had a female victim.
- 29.7% of victims were under 18.
- 15.6% of victims were under 16.
- 12.1% of cases involved a victim with a learning disability.
- Of those with learning disabilities, the majority of victims were male and aged between 26 and 30.
The Forced Marriage Unit gave support and advice to the Yorkshire and Humber region in 12.7% of cases, making this the third highest region in terms of FMU input after London and the West Midlands.
Children and Young People
The NSPCC report that 1 in 5 children in the UK have been exposed to domestic abuse.
Safe Lives report that:
- Almost two thirds of children exposed to domestic abuse were also directly harmed.
- Over half of children exposed to abuse said they found it difficult to sleep and almost a third felt like the abuse was their fault.
- Only 57% of children had been referred to children's services prior to the adult victim seeking help, but 80% were known to at least one public agency.
- A quarter of 13-18 year old girls report experiencing physical abuse in their own intimate partner relationships and one-third report experiencing sexual abuse in those relationships.
- Children's outcomes significantly improve across all key measures after support from specialist children's services.
The July 2018 Are They Shouting About Me? report, by the Children's Commissioner, identifies the voices of children living in households with domestic abuse, parental substance misuse and mental health issues.
This report indicates that:
- Most children recognised incidences of domestic abuse, but did not necessarily understand them. Where children were aware, problems at home were sometimes so common that the situation became normalised.
- Children felt very sad, low and depressed, getting upset and angry, feeling lonely, scared and anxious, or ashamed and embarrassed.
- Children would cope by avoiding particular situations, delaying going home, relying on siblings and retreating to their bedrooms.
- Children acknowledged that talking about what was happening at home could help them process their thoughts and feelings, manage their emotions and behaviour and lead to the whole family getting the support that is needed. However, children felt reluctant to talk about what life was like at home, due to fear, anxiety, embarrassment and a lack of trust in others. In addition, when children did tell professionals or other adults, they felt it often rebounded on them, damaging relationships at home. Children said it was easier to speak to adults they were already comfortable with, such as adults at school.
- All of the children were known to children's services and some had received other services. However, many felt that previous support had been centred on addressing parental need and whilst family work may have been provided, there had been limited support for the child as part of this.
Perpetrators
It is noted by Safe Lives that the response to domestic abuse in the UK has been victim-focused, often with an expectation that the victim will leave their home and community and move away from their support network of family and friends.
In many cases the perpetrator is left to continue their life as normal and frequently repeats the same behaviour with new partners, creating more victims.
Safe Lives identify that effective interventions are required for perpetrators, in order to minimise repeat and serial patterns of abuse and complement support for victims and children. However, their Insight Report from 2014 indicated that only 6% of perpetrators of domestic abuse were being supported by a specialist domestic abuse service and 55% were receiving no support at all.
According to the most recent data published by the Office for National Statistics, arrests were made in relation to 46% of reported domestic abuse related offences in England and Wales. Charges were brought following 72% of arrests and 75% of cases resulted in conviction. Although the cohort for each element may be slightly different, due to the time that elapses between offence, arrest, charge and prosecution, this data could indicate that less than a quarter of domestic abuse offences reported to Police result in a conviction with the largest gap being between number of reports and number of arrests.
The overall attrition rate (proportion of cases going through Court with an unsuccessful outcome) for domestic abuse offences in the UK is 24%, with just over half being linked to the victim (e.g. victim withdrawing from the process). It is acknowledged by the Crime Survey that victims may not want to be involved in the prosecution for a number of reasons, for example due to the level of fear and control exerted by the perpetrator.
The Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme, often referred to as Clare's Law, came into effect in 2014 to enable individuals or their family and friends to ask the police if a partner may pose a risk.
According to the Office for National Statistics, in the year ending June 2017, 8490 individuals in England and Wales had made a request under this scheme, which equates to around 1.5 in every 10 000 people. Of the requests made, around 40% were granted information.
Provision
In February 2017, the government set out its draft Domestic Violence and Abuse Bill which will establish a domestic violence and abuse commissioner and define domestic abuse in law. It also outlined measures to ensure that if abusive behaviour involves a child, a court can impose a sentence that reflects the devastating life-long impact that abuse can have on him or her.
In March 2018, the government opened consultation to seek views on some of the specific measures already identified, as well as views on other steps that could be progressed through future domestic abuse legislation.
There were 305 refuge services operating in England and Wales in 2017.
Women's Aid conduct an annual survey and found that 23.6 per cent of referrals, to those refuges responding to their 2015/16 annual survey, were declined because of lack of space.
Women's Aid also states that women often have to travel many miles in order to escape a violent perpetrator. A one day snapshot taken in 2016 indicated that around three quarters of women accommodated in refuges came from a different local authority area to the refuge.
Local Context
In the year April 2017 to March 2018, there were 4,626 incidents of domestic abuse reported to the Police in Calderdale. This was an increase of 6.1% compared to the previous year, the lowest increase in West Yorkshire, with the West Yorkshire average increase for that period at 11.6%.
The Office of National Statistics (ONS) states that recent national increases in the number of domestic abuse-related crimes recorded by the police could be due, in part, to police forces improving their recording of domestic abuse incidents as crimes and to forces actively encouraging victims to come forward to report these crimes. However, domestic abuse continues to be under-reported, with many more offences committed than are reported to and recorded by the police. Victims of domestic violence are more likely, than victims of any other type of crime, to experience repeat victimisation (CPS). One of the objectives of the Domestic Abuse Hub is to increase the number of incidents reported to the Police.
The repeat victim rate for domestic abuse in Calderdale was 45% for the period April 2017 to March 2018. This is slightly lower than the West Yorkshire average of 45.8%.
Domestic incidents include violence, verbal disputes, criminal damage, breach of orders, coercion and control. In Calderdale over half of the incidents reported for the year up to March 2018 related to violent crime. In West Yorkshire, violent crime accounts for just under half of domestic incidents.
A breakdown of data from the Domestic Abuse Hub for January to May 2018 showed that 85% of notifications to the Hub were for female victims.
BAME Victims
Around 13% of the population of Calderdale are from BAME backgrounds (2011 census neighbourhood data), however only 9% of victims whose cases were heard at Marac between April 2017 and March 2018 were from BAME backgrounds.
As indicated nationally, BAME victims in Calderdale appear more likely to engage with support, with 24% of the victims who used the Staying Safe Domestic Abuse Support Service in Calderdale being from BAME backgrounds.
In addition, the proportion of victims accessing the Domestic Abuse Accommodation Service (Refuge) in Calderdale between April 2017 and March 2018 varied between 40% and 57%. This cannot be directly compared with the Calderdale BAME population however, as a large number of victims accessing this refuge were from other local authorities.
Adults at Risk
In the year April 2017 to March 2018, 88 actions were sent to the Domestic Abuse Hub in Calderdale for people who it was thought may fit the Care Act criteria for safeguarding. Of those, 15 were assessed as matching the Care Act criteria and progressed to a safeguarding referral.
Complex Needs
Significant numbers of victims have high levels of complex or multiple needs related to drugs and alcohol.
A breakdown of Calderdale data from the Domestic Abuse Hub for January to May 2018 showed that there was a link to substance abuse for 14% of all victims.
Anecdotally, professionals report that victims often have additional vulnerability related to financial problems and mental health issues, however the rates of identification of complex needs are variable.
Forced Marriage and Honour Based Abuse
Police data identifies that there were 14 incidents of Forced Marriage and/or Honour Based Abuse recorded for Calderdale between April 2017 and March 2018. This represents 4% of all recorded incidents of Forced Marriage and Honour Based Abuse recorded in West Yorkshire for that period. This is the lowest proportion in West Yorkshire, with the highest being Bradford with 36% of the total.
A breakdown of victim characteristics is available on a West Yorkshire level, but this is not specific to Calderdale. It shows that:
- 74% of victims were adults.
- 26% of victims were under 18.
- 16% of victims were under 16.
- 90% of victims were Asian and 6% white
- 92% of victims were female.
Children and Young People
In the year April 2017 to March 2018, domestic abuse was identified as a factor in 4048 Early Intervention notifications in relation to 2503 children and young people in Calderdale.
This is an increase of 10% on the number of notifications and an increase of 5% in the number of children and young people on the previous year.
Around half of children and young people linked to notifications were female and half male, with a small number recorded as other or not known.
About a third of notifications related to children pre-birth to 4 years, with another third relating to children aged 5 to 10 years. A quarter of notifications related to children and young people aged 10 to 15 years and 10% to those aged 16 and above.
60% of the children and young people, who were linked to notifications in April 2017 to March 2018, had been linked to at least one other notification in the same or the previous year. Of those children, 44% were linked to two notifications, 35% were linked to 3 or 4 notifications, 15% were linked to between 5 and 7 notifications and 6% were linked to between 8 and 18 notifications between April 2016 and March 2018.
A breakdown of data from the Domestic Abuse Hub for January to May 2018 showed that 77% of notifications to the Hub included children and 7% indicated a pregnancy.
Perpetrators
In Calderdale for the period April 2017 to March 2018, around 54% of reported domestic abuse offences resulted in an arrest.
Charges were brought following approximately 35% of arrests and around 80% of cases resulted in a conviction.
Although the cohort for each element may be slightly different, due to the time that elapses between offence, arrest, charge and prosecution, this data could indicate that around 15% of domestic abuse offences reported to Police in Calderdale result in a conviction, with the largest gap being between arrest and charge.
The overall attrition rate (proportion of cases going through Court with an unsuccessful outcome) for domestic abuse offences is lower in Calderdale than West Yorkshire and the proportion that is linked to the victim (for example, victim withdrawing from the process) is also lower in Calderdale than the West Yorkshire average, reported at 58% for Calderdale for April 2017 to March 2018 (West Yorkshire 63%).
It is acknowledged in the Crime Survey for England and Wales that victims may not want to be involved in the prosecution for a number of reasons, for example due to the level of fear and control exerted by the perpetrator.
The majority of perpetrators in Calderdale are male and complex needs relating to drugs and alcohol are prevalent. Anecdotally, professionals also identify that many perpetrators have mental health issues.
A breakdown of Calderdale data from the Domestic Abuse Hub for January to May 2018 showed that 87% of notifications related to a male perpetrator, with a link to substance abuse for 49% of all perpetrators.
Current provision
Governance
In 2015, key partners pooled funding under the Calderdale Domestic Abuse Strategic Board in order to provide a consistent approach to funding domestic abuse services, using a needs led approach and working to shared priorities. The Domestic Abuse Strategy for 2016-19 identifies the following priorities for Calderdale:
- Reduce the incidents of domestic abuse in Calderdale
- Reduce the percentage of repeat incidents of domestic abuse and violence
- Ensure effective protection of adult and child victims
The Domestic Abuse Hub is a partnership arrangement hosted by the Police and was established in January 2016, in order to provide a more timely response to victims, children and perpetrators of domestic abuse. The Daily Hub has now merged with the MARAC. A total of 1717 cases were discussed at the daily meeting in the year April 2017 to March 2018.
A review of the Domestic Abuse Hub found that the process has improved joint working between agencies and raised the profile of the specialist domestic abuse support service in Calderdale, Staying Safe. Professionals from partner agencies are aware of incidents earlier and give a more in depth knowledge of families so support can be offered immediately.
The National Probation Service are proactive participants in the Domestic Abuse Hub and attend the daily meeting when necessary to share information on cases managed by them.
A dedicated Domestic Abuse Health team are part of the Hub and provide training, capacity building and a single point of contact for health providers to ensure information is shared and action taken at the first opportunity.
A process is established for sharing information where children are involved, as detailed in the section below (Services for Children and Young People).
Four Domestic Homicide Reviews are underway in Calderdale and the resulting action plan will be taken forward by the Domestic Abuse Strategic Board. The first focuses on understanding, recognising and responding to risk, as well as improving support for victims, children and perpetrators.
Services for victims
A Victim Support Hub has been established in the Customer First building in Horton Street, Halifax on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons.
Specialist Domestic Abuse Support Service
Staying Safe is the Specialist Domestic Abuse Support Service in Calderdale. It provides support to anyone aged 16 or over who has been affected by domestic abuse and who lives in Calderdale, including support through the court process. Support is also available for children 5 years and above, who have been affected by domestic abuse.
Approximately 700 victims of domestic abuse engaged with Staying Safe in the year April 2017 to March 2018.
A further 330 victims engaged with the Independent Domestic Violence Advocate (IDVA) as part of the Staying Safe service.
In the year April 2017 to March 2018, an average of 91% of those who had used the Domestic Abuse Support Service identified an improvement in their overall situation and 82% of those who had used the IDVA service identified an improvement.
In addition, risk was assessed as having reduced for 73% of adults who had used the service.
IDVA Car
In 2018, the IDVA CAR service was commissioned as a West Yorkshire wide service by the Police for a year to March 2019. The first attendance by the Police at a domestic abuse incident and the initial response is crucial in getting better outcomes for victims. This service involves a specialist worker going out with the Police on the initial call-out on Friday and Saturday evenings. It has led to double the number of positive criminal justice outcomes across the region.
Refuge
Calderdale has one refuge providing 21 units of self-contained accommodation with housing related support, as well as floating support for both women and men.
In the year April 2017 to March 2018, the refuge provided accommodation and support to 73 women fleeing domestic abuse. The number of referrals received was much higher; however there are a number of reasons that referrals are not accepted such as there being no suitable vacancies, the individual disengaging or the support needs or risk to others being considered too high. The majority of people accessing the service were from outside of the Calderdale borough. This can be for a number of reasons, such as safety.
The exit survey completed by the refuge in April 2017 identified that 69% of people considered their situation to be poor or very poor when entering the refuge; this had reduced to 6% on leaving the refuge. In addition, 81% felt the service was excellent and the remaining respondents felt the service was good.
In September 2018, the Council began providing this service as part of the wider temporary accommodation and housing related support provision. This enabled provision of a more flexible service to both women and men fleeing domestic abuse and enabled more individuals to remain in the Calderdale area, where appropriate and in their best interests.
Services for children and young people
Where children are present or linked to a Domestic Abuse incident it will result in the Police sending either a notification to the Council’s Early Intervention (EI) Team or a contact to MAST. Notifications to Early Intervention are shared with schools and others, as well as the child’s key worker, if relevant, in order for them to provide support. When a contact is made to MAST there is a response within one working day.
For notifications, schools are updated usually the same day as the information is received by the EI Team. Recent changes have been made to improve the quality of information sent from Police with notifications, in line with the West Yorkshire standard, to give a fuller understanding of the background issues.
Challenging Connections training is rolled out to the Early Years workforce and designated Early Years Emotional Health and Wellbeing Champions complete specific domestic abuse training. In addition a Domestic Abuse support guide has been provided to this sector.
Each school has a designated safeguarding lead who completes Domestic Abuse training and is responsible for cascading this training to the school workforce.
Following consultation with schools, it was identified that more support was needed to deliver work on Sex and Relationships Education (SRE). The Healthy Relationships Resource, produced in partnership with schools, includes materials to support delivery of awareness raising work on domestic abuse, child sexual exploitation and includes SEND appropriate resources.
There are a number of emotional health and wellbeing resources available for children and young people in Calderdale, including the Open Minds Website for advice, support and signposting on local and national services, the Kooth online counselling support service for young people aged 11-25 and Time Out activities for 10-19 year olds.
As well as providing to support to adults the Specialist Domestic Abuse Support Service in Calderdale, Staying Safe, also provides specific support to young people experiencing domestic abuse in their own relationships and to children aged 5 and above who have experienced domestic abuse in their family environment.
Around 100 young people and 40 children engaged with this specialist service in the year April 2017 to March 2018.
98% of the young people identified an improvement in their overall situation after receiving support from Staying Safe and 88% of children who had accessed the service felt happier.
In addition, risk was assessed as having reduced for 78% of young people who had used the service.
Of the individuals accessing the refuge service in the year April 2017 to March 2018, 63% had one child or more staying with them. The refuge provision in Calderdale includes a specific children’s worker to provide additional support to those children.
The Respect Young People’s Programme, which delivers 1 to 1 work with families to address abusive behaviour from young people towards parents/carers and siblings, has been delivered by the Council’s Family Intervention and Youth Offending Teams. 26 young people completed the programme between September 2016 and July 2018.
Services for Perpetrators
There is a Domestic Abuse Perpetrators Programmes in Calderdale, delivered by Yorkshire Children’s Centre and funded by the Big Lottery. This is a programme for higher risk male offenders aged 18 and over. Between December 2015 and July 2018, 31 men completed this programme.
The project has recently been extended across West Yorkshire and the Police and Crime Commissioner is working towards commissioning a second programme, based on early intervention.
The West Yorkshire Community Rehabilitation Company deliver two court mandated programmes for National Probation Service (high risk) and Community Rehabilitation Company (low and medium risk) offenders: Building Better Relationships and Safer Relationships. In the year April 2016 to March 2018, 75 offenders engaged with these programmes.
Domestic Abuse Court
The specialist court takes place on Monday or Thursday with the first hearing taking place in Bradford. Trials may take place across the week in Bradford, Leeds or Kirklees. Calderdale Community transport volunteers are taking some victims to court under an agreement with the Staying Safe service. There continues to be strong partnership working to ensure the process is running as smoothly as possible.
The West Yorkshire Criminal Justice Board is leading on establishing a video link following a successful bid by WomenCentre to the Police and Crime Commissioners. It will mean that the most vulnerable victims are able to give evidence without having to attend court. It is expected that the facility will be available from October 2018.
User views
In 2015 Huddersfield University were commissioned by the Domestic Abuse Strategic Board to carry out research with victims of domestic abuse in Calderdale. The views were used to help shape our services both under the new support service contract and in other strands of work taking place. Researchers spoke to 61 victims across Calderdale. Recommendations from the research and action taken as a result include:
| Recommendation | Action |
|---|---|
| An on-going programme of work in schools with children and young people, identifying the nature of both domestic abuse but also healthy relationships | West Yorkshire Healthy Relationships Resource for schools has been produced and support is being developed for school staff to deliver this. Sex and Relationship Education to be a statutory requirement for schools from next year. |
| A substantial awareness-raising exercise across Calderdale informing the general public as to the nature, and the unacceptability, of domestic abuse, how to report and what services are available | Let’s Be Clear Campaign – key message being that DA can be experienced by people of any age and any gender. |
| Involvement by survivors in services | Service user feedback is given as part of service monitoring and evaluation. Service users to be consulted as part of the Domestic Abuse Support Service Specification review. A survey for children and young people is being carried out in November 2018 to get views about what works well and what needs to improve. |
| Services for male survivors of domestic abuse, which should be well publicised | Calderdale Staying Safe Service is for male and female victims of domestic abuse and male support workers are available. |
| More provision for perpetrators of domestic abuse | There is currently a service for medium and high risk perpetrators, delivered by Yorkshire Children’s Centre. This is lottery funded and work is underway to gain funding to maintain the service beyond April 2019. The Police and Crime Commissioner is carrying out a procurement process for a second service, to provide early support to perpetrators at standard risk level. It is expected that the new contract will be issues in April 2019. |
| All relevant practitioner groups receiving regular and substantial training |
Level 1/foundation level e-learning is available via the Calderdale Safeguarding Board free of charge to statutory and voluntary sector organisations. Face to face training is delivered by the Staying Safe Service as follows;
A number of other bespoke sessions are delivered to teams/agencies on request. In addition a number of agencies working with those who have complex needs have achieved the West Yorkshire Domestic Abuse Quality Mark as follows: Recovery Steps, SWYPT and Insight. Locala will gain this by March 2019. |
Unmet / future need
Key areas of future need include:
- Perpetrators: Multi-agency working to improve options and interventions for addressing the behaviour of domestic abuse perpetrators, with particular emphasis on:
- Preventative work
- Those with complex needs
- Improved engagement with support services.
- Children and Young People: Improvement in access to emotional health and wellbeing support for children and young people who have experienced domestic abuse. This includes the need for:
- Targeted work in settings where it is known that a disproportionate number of children have experienced domestic abuse.
- Specialist domestic abuse resources to be more accessible and included in the wider emotional wellbeing offer.
- Further capacity building in schools and support to deliver sessions on healthy relationships.
- Evaluation of current emotional wellbeing provision to find out what works best for those experiencing domestic abuse.
- Listening to the views of children and young people about what works well and what needs to improve in relation to support.
- Victims of domestic abuse:
- Improve support offer for both victims of abuse who have complex needs by following the WiFi model (creative, person centred approach) where possible.
- Ensure those who are likely to be disproportionately affected are able to access support, for example those with disabilities/other complex needs.
- Ensure continued IDVA provision to support victims through the criminal justice process.
- Ensure all those working with victims and perpetrators are aware of and can respond appropriately to coercive and controlling behaviour.