Summary
Strategic Issue 1
There is an insufficient availability of support services for victims and survivors of domestic abuse, particularly for those who are hidden from services or have complex needs. This limits early intervention, recovery, and long-term safety.
What needs to be done
- Early intervention and prevention. Awareness raising and promotion of services, especially with hidden victims (such as those with disabilities, from ethnic minority groups or different cultural backgrounds and male victims) and those with complex needs
- Utilise existing service user forums to ensure that victim and survivor voice informs the commissioning and delivery of services
- Ensure services are accessible, trauma-informed and use professional curiosity when individuals decline their service or do not engage
- Provide training to multi-agency practitioners in recognising and responding to domestic abuse and ensure that practitioners are aware of the many forms of domestic abuse and the definition of ‘personally connected’ covering intimate partners and family members
- Ensure pathways and information sharing is robust, including MARAC, MATAC and HRAP
- Consider alternative safe accommodation options including specialist, by and for and move-on.
- Review the proportion of out of area referrals both in and out of Hartlepool.
- Consider a multi-agency dashboard to create consistency in the recording and reporting of data relating to domestic abuse
- Understand the effectiveness of the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme (Clare’s Law).
- Continue to implement the Safe and Together model across multi-agency partners to standardise the response victims receive.
Strategic Issue 2
Children affected by domestic abuse are not consistently recognised as victims in their own right, and current services are not always responsive to their needs—whether in the home, in their own relationships, or in cases of child/adolescent to parent violence and abuse (CAPVA).
What needs to be done
- Focus on early intervention and prevention to ensure all children understand healthy relationships
- Ensure all services are recognising children as victims in their own right
- Ensure therapeutic support services are available for children
- Review the prevalence of CAPVA, the demand on services and ensure that the offer in place can meet the need of children and their parents.
- Understand the effectiveness of Operation Encompass
- Continue to implement the Safe and Together model across multi-agency partners to standardise the response children as victims receive.
Strategic Issue 3
There is a lack of consistent accountability for perpetrators of domestic abuse, and existing intervention services may not be sufficiently effective in changing behaviour or reducing repeat offending.
What needs to be done
- Support the OPCC Perpetration Strategy
- Review the criminal justice response to perpetrators within Hartlepool
- Monitor the effectiveness and engagement of perpetrator provision
- Reduce repeat offending and the number of repeat high risk MARAC cases
- Continue to implement the Safe and Together model across multi-agency partners to standardise the response perpetrators receive.