What needs to be done and why?
Strategic Issue 1
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
Why
Domestic abuse has a devastating impact on both the victims and the wider community. Providing early intervention and prevention approaches are both life saving and will be cost effective in improving the health and wellbeing of the community.
In view of the fact that disabled people are more likely to be victims of domestic abuse and individuals in Hartlepool are more likely to have a disability or report poor health, it is vital that we have accessible services and information.
Strategic Issue 2
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
Why
Children experience domestic abuse both in their family homes and in their own interpersonal relationships. This can have a lasting adverse impact through childhood and into adulthood.
Strategic Issue 3
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
Why
Without addressing perpetrators behaviour, the cycle of abuse will continue.