CC(3) DA21

Communities and Culture Committee

Scrutiny Inquiry : Domestic Abuse

Response from Neath Port Talbot Domestic Abuse Partnership

Introduction

Neath Port Talbot Domestic Abuse Forum was established in 1997. However, it was not until 2004 and through the employment of a Coordinator; with Home Office and now Welsh Assembly funding, has the forum been able to take forward the Domestic Abuse Agenda in Neath Port Talbot.

The work of the forum focuses on the five key outcomes of the All Wales Strategy for Tackling Domestic Abuse, these include:

1. Reducing the number of domestic abuse homicides

2. Reducing the prevalence on domestic abuse

3. Increase the rate that domestic abuse is reported

4. Increase the rate of domestic abuse offences that are brought to justice

5. Ensure that victims of domestic abuse are adequately protected and supported

Neath Port Talbot is unique in that it also receives funding from the Welsh Assembly Government through its Communities First Programme for a Communities First Domestic Abuse Community Of Interest. The partnership has three key aims:

1. To provide opportunities for those affected by domestic abuse to increase their capacity, build their confidence with the aim that they can become active members of society.

2. To bring those who have been affected by domestic abuse together with service providers to identify gaps in service provision and to work to improve existing services.

3. To raise public and professional awareness of domestic abuse through training, attending & organising events and working with children & young people.

Key Issues

The availability and accessibility of support for different groups; including counselling services for - men, women, children, people from ethnic minority communities, older people and disabled people.

The partnerships Cefnogi Project is working with New Pathways in Merthyr Tydfil to provide a Neath Port Talbot based pilot-counselling project for individuals affected by domestic abuse. Service providers had repeatedly expressed the difficulties in accessing counselling services. The project will run for one year and for one day per week initially with a view to use the findings from monitoring and evaluation to support future funding applications.

Much attention is paid to elder abuse, but little distinction is often made between that important issue and the issue of domestic abuse amongst older people. A research paper published in Scotland identified a number of issues that need to be considered when approaching this area of work. As a result of our own and other research, the partnership is working closely with Neath Port Talbot Older Persons’ Council to produce literature, develop training and work with service providers to tackle this important issue.

The partnership actively work with 'Progressive Women in Wales’ - a group of women from BME communities in Neath Port Talbot and have facilitated the organisation of a number of events raising awareness of the issues faced by BME women in Neath Port Talbot.

A further project introduced by the partnership is the Refuge IT project, whereby funding was secured through Communities@One to provide IT access, training and support to women and children within refuge. The objectives of the project are to build capacity of project users, giving them the tools to develop new skills and to make the experience of living in refuge slightly easier & to remain in contact with friends and family that may have been left behind.

The Morpheus project allows individuals affected by domestic abuse to attend courses that build on attributes people have but don’t portray e.g. confidence building, self esteem. This course runs for 8 weeks and there are 12 individuals attending the first of 2 courses. The follow on stage of the project are courses that promote formal education, training and employment opportunities.

The provision of services for adults and children who have suffered sexual abuse within a domestic context.

There are currently three sexual assault referral centres either operating or being developed with the South Wales Area and a total of six within Wales. The Neath Port Talbot Domestic abuse Partnership is committed to working with service providers in any way possible to ensure the success of these centres and to the services they provide to victims.

The response of different sectors to domestic abuse, including criminal justice, health and social care agencies

Real progress has been achieved in the criminal justice response to domestic abuse. The police, CPS, judiciary and probation service have all made strides to improve their services.

Neath Port Talbot’s Specialist Domestic Violence Court (SDVC) started in September 2005 after almost 18 months of preparation. It was then granted pilot status by the Home Office. Steady progress has been made during this time and the process of the SDVC is continually developing, along with new SDVC’s being introduced across the UK and further commitment from national government. Multi Agency Risk Assessment Conferences (MARAC’s) form part of the criminal justice response, so too do the Independent Domestic Violence Advisor; of which Neath Port Talbot has both successfully operating in Neath Port Talbot.

The Independent Domestic Violence Advisor (IDVA) is employed through the local authority. In the first year of operating the IDVA received 584 referrals and was able to engage with 40% of those referrals. We are currently awaiting a final funding decision from the Ministry of Justice for the current financial year. Safer Neath Port Talbot Community Safety Partnership (CSP) realised the vital service that the IDVA provides to the most vulnerable victims and as a result, the funding provided from the Ministry of Justices’ Victims Surcharge Fund will be 'topped up’ locally by the CSP via the CRASB Fund.

During 2007/8 Neath Port Talbot received a one off Home Office grant of £15,000 to provide support for the MARAC process. This grant was used to employ a MARAC Support Worker, which freed Police Domestic Abuse Officers from time consuming administrative duties and allowed them to focus on the needs of victims. The post was deemed to be such an important factor in the overall service provided to victims that the CSP and Police agreed to joint fund the post during 2008/9.

A new sub group of the domestic abuse forum is currently being set up to focus on the issues surrounding Children and Young People, working closely with the Children and Young People’s Partnership, Neath Port Talbot’s Children’s Services and the Police. It is anticipated that the focus of this group will be to consider the needs of children caught up in domestic abuse and the adequacy of local services in meeting these needs. The sub group is also in the process of organising a conference with key speakers focussing on the effects domestic abuse has on children and education, health and offending.

The Ante Natal Care Pathway for domestic abuse has been operating since early 2006 in Neath Port Talbot and is now in place across Wales, similarly care pathways and pilot projects are also planned to operate within the field of A+E and Women’s Health Services.

As part of the training and awareness programme in Neath Port Talbot, the partnership is working with the Local Health Board and is providing training to all local GP’s and Practice Nurses. We are also working closely with local health centres to introduce drop in and information services and have worked in partnership with the LHB and the National Domestic Abuse Helpline to ensure adequate information is displayed and is accessible in each and every GP practice and chemist in Neath Port Talbot.

Since early 2006 the partnership has delivered core domestic training to student nurses at Swansea University. This is now an ongoing programme, with approximately 600 student nurses benefiting.

How the national strategy is delivered at a local level, the ways in which different bodies and agencies work with each other to ensure the best response

Locally Neath Port Talbot has an action plan which outlines how the forum is working towards each of the key aims. Below is an example of progress against each aim.

To raise awareness and understanding of domestic abuse issues within Neath Port Talbot.

• Multi agency training every six weeks. To date approximately 150 professionals and members of the community have attended this one-day training event
• Tailor made training to a variety of audiences including teachers, social workers, nursery staff, staff at Hillside secure unit and GP’s
• Funded equality and diversity training focussing on domestic abuse from a BME perspective including forced marriage and honour based violence to 90 front line professionals
• 600 student nurses benefited from domestic abuse training
• Production of a wide range of resources to distribute, these include, trolley tokens, lip balms, beer mats, fridge magnets, car bumper stickers, personal attack alarms and leaflets & posters for a wide range of audiences in a wide range of languages. Our resources always display the National Helpline
• Regular attendance at local events distributing literature and resources. Events include older persons’ events, health days, community carnivals, Cardiff Mardi Gras and many more
• Organise events according to annual calendar, including White Ribbon Week, International Women’s Day, Valentines Week, Summer River and Beach Festivals
• Our annual Christmas campaigns have previously included high profile launches with the use of billboards, bus stops, beer mats, washroom posters, community magazines

To educate and inform children and young people to enable them to make informed choices.

• Produced DVD Tainted Love featuring local young people, with high profile launch. The purpose of the DVD is to promote discussion about healthy relationships amongst young people
• Developing a resource pack to be used with young people in schools, youth offending team and youth services using the Tainted Love DVD
• Attend Neath Port Talbot College freshers week and other events to provide information and literature to students
• Take part in the annual Crucial Crew event, at which approximately 2000 year 6 school children attend to hear a variety of personal safety messages

To improve the current service provision for all victims and to particularly increase the safe choices for women, children and young people who experience domestic abuse.

• The Homelessness and Housing subgroup of the domestic abuse forum has been established to look at current service provision within its field and particularly to work with agencies to improve these services and fill gaps where possible.
• The 'Make a House a Home’ project, whilst in its infancy, aims to bring together key service providers to provide practical support to victims of domestic abuse when moving into new rented accommodation. This support will include basic decorating assistance.
• The 'Stop Repeat Victim’ project is run by Safer Neath Port Talbot. One of its key aims is to provide target hardening to the premises of those experiencing domestic abuse, supporting them with practicalities available to remain and feel safe in their own properties
• The domestic abuse forum Children and Young people subgroup as mentioned above is also planning a conference for 7^th November and will focus on the effects domestic abuse has on children and young people, particularly, education, health and offending behaviours.

To protect children and young people in Wales from the negative impact of domestic abuse.

• The partnership has secured funding to provide a wide range of activities to promote confidence and self esteem building for children and young people during the school holidays during 2008/9. Activities during 2007/8 included bowling outings, day trips to St Fagans, a day of singing and song writing coaching; some of which many of us take for granted.

To hold abusers accountable for their behaviour

• The work of the SDVC and MARAC processes have already been mentioned
• The probations services Integrated Domestic Abuse Programme (IDAP) is available to use as a sanction within the SDVC in Neath Port Talbot, however resources and demand have contributed to longer waiting lists
• The partnership are liasing with the NSPCC’s Caring Dads project to consider the possibility of running the voluntary perpetrator programme within Neath Port Talbot

The allocation of resources to tackle domestic abuse and any potential conflict between the aims and objectives of different funding sources.

Funding is an ongoing concern within the field, however, three year funding from the Welsh Assemble Government for Coordinators in welcomed. However, funding to support central government initiative remains a constant concern. IDVA and MARAC funding have previously run on either an annual or one off basis, with an expectation that local CSP’s  and local statutory agencies build long term funding into local budgets.

However, with competing demands from other priority areas within the arena of Community Safety, coupled with cuts to local government funding, this expectation is highly unrealistic.

Local domestic abuse forums would welcome a commitment to 3 year funding from the Home Office and Ministry of Justice to support these vital projects and improve the safety of victims.

Once again however, Neath Port Talbot would like to thank the Welsh Assembly Government for their commitment to tackling domestic abuse and is reflected in their commitment to 3 year funding allocations for coordinators.

Useful Neath Port Talbot Statistics

Number of Incidents Reported to Police 2007/8 - 2,017

Number of Incidents Reported to Police 2006/7 - 1,779

Number of Incidents Reported to Police 2005/6 - 1,866

Number of Referrals made to IDVA Service Feb 07 to Feb 08 - 584

% of referrals who engaged with service - 39%

Number of Calls from Neath Port Talbot landlines to the National Domestic Abuse Helpline:

• 2007/8 - 362
• 2006/7 - 199