National Domestic Violence Delivery Plan
Annual progress report 2007/08
Domestic Violence accounts for 16% of all reported violent incidents. It has more repeat victims than any other crime, with repeat victimisation accounting for 73% of all incidents of domestic violence with over one in four (27%) victims having been victimised three or more times.
Title: National Domestic Violence Delivery Plan: Annual progress report 2007/08
Author: Home Office
Number of pages: 43
Date published: October 2008
Availability: Download full report 
PDF 241Kb
Early identification and intervention
The health service continues to make significant progress in the early identification of, and intervention with, domestic violence victims. Information for professionals on domestic violence is now included in a number of existing publications in order to integrate awareness of domestic violence issues across a wider audience.
In work on domestic violence and children progress has been made to develop an effective framework to tackle the complex issues associated with children and domestic violence. An analysis of a sample of Local Authority Joint Areas Reviews has indicated that many are addressing the effects of domestic violence on children to ensure there is an appropriate response that helps to keep them safe.
During the year several departments produced or revised domestic violence policies including staff training. This work is closely linked with the continuing development of the Corporate Alliance Against Domestic Violence .
Building capacity within the domestic violence sector
The publication of the Government's Tackling Violence Action Plan supported by the new Public Service Agreements provided a firm foundation for a greater focus on serious violence, including domestic violence, for the next three years. The introduction of indicators specifically on domestic violence will help those who have identified domestic violence as a priority.
The Forced Marriage Unit saw a significant increase in workload and a rise in profile during this year. In 2007 the Unit worked on approximately 400 cases of forced marriage and responded to 5000 enquiries. Two key products include the development of the Survivors Handbook and launch of a Survivor's Helpline. Lord Lester's Private Peers Bill to provide civil remedies for victims of forced marriage received Royal Assent and is due to come into force in the Autumn.
We continued to progress the development of a range of standards to ensure consistency in services for victims and perpetrators and we are expecting that these will be launched during 2009. We have continued to fund a matrix of helplines to try and reach as many people as possible and have been working with them to improve the services they provide.
Refuges and other accommodation options have an important role to play in the protection of those at risk from domestic violence and we continued to strengthen accommodation and housing related support. This has included building on the good work of the Sanctuary Programmes, improvement programmes, and funding projects to improve services to black, Asian, minority ethnic and refugee communities.
The HMCS DVD, You don't have to live in fear, about the family court process has been recognised with two international awards and has been well received by practitioners.
Improving the criminal justice response
The Specialist Domestic Violence Courts (SDVC) programme continued to expand and reached a total of 98 courts by April 2008. During the year a review of the 23 SDVCs selected in 2005/6 was undertaken and clearly demonstrated that SDVCs have contributed to the improvements in both justice and safety for victims.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) exceeded their target of 70% by April 2008 for successful prosecutions. Training for all prosecutors, designated caseworkers (now associate prosecutors) and caseworkers has now been completed apart from one area. Violence Against Women was prioritised within the CPS as a national strategic theme for 2007-08 and following a consultation a Strategy and Action Plan have been published.
A domestic violence enforcement campaign was run by the police over the Christmas and New Year period with the aim of spreading good practice from previous campaigns. A key piece of work has been the development of a single model to identify risk led by ACPO and CAADA. The model will be tested during 2008.
Supporting victims and managing perpetrators
We are committed to supporting the national roll-out (subject to the results of our evaluation) of Independent Domestic Violence Advisers (IDVAs) and Independent Sexual Violence Advisers (ISVAs) to enable all victims of sexual and domestic violence to access their services. The role of IDVAs is pivotal to the Specialist Domestic Violence Court model and Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conferences (MARACs). The former was demonstrated in the review of the SDVCs, "Justice with Safety" which found that just under six thousand victim referrals were made to IDVAs and around three-quarters (74%) of clients involved in the court process were supported by IDVAs at court.
We provided £3million to seed-fund IDVAs in the 64 SDVC areas during 2007-08 and new areas in advance of the accreditation of further areas. The Home Office has funded 38 ISVAs during this year and this funding will also be continued during 2008-9. An independent evaluation of both roles has been commissioned and is due for publication in early 2009.
MARACs have become the cornerstone of our approach to identified high-risk victims of domestic violence. Following the announcement in March 2007 of £1.85m to set up MARACs the Government has now funded over 100. During 2007-08 data was collected from 79 MARACs. This showed that from 1st April 2007- 31st March 2008 almost 12,000 cases were brought to MARACs with nearly 17,000 children affected. The Tackling Violence Action Plan announced national roll-out by 2011.
The National Offender Management Service (NOMS) domestic violence programmes have been fully implemented in all 42 Probation areas since 2006 following the completion of the largest programme implementation project within England and Wales. NOMS has commissioned a programme of research designed to evaluate programmes in the statutory sector. Women Safety work is an integral part of the accredited perpetrator programmes. NOMS continues to support these by investing in local capacity to deliver training and the development of occupational standards.
The Health Relationships Programme is located in seven prison establishments with a total capacity of 90 places per year. Capacity has increased during the year and there are plans to develop further at other potential sites. Work is also ongoing to look at measures and tools used to better identify risk.
Work has started on the development of a NOMS Domestic Abuse strategy which will be launched in early 2009.
Getting a Copy
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Last update: Friday, October 31, 2008