Domestic Violence
Developing a Holistic Response to Domestic Violence
Programme Item
Workshop 3
"Developing a Holistic Response to Domestic Violence"
Sue Bridges (Cheshire Domestic Abuse Partnership)
Key points from the presentation:
Cheshire Domestic Abuse Partnership was established in 1997. Recent funding from the Home Office Crime Prevention Strategy: Violence Against Women), has enabled the partnership to develop projects including police interventions, outreach services and data monitoring
Funding challenges include: imbedding domestic violence into the central work of Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships (CDRPs); persuading partnerships and agencies that "front-loading" funding into prevention is cost effective; and, engaging managers at a strategic level
Domestic violence carries a high cost in comparison to other crimes (e.g. vehicle crime and burglary), yet attracts less funding
Domestic violence has been found to be a causal factor in health and social inequalities and may be a significant factor in employee absenteeism and poor performance
Research has found that children can be deeply affected by witnessing domestic violence, and in up to 70% of domestic violence cases, the perpetrator will also be directly abusing children in the family (Barnardos).
Key points from the discussion:
What is partnership working & who defines the priorities?
Sustainable partnerships require commitment & participation at every level.
Statutory services can be perceived as "taking over" with voluntary agencies becoming isolated and feeling "used". NB. Women may be reluctant to report domestic violence to statutory services.
Services must be developed from the needs of service users, not the agendas of statutory agencies – the role of the voluntary sector is crucial in informing this. Women's Aid must be central to developing a domestic violence strategy
Political support from local authority councillors can help to imbed the strategy in the work of local CDRPs or other partnerships
Domestic violence and rape are not included as targets for performance in CDRPs or statutory agencies (e.g. Social services) therefore do not attract funding from these sources.
It may be possible to use Human Rights legislation to lever agencies into responding, including making funds available.
Ethnicity, culture etc. may make some communities hard to reach – we need to find ways to take services to them.
The Government white paper, "Women's Mental Health: Into the Mainstream" and the findings from the Home office Crime Reduction Programme projects need to be widely disseminated.
The Government must treat domestic violence as a causal factor in terms of other problems – e.g. youth offending, child death etc.
We must develop programmes for use in schools both to support children currently witnessing domestic violence, and to prevent future domestic violence.
Last update: 18 January 2005