Agenda item

Lizzie Henden introduced this report and gave the following presentation, also responding to questions from the Board:

·       During the pandemic, there was an increase in the number of people sharing homes together

·       Under the new Domestic Abuse Act 2021, children were now recognised the victims. This data is our ward data and showed a very complicated picture and was disproportionate in some parts of the city

·       An increase in cases was a sign that the amount of reporting of these incidents was improving

·       The rape Crisis 2021 document provides a definition of sexual violence which was not always domestic and took place within intimate relationships and families.

·       The figures for Bristol were slightly higher than average. Many instances of sexual violence were not reported until many years later

·       The new 2021 Domestic Abuse Act placed a new responsibility for local authorities under which BCC had received just over £1 Million. This would be used to improve the effectiveness of justice and set up a multi-agency partnership board to assess how services are commissioned

·       This strategy included a Bristol Domestic Abuse Needs Assessment, a Bristol Safe Accommodation Strategy, a Multi-Agency Domestic Abuse and Violence Delivery Group and included partners in education, social care, the Police and others

·       Following the commissioning of the Mayoral Commission of Domestic Abuse 2020, a series of virtual workshops had engaged more than 80 people and had resulted in a large number of recommendations.

·       As a result of the commissioning process, Next Link Plus now operated Domestic Abuse Services in partnership with other organisations. There was a great deal of engagement and consultation involving a thorough evaluation of bids

·       Key groups  included a Survivors Forum and Carers Male Survivors group

·       Whilst previous services had been quite fragmented, support for children would now operate through a new service

·       It had been acknowledged that a number of victims had not wanted to leave their homes and did not want to go into refuges

·       IRIS ADVISE is an innovative approach operating with a specialist domestic abuse worker and was the second site in the UK using this model (after Manchester). The pilot for the scheme had been running for a year and had identified people not helped elsewhere such as Trans people, men having sex with men. Unity Sexual Health had commented that they found this new service to be excellent

·       Respite rooms were used  to provide specialist and domestic abuse to meet high support needs. This service was not designed to replace anything else but provided intense support prior to people using it moving on somewhere else. It had been extended for 6 months but was anticipated to be further extended to 30 months through the rough keeper initiative

·       Details were provided of the Sexual Violence Alliance and Domestic Abuse Sexual Violence Survivor Forum with the latter operating as a requirement of the Domestic Abuse Act 2021. It had been established in October 2021

·       A poem by a domestic abuse survivor entitled “Hope” was shown to the Board

·       There was a key reliance on workers in GP practices asking key questions to e ensure the necessary specialist referrals, for example in areas such as drug dependency and overdoses

·       As  part of an investment into prevention work, a Home Office application had been made to provide support for boys and address difficulties of gender inequalities and healthy relationships in a partnership with the Police. In addition, a great deal of work was being carried out by Carly Heath in relation to the night time economy

·       The Delivery Group would respond to any issues relating to targeting of funding in different wards

·       Some staff were co-located to improve service delivery

·       Since it was clear that there were not sufficient services to buy in everything that was required, work had to be delivered with key communities. Work was taking place with a project called Safer Together in relation to Social Care

·       There was currently an FGM Safeguarding Delivery Group and consideration was being given to merging this with the work of the Forced Marriage Group to widen the umbrella of cultural practices

·       In the One City Plan, one of the goals was  for BCC to obtain Domestic Violence Accreditation and provide a framework across all sectors through the provision of domestic violence funding

Board members made the following comments:

·       This was a very exciting piece of work which had already delivered on a number of the recommendations. It was important to ensure that survivors found it easier to navigate a range of services and would be helpful to see an action plan indicating how the recommendations would be implemented. The team were to be congratulated on the development of this work even during the difficulties caused by COVID

·       It was great to see the work of the Survivors Forum as part of best practice

·       It was very illuminating to see the duties of adult safeguarding under the relevant care act. Locality Partnerships could work with health and inequalities groups to help provide support to those who had experienced domestic abuse

·       This was a fantastic report. There was a target as part of the One City Plan for Bristol to become free from Domestic Abuse and achieve Gender Equality by 2050. However, it was also important to differentiate between instances where there was an increase in reporting of domestic abuse and of instances where there was a genuine increase which needed to be tackled so that an assessment of when numbers would start to decrease could be made

·       There was a dedicated pot of funding for communities which was not common outside London

·       There were challenges from different groups in this area. In addition to under reporting during COVID, there were particular challenges faced by the Somali community which had been highlighted at a recent event. Many attendees felt they were not encouraged to report abuse and were afraid that their children may be removed and of financial dependence on perpetrators. A commission had been set up by Bristol to examine this issue

·       Some recent work had been carried out in the prison service concerning safe sex which had been extremely helpful and informative

·       Sometimes carers acted as perpetrators of abuse

·       There were examples of good practice elsewhere, such as at Stevenage

RESOLVED - that the HWBB supports the development of the upcoming citywide domestic abuse and sexual violence strategy. ACTION: Lizzie Henden