Agenda item - Domestic Violence and Abuse (DVA) and Sexual Violence (SV) Business Improvement Review

Report of the Executive Director, Neighbourhoods, Communities and Housing (copy attached)

43.1    The Committee considered the report of the Executive Director Neighbourhoods, Communities & Housing, which provided an update on the review of the response to Domestic Violence and Abuse (DVA) and Sexual Violence (SV), which was proposed to the Committee in November 2016. The report was introduced by the Strategic Commissioner Domestic Abuse & Sexual Abuse and the Head of Community Safety.

43.2    Ms ASasidharan welcomed the report and was pleased to note that stalking had been given a higher profile. Ms Sasidharan referred to paragraph 3.4 of the report and was concerned that female genital mutilation (FMG), forced marriage and honour based violence which was described as being of ‘lower prevalence’, and suggested that there was in fact significant under reporting on those issues. Ms Sasidharan noted that domestic abuse concerning BME people was not mentioned on the Rise website. The Strategic Commissioner Domestic Abuse & Sexual Abuse apologised for describing some incidents as having lower prevalence, and said it referred to the totality of those incidents reported compared to domestic violence. He accepted that the wording was clumsy and would be changed. With regard to Rise he they had been working with the organisation and their website would be amended by the end of the year.

43.3    The Chair asked if there were any organisations which the Council should meet before the January meeting to ensure that there was progress made on BME issues.  Ms Martindale suggested the International Network of Women, and the Head of Community Safety advised that the Council already worked closely with them so could do that. The Chair suggested it would be useful if the members of the Committee could be sent an update on any progress.

43.4    Ms Martindale noted that on those women deemed as high risk received immediate access, and asked how long those identified as medium risk would have to wait to access the service. The Strategic Commissioner Domestic Abuse & Sexual Abuse said that those deemed as high risk would be contacted within forty-eight hours particularly if you had contacted the police, and if you were standard risk you were likely to be contacted by Victim Support very quickly, but it was the medium risk cases where there was a problem and a person could wait up to six weeks. Rise had been looking at this and had reduced that time. Councillor Cattell said that she volunteered with Rise and confirmed that the backlog had been cleared and the waiting time had reduced.

43.5    Councillor West said that the increase in DVA and SV was very worrying, and although some of that increase could be down to encouraging people to report the abuse, and better data collection there was also a rise in violent crime nationally. It was clear from the report that there was insufficient capacity to address the need and it was vital that that was addressed. He said that it was important the Council find more money to support the service, and asked the Administration to do that. The Chair said that the Administration had protected the spend in the area, and had put more money in.

43.6    Councillor Peltzer Dunn referred to paragraph 3.23 which seemed to contradict recommendation 2.2. The Strategic Commissioner Domestic Abuse & Sexual Abuse said that paragraph 3.23 relates to the internal officers group who would be working on the implementation plan, and recommendation 2.2 refers to that implementation plan coming back to committee.

43.7    RESOLVED: That the Committee –

(i)            Noted the report

(ii)          Noted the proposals to develop an implementation plan and agreed that the report on progress be brought back to the Committee for consideration

(iii)         Notes the work being undertaken by the Safe in the City Partnership in relation to the refresh of the local Violence against Women and Girls Strategy and agreed that the strategy should be brought back to committee for its consideration.