Issue - meetings

This report outlines the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Community Safety Partnership Preventing Domestic Abuse Strategy and accompanying delivery plan.

This is the first Preventing Domestic Abuse Strategy and Delivery Plan for BCP, which brings together the foundations of the work within legacy partnerships and identifies how partners will work together to meet the ambition that “no resident living within or visiting Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole should live in fear of, or experience domestic abuse.”

The BCP Preventing Domestic Abuse Strategy can be found at appendix 1 of this report.

The report outlines a headline summary of the strategy and the commitments made by the BCP CSP of;

·       Preventing violence and abuse through a commitment to working to develop a “whole family, whole picture” approach across all our services

·       A commitment to commissioning improved services for victims, perpetrators and children impacted by domestic abuse to ensure we have services in place that are effective in assessing and responding to multiple needs

·       A commitment to working collaboratively to reduce the harm caused by domestic abuse

·       Responding to perpetrators by supporting criminal justice agencies in pursuing them through the criminal justice system and a commitment to challenging and changing the behaviour of perpetrators through the availability of domestic abuse perpetrator programmes

The Preventing Domestic Abuse Strategy Delivery Plan can be found at appendix 2 which has been developed in consultation with a wide range of stakeholders and partners, including service users. This plan describes how partners will work

together to deliver against the commitments and priorities of the

Strategy.

The Domestic Abuse Bill 2020 will be introducing a new statutory duty on tier one local authorities, ensuring that all victims, including children, have access to safety and support within safe accommodation when they need it. The Preventing Domestic Abuse Strategy and Delivery Plan addresses the requirements of the new duties as well as the local needs identified through the development of the strategy and plan.

Finally, the report outlines the proposed allocations for additional Government funding recently announced as part of the imminent implementation of the Domestic Abuse Bill and in support of the delivery plan.

RESOLVED that: -

(a)           Cabinet supports the BCP Community Safety Partnership Preventing Domestic Abuse Strategy and Delivery Plan; and

(b)           Cabinet approves the allocation of MHCLG grant funding as set out in paragraph 32 of the report.

Voting: Unanimous

Portfolio Holder: Community Safety

Reason

Domestic abuse can and does happen to anyone. It is indiscriminate of age, gender, race, profession or social background. In the UK around one in four women and one in six men will be affected by domestic abuse in their lifetime, and the NSPCC reports that around one in five children have been exposed

to domestic abuse. Whatever the number of those impacted, it is too many; no one should live in fear.

The Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Community Safety Partnership (CSP) is fully committed to playing its part to change this and to achieve the vision that ‘no resident living in BCP should live in fear of or experience domestic abuse’.

BCP Council’s Corporate Strategy also commits to an ambitious vision of ‘Vibrant Communities with outstanding quality of life where everyone plays an active role’ and sets a specific objective of supporting people to live safe and independent lives under its Fulfilled Lives priority.

The BCP Preventing Domestic Abuse Strategy takes account of the strategic aims of the Council as well as the CSP. Local needs analysis, national research, guidance and best practice and lessons learnt from Domestic Homicide Reviews as well as consultation and extensive engagement across a range of stakeholders has resulted in a strategy which outlines a commitment to work with a range of partners across the statutory, corporate, community and voluntary sectors as well as service users, to drive the strategy forward and

deliver against those aims.

The Partnership has completed a series of task and finish groups responsible for supporting the development of a comprehensive delivery plan, appended to this report.

In addition, this strategy and the accompanying delivery plan meet the new requirements of local authorities by the Domestic Abuse Bill 2020 by providing a framework to improve the response from statutory partners to domestic abuse. MHCLG is providing tier1 local authorities with grant funding to ensure they can meet new statutory duties.

The Portfolio Holder for Community Safety presented a report, a copy of which had been circulated to each Member and a copy of which appears as Appendix 'D' to these Minutes in the Minute Book.

Cabinet was advised that the report outlines the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Community Safety Partnership Preventing Domestic Abuse Strategy and accompanying delivery plan, and that in relation to this, this is the first Preventing Domestic Abuse Strategy and Delivery Plan for BCP, which brings together the foundations of the work within legacy partnerships and identifies how partners will work together to meet the ambition that “no resident living within or visiting Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole should live in fear of, or experience domestic abuse.”

In relation to this Cabinet was informed that the BCP Preventing Domestic Abuse Strategy as set out at Appendix 1 outlines a headline summary of the strategy and the commitments made by the BCP CSP of;

·       Preventing violence and abuse through a commitment to working to develop a “whole family, whole picture” approach across all our services

·       A commitment to commissioning improved services for victims, perpetrators and children impacted by domestic abuse to ensure we have services in place

·       that are effective in assessing and responding to multiple needs

·       A commitment to working collaboratively to reduce the harm caused by domestic abuse

·       Responding to perpetrators by supporting criminal justice agencies in pursuing them through the criminal justice system and a commitment to challenging and changing the behaviour of perpetrators through the availability of domestic abuse perpetrator programmes

In addition Cabinet was advised that the Preventing Domestic Abuse Strategy Delivery Plan as set out in appendix 2 has been developed in consultation with a wide range of stakeholders and partners, including service users, and that this plan describes how partners will work together to deliver against the commitments and priorities of the Strategy.

Further to this Cabinet was informed that the Domestic Abuse Bill 2020 will be introducing a new statutory duty on tier one local authorities, ensuring that all victims, including children, have access to safety and support within safe accommodation when they need it, and that the Preventing Domestic Abuse Strategy and Delivery Plan addresses the requirements of the new duties as well as the local needs identified through the development of the strategy and plan.

In closing Cabinet were advised that the report outlines the proposed allocations for additional Government funding recently announced as part of the imminent implementation of the Domestic Abuse Bill and in support of the delivery plan.

The Chairman of the Overview and Scrutiny Board addressed the Cabinet advising that at their recent meeting the Board resolved to make the following recommendation to Cabinet in respect of this item.

The Overview and Scrutiny Board recommends that additions are made to the draft domestic abuse strategy and delivery plan to include detailed actions for improving the services ability to engage with residents who have struggled to engage previously, including male victims of domestic abuse and those  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8

To consider the following Community Safety related reports scheduled for Cabinet consideration on 26 May 2021:

•   Preventing Domestic Abuse Strategy and Delivery Plan 2020-2023

The O&S Board is asked to scrutinise the reports and make recommendations to Cabinet as appropriate.

Cabinet member invited to attend for this item: Councillor May Haines, Portfolio Holder for Community Safety

The Cabinet report for this item is included with the agenda for consideration by the Overview and Scrutiny Board.

Preventing Domestic Abuse Strategy and Delivery Plan 2020-2023 – The Portfolio Holder for Community Safety presented a report, a copy of which had been circulated to each Member and a copy of which appears as Appendix 'A' to these Minutes in the Minute Book. The Portfolio Holder outlined the key issues within the report and responded to points raised by the Board including:

·       Board Members thanked the Portfolio Holder and Officers for the improvements seen in the report since the Board previously considered this issue in December 2020.

·       It was confirmed that the Domestic Abuse Bill had received royal ascent the previous week. This would be amended in the strategy document.

·       That gay and bisexual women should be mentioned with equal rights in the report, in the same way that gay and bisexual men were referenced.

·       With reference to point 45 through to point 48 , it was good to see them and it was important to be able to revisit this as a living document

·       There was no reference to dementia within strategy would like to see The Alzheimer’s Society and dementia advisers to be made aware of the services available to those living with dementia and to be referred to within the report. This crossed over into the work with health partners, work was underway with colleagues in Clinical Commissioning Group. Issues concerning dementia had been picked up on and the impact of this was being looked into.

·       Concern was raised that there was little mention of the actions and steps that would be taken to address some of the issues outlined in the report, in particular to target people with particular characteristics such as mental health issues, or people with English as a second language.

·       It was positive to see the impact of Covid-19 and the lockdown had been mentioned in the report.

·       The report did not outline the impact that the actions and funding were expected to achieve and how many people it would reach. A Board member also questioned how the effectiveness of the strategy would be measured and how the performance of the service would be monitored. The Portfolio Holder advised that in terms of data – historical and current data was available, but it was difficult to predict with any real certainty what the number of cases would be going forwards. There were pieces of work on going but this was the beginning of a journey using the data available to help inform decisions. It was suggested that a review could be brought back in approximately 12 months time. It was agreed to add an item to the Forward Plan to review.

·       In response to a question it was confirmed that refuges could offer support to victims and their families. This provision was supported through the housing department, who would liaise directly with providers to see where accommodation may be found. In some instances, alternative temporary accommodation would be sought.

·       In response to a query on the table outlined in paragraph 34 of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 17