The Director of Law, HR and Asset Management reported that the Council’s Corporate Plan 2011-2014 included a goal to reduce anti-social behaviour and improve community safety. The goal was focused upon the provision of advocacy and support to protect survivors of domestic abuse and it built upon the effective partnership working that had led to Wirral having the greatest reductions across Merseyside of repeat incidences of abuse in the highest risk cases.

The Director’s report was part of the Committee’s agreed scrutiny work programme in its role as the scrutiny body for the activities of the Crime and Disorder Partnership. It provided information on the scale of domestic abuse in Wirral compared to nationally published data and the Director commented that although not all domestic abuse was reported, the reported levels in Wirral indicated a rising trend. Of particular note was that 80% of cases involved child protection issues. He reported upon the role of the Family Safety Unit (FSU) and provided a brief analysis of the work undertaken by the Children’s Safeguarding Officer. He reported also upon the work undertaken by Wirral’s domestic abuse Multi Agency Risk Assessment Conference (MARAC), which had been recognised by the Merseyside Police Public Protection Unit as being the best performing in Merseyside. Although the estimated cost to agencies of every case taken to MARAC was £20,000, the Director reported that by preventing further abuse to victims who had been supported by MARAC, the FSU had potentially saved Wirral agencies a total of almost £22m of additional costs over the last three years.

In response to a comment from a Member who noted that Department of Health figures had indicated that nationally, between 16% and 24% of violent crime was domestic violence related, the Director agreed to provide to Members direct, comparative data for Wirral against the national average.

Resolved – That the report be noted.