Issue - meetings

Domestic Abuse

Meeting: 19/11/2019 - Adult Care and Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee (Item 31)

31 Domestic Abuse pdf icon PDF 1 MB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Elizabeth Hartley, Assistant Director Early Help and Preventionand Wendy Monnelly, Head of Service introduced their report that provided the Adult Care and Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee with an overview of provision to support children, adults and families affected by domestic abuse. The report set out the national and local context, described findings of an in-house review and outlined next steps to improve services and reduce the detrimental impact of domestic abuse on Wirral residents.

 

The report provided a detailed summary and statistical breakdown of the issue of domestic abuse in Wirral, with specific focus on the impact on families with children.

 

The Committee was also apprised of the National Impact and the positive impact of early intervention and dealing with the issue in one place.

 

The Assistant Director Early Help and Prevention informed Members of the departmental plan and findings of Ofsted Inspection, which had identified domestic abuse as a priority area. The Chair stated that she was pleased to see development of a strategy in this area but expressed concern that 85% of victims of abuse had been identified as having sought help 5 times from professionals.

 

The Assistant Director informed that there was limited access to the ‘perpetrator programme’ that must be self-funded by the perpetrator unless referred by the Court.

 

A Member commented that although the report focused primarily on the impact on children, domestic abuse also happened to adults. She questioned if there was an integrated front door arrangement for adults, with support and recognition of the problems. The Head of Service advised that specific training was being developed to help address the ‘5 time’ issue and 40% of high-risk victims of abuse reported mental health difficulties.

 

Further discussion took place with the Officers responding to questions from Members. 

 

The Chair clarified that future reports to theAdult Care and Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee should contain sufficient information on the progress and improvements to the service, and not just rely on statistical performance indicators.

 

Resolved – That

 

1)  the report be noted; and

 

2)  further reports be presented to the Adult Care and Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee on a quarterly basis to monitor progress and ensure improvement of services.


Meeting: 11/11/2019 - Children and Families Overview and Scrutiny Committee (Item 25)

25 Domestic Abuse pdf icon PDF 128 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Assistant Director for Early Help and Prevention and the Head of the Integrated Front Door service introduced the report which provided an overview of provision to support children, adults and families affected by domestic abuse. The report set out the national and local context, described findings of an in-house review and outlined next steps to improve services and reduce the detrimental impact of domestic abuse on Wirral residents.

 

Various details were presented to Members, including:

·  On the Wirral, 13% of recorded crime was domestic abuse, 40% involved families with children, with 62% of those children directly harmed.

·  The Integrated Front Door was the first point of contact but provision was somewhat fragmented and included gaps.

·  There were fortnightly multi-agency risk assessment conference (MARAC) meetings which discussed about 40 families, and a daily domestic abuse meeting for high-risk and high-impact domestic abuse referrals  

·  A multi-agency group was looking to create a strategy, and some services required a review.

·  Members would be updated about changes and progress.

 

Members questions were responded to appropriately and raised some issues, including:

·  The Leapfrog group, which dealt with about 5 families where children had behavioural difficulties, had a waiting time of approximately 6 months.

·  Zero tolerance could be a barrier to reporting and acceptance, and targets may be better having a more comprehensive performance framework.

 

Resolved – that the findings of the in-house review be noted and the progress to improvement of services be reported in 3-months, 6-months and 9-months to ensure suitable progress is made.