Agenda item

Briefing Note of the Director of Public Health and Wellbeing

The Scrutiny Co-ordination Committee received a Briefing Note of the Director of Public Health that provided Members with an update on the evaluation of the Domestic Abuse Early Intervention Project (EIP) and the impact on survivors, services involved, and the wider partnership involved in addressing domestic abuse within the city.

The Domestic Abuse Programme Delivery Manager gave a presentation on the Domestic Abuse Early Intervention Project to the Committee that provided the following information:

·  The Project commenced in April 2021, it was supported by COVID funding and match funding from WMP, it had 3 full time staff from the Domestic Abuse Consortium, was based at Coventry Central Police Station and dealt with interventions for standard and medium risk victims of Domestic Abuse

·  From 1st April 2021 – 30th March 2023 there were 5263 female victims and 529 male victims across an age range of under 15 years of age to 75 years of age and across a broad range of ethnicity

·  Survivor support needs – 293 survivors with a disability, 427 survivors with language needs/interpreter, 1597 survivors with children, and 25 survivors supported with immigration. 3435 survivors were signposted or referred to in-house long-term support or other specialist external agencies.

·  Evaluation of Domestic Abuse Early Intervention Project in Coventry - conducted in collaboration with Coventry University using quantitative and qualitative methods.

·  Project aims - to support domestic abuse survivors with early interventions, preventing and reducing harms and risks in the immediate aftermath of the Covid-19 Pandemic: to reduce the re-victimisation and prevent escalation of abuse faced by survivors; to support different cohorts of survivors to engage with further support services; to enhance survivors’ agency and support them to feel safer and more empowered.

·  Numbers of referrals extracted from the datasets of CHWA and Panahghar, respectively, before and after the implementation of EIP.

·  Risk levels assessed by Police and EIP.

·  The Numbers of survivors that accepted support services in 2020-2021.

·  The difference in access experience and outcomes for survivors before and after the project began.

·  The difference in the characteristics of the survivor cohorts before and after the project began.

·  The perceived impact of the co-located EIP by the EIP team, wider service providers, and survivors

·  Recommendations from the Project evaluation:

  Strengthening a co-located approach

a)  Introducing the EIP team to the police formally

b)  Increasing police’s recognition of the notes left by the EIP team on the police system

c)  Increasing capacity of the EIP team and the police

Training (Police)

a)  Receiving training on case management and local support services

b)  Receiving training on recognising domestic abuse behaviour and how to engage with survivors

  Increasing funding for local support services

a)  Expanding the timetables and capacity of local support sessions, such as domestic abuse group work and counselling service

In considering the Briefing Note, the Committee questioned and received responses from officers and the Chief Inspector of West Midlands Police, in respect of the matters summarised below:

·  Impact of project - voices were heard and victims felt validated

·  Victims could have complex issues that required more than one service

·  The Service cost just under £150,000 per year to deliver

·  New project – data currently being collected on the value of referrals

·  Survivors don’t always want to access all services available to them at the start of the process but are able to come in at a later stage

·  Referrals – people can decide not to progress with accessing services

·  Valley House - has their own housing stock. Many other providers own their own stock too.

·  Accommodate victims within 24 hours of contact received

·  Officers supporting the Project have a combination of knowledge and experience of the work, some have additional qualifications, some may have their own experiences to draw on

·  5,000 contacts made – some repeats

·  Police Response Officers – don’t specialise in this work. Specific training would be beneficial to service including risk assessments and appropriate ways to engage with survivors and locally commissioned services

·  Young People – education on domestic abuse delivered in schools

·  Older Group – increased numbers could be due to more now being willing to report

·  The report on the Domestic Abuse Early Intervention Project being finalised for circulation – includes data collected by the University over a period of 9 months

Members requested that a copy of the report on the Domestic Abuse Early Intervention Project (EIP) be circulated to Members as soon as it was available.

RESOLVED that the Scrutiny Co-ordination Committee:

1)  Support the following recommendations as a result of the Domestic Abuse Early Intervention Project which were presented to the Domestic Abuse Local Partnership Board:

a)  To strengthen a co-located approach and work pattern by increasing the awareness of the EIP to local other police resources within the Local Police Area.

b)  That the police would benefit from further training on domestic abuse including risk assessments and appropriate ways to engage with survivors and the locally commissioned services.

c)  Improving the capacity of the Early Intervention Project Team to extend the service support offer that is currently available and for specialist services to review the services provided to enable survivors to attend evening and weekend support sessions.

d)  To continue to seek funding for extend the Project beyond March 2024.