Agenda item

To receive a presentation from Julie Tailor, Domestic Violence Co-Ordinator.

Julie Tailor, Domestic Violence Co-ordinator presented this report and highlighted the following:

·         The report provided an overview of domestic violence and abuse and the work undertaken in this area.

·         The report provided the government definition of domestic violence and abuse, controlling behaviour and coercive behaviour

·         The domestic abuse statistics for Enfield showed that Domestic Abuse, Sexual Offences and Rape Offences had all decreased over the last 12 months, but Domestic Abuse Violence with Injury offences had increased.

·         Ideally, we would like to see the number of domestic abuse incidents increase as this is viewed as an increase in awareness of services and an increase in the confidence to report and a decrease in violence with injury as would hope that early intervention work would reduce this figure.

·         Multi-agency risk assessment conference (MARAC) was covered in detail in the report explaining- who attends, what the purpose is; how often this is held in Enfield and the categories of referral.

·         The role of independent domestic violence advocate (IDVA) is to address the safety of victims at high risk of harm and they normally work with victims from the point of crisis. The advice and support they offer was detailed in the report.

·         The Protection orders that are available and are used dependent on the situation and the victims wishes were detailed in the report

·         In Enfield there are 4 IDVA’s at Edmonton Police Station, I is dedicated to Enfield residents; 2 IDVA’s at North Middlesex Hospital in the A & E department; 1 IUDVA dedicated to the children centres; 2 new additional IDVA’s will be based in the borough, location to be determined but this is likely to be at the police station; 1 new IDVA will be based in Chase Farm Hospital; 2 IDVA’s at Highbury Court and Children’s services are creating a Domestic Abuse team which will include 2 domestic abuse managers and 6-7 domestic abuse trained social workers.

·         The Draft Domestic Abuse Bill was published in 21^st January 2019, there was a further hearing on the 16 July and will need to be another hearing, the date for this is unknown at present. The key measures within this were detailed in the report.

·         A link to the Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy was provided in the report and some details of previous campaigns that had been run were provided.

Board members welcomed conversations on this subject and felt this was a step in the right direction. Violence against women and girls had been agreed as one of the priorities by the Safer Neighbourhood Board.

Co-location at the police station was viewed as very helpful by the police.

Coercive control was discussed, whilst this is law it is currently very difficult to prove and there has only been one conviction.

Following a question on contact with GP’s details were provided of the Iris Project who have 2 outreach workers who train GP’s and provide support services. Many of Enfield’s GP’s are signed up to this.

Julie was thanked for her presentation.