Adva (against domestic violence and abuse) partnership in Devon

The adva story since 2002

Devon adva (against domestic violence and abuse) Partnership – the story so far (August 2009)

Context

Domestic Violence and Abuse affects many agencies across the county and has a huge financial toll on statutory services. It remains a largely hidden issue, on which national research would predict there are in the region of 30,000 incidents per year in Devon. Reported incidents to the Police in 2008/9 showed:

  • 9362 incidents against a figure of 5743 in 2001/2 when adva started its strategic work (63% increase)
  • 4504 where children were present from 2001/2 figure of 2412

The Adva Partnership over the last eight years has spearheaded work to tackle the issue and has been one of the major successes under Devon Strategic Partnership. Its vision is to “Increase the safety of victims of domestic violence and abuse in Devon.” and in doing so mirror the Government’s National Delivery Plan for Domestic Violence – “The Coordinated Community Response Model”.

To do this adva has worked to the following key principles:

  • dva does not fall to any one agency to tackle, it cuts across all statutory and community agencies remits
  • partnership approaches and funding are the only way to deal with the issue effectively
  • responses need to be effective within the major statutory agencies so that mainstreaming of dva work is core
  • specialist community and voluntary sector provision is the choice for most of those affected by dva – victims/survivors/perpetrators
  • public and agency awareness is a vital factor in recognising and dealing with dva
  • consultation and communication with those affected are key to shaping and delivering effective services
  • all sectors of the community are affected and services must be developed to recognise that the different needs of minority communities require a differentiated response

Adva work

Adva has now firmly established services which focus on all three aspects of domestic violence: survivors, perpetrators and children. Most of these services are delivered by the voluntary and community sectors as consultation with survivors has consistently delivered the message that this is the mode of delivery they prefer. Work is still required to develop responses within the statutory sector as many of those affected will be accessing services as a result of domestic abuse but not declaring that as the causative issue, eg admissions to A&E, attendance at GP surgeries.

Success has been based on the impetus given by both rounds of Local Public Service Agreements to develop a multi-agency domestic violence partnership, strategy and funding. The contributing partner agencies, and some time limited pump-priming grants, have created an adva budget which collectively has enabled the development of the following vital services in Devon. This has seen a rise in the multi-agency pooled budget from 2001/2 level of £50,000 (approx) to £2,103,700 in 2009/10.

Adva Services

From the adva budget the following extensive community based services are provided:

  • Outreach support services for women survivors of domestic violence and abuse in each district (eight districts).
  • County-wide support service for male survivors (Men Safe).
  • Three REPAIR community family intervention programmes geographically covering the county. This provides direct work with self and agency referred male perpetrators, alongside support to their partners and children. This is a unique programme to identify the cost/benefit and other benefits of early intervention family-based work, which was initially funded partly by the Government Invest to Save programme via Home Office and part EU Daphne Programme. Its success has lead to it now being funded locally as part of adva core activity.
  • Child support workers within the three Women’s refuges in Devon and in local communities providing specialist support to children and young people who live with domestic violence and abuse. A particularly vulnerable group supported are young adults 14 – 25.
  • The development and delivery of multi-agency training courses to improve practitioner awareness and skills in direct work with all those affected by domestic violence issues. Over 6,000 front-line workers have received this training to date.
  • Establishment of 4 Independent Domestic Violence Advisers (IDVAs) working to the Multi-agency Risk Assessment Conferences (MARACs). These deal with those cases assessed at the highest risk of repeat and serious victimisation (approximately 750 women a year).
  • Establishing an Idva to work with the three Specialist Domestic Violence Courts within Devon, making the county one of the few in the country with full SDVC coverage. This is demonstrating improved success in dealing with cases in the criminal justice system.
  • Introduction of the Modus data base for case management, as one of the first in the country that will allow better monitoring of victims and perpetrators.
  • Establishment of the SEEDS Devon group for survivors of DV, based on good practice initiated in Somerset, that is a vital link in ensuring that services are sensitive to their needs and are based on what they tell us.
  • Delivering 25 courses per year of a 15 fifteen-week pattern-changing programme for groups of women survivors to become empowered & to develop skills to increase safety.
  • Strategic co-ordination of all districts’ work through Adva Partnership working with Crime & Disorder Reduction Partnerships and Domestic Violence Forums.

In terms of volume this network of support has dealt with 6708 cases with 5002 children associated with these victims since April 2007. There will be thousands of additional victims supported prior to 2007 although adva’s data records were not sufficiently robust to record this until 2007.

History of consultation to shape services

This is a brief summary of what has been a continuous process of consultation with service users and potential users. Since the work on domestic abuse and abuse (dva) started in Devon some 9 years ago engagement with users has been at the heart of shaping services. Each of the documents mentioned should be on www.adva.org.uk. If not most of them are still available in hard copy.

1. Domestic Violence in Devon: A Mapping Exercise – November 2001

Work was commissioned by the Devon Domestic Violence Network (precursor to adva) to examine the extent of dva and what was needed to effectively provide services to improve the situation for those affected. The research was conducted by workers from Women’s Aid who consulted with the nine dva forums within Devon as the most representative voice of the needs within the county. The report was launched at a county-wide conference to all statutory and voluntary agencies in Devon. This was pivotal in getting commitment that an inter-agency strategy was needed.

2. Devon Domestic Violence Strategy – Consultation Draft July-August 2002

Arising from the mapping report this draft strategy was consulted on during summer 2002 with responses coming forward from all agencies and organisations within the county. Of critical importance was the input of Women’s Aid who used the document to discuss service development that women wanted to see that would either continue to help them or would have been of use when they were seeking help to deal with dva in their lives. It was also considered as vital to provide support services to male survivors. At that stage – and to extent remaining so – the prevalence and needs of male victims of dva was an unknown issue. Hence adva commissioned Devon MALE one of the first helpline and direct service responses to male victims within the country. This service was so successful that it was being accessed from across the country and Wales. This resulted in the Home Office taking over funding of the service in 2006 eventually locating it within RESPECT the national organisation working on male dva issues.

3. Devon Domestic Violence Strategy 2002 – 2005

Using the responses to the consultation draft this first county-wide strategy was launched at a conference in November 2002. Its overall approach was agreed and adopted by all agencies and has set the shape of core services ever since.

4. Devon DV Partnership: Annual Report 2002 – 2003

Summarised the work arising from the agreed strategy and utilised views fed back by users. It contained a detailed analysis of what services had been provided in each locality in Devon and the amount of finance provided by each partner compared to the provision of service. This was pivotal in expanding the funding base for DA work to something nearer the actual resource required.

5. Not in front of the children: Executive Summary – July 2003

Commissioned to “better understand the scale and impact of dva on children and to inform the design and delivery of appropriate services across Devon”. It was based on three elements of consultation: a) Devon Youth Association working with 90 young people as a representative body of the general youth population to find out about knowledge of dva and how they wanted to see it dealt with; b) Children’s Society worked with 70 young people all of whom were looked after by the local authority and had direct experience of living with DA; c) a literature review of impacts of dva on children to complement the above direct survey work. The outcomes of this consultation were used to develop a number of pilot programmes of work some of which have now been built into the mainstream of cyps services:

  • Outreach based cyps workers
  • Children’s Support alongside the REPAIR programme
  • Developing REPAIR into a family intervention programme
  • Home Ground a video based schools curriculum package with teaching notes and lesson plans

6. Evaluation of Pattern Changing – Autumn 2004

This is a 15 week groupwork programme for women survivors initially developed in USA and run as pilot within North Devon. Anecdotal evidence spoke of its positive impact and suggested wider roll out would be beneficial. To test this adva commissioned independent evaluation which gained views from 44 women who had attended the course and 15 referral agents. Summary results showed:

  • the course had a huge impact ion the lives of women attending
  • it lead to changes in their life choices and patterns
  • this had beneficial impacts on their children
  • it increased – assertiveness; ability to identify abuse and say “no”; feeling in control of their lives; raised self-esteem; reduced depression and other mental health problems; improved physical health;

This positive evaluation lead adva to commission expansion of the course across the whole county with a level of 25 courses now running each year reaching approx. 375 women.

7. adva Strategy 2005 – 2008

Updated the existing strategy and set new direction to sustain and develop services with a new vision for the future.

8. adva business plan 2007 – 2009

Detailed the local cost impacts of DA for all local agencies and how adva’s services located into a tired model of need. This was founded on the approach to managing risk that has emanated from Government since 2006. It has an analysis of the business case to sustain and develop the services to survivors, children and perpetrators.

9. Training

In 2003 and 2004 Adva evaluated its early pilot programmes (adva level 1; and level 2) to determine content, market and relevance for future programmes. A further evaluation was undertaken in 2006 by Sue Penna Associates.  The evaluation was based on post-training satisfaction sheets; delegate questionnaires; consultation groups and questionnaires to trainers. The summary evaluation showed that over 2000 staff had received training from a wide range of agencies between 2004-2006.  The training was seen to be of ‘extremely high quality’ and the training was perceived to have ‘a long term effect on staff knowledge, skill base and clinical/work-based practice’. Adva’s training continues to be ‘bought in’ by neighbouring counties Plymouth and Torbay, and further a field nationally. There are five trainers, regularly quality assessed, who deliver eight different programmes (level 1; level 2; Preventing Murder; Tackling Perpetrators; Managers; GP module; Schools module; Housing module). All courses are regularly re-evaluated and modified accordingly through quarterly trainers meetings.

10. MARAC in Devon

Adva’s was one of the first local authority areas to adopt Multi-agency risk conferences, based on Cardiff Women’s Safety Unit best practice. Initiating Police visits to Cardiff and through partnership discussions the first MARAC was established in Exeter in January 2005, followed shortly by North Devon, East/Mid Devon and finally South Devon (rural). Adva benefited from Government pump-priming idva initial funding and has sustained the specialist MARAC idva services through Public Service Agreement target initiatives (increasing prosecution outcomes) and the NI 32 (reducing in repeats to MARAC) target. Adva is now working closely with the LCJB and Police, Public Health and Children and Young People’s Services to establish appropriate Devon Governance, monitoring and performance arrangements for MARAC. Since MARACS were established safety and action plans have been discussed on 2,654 very high risk cases. Devon’s Safeguarding Children’s Board has a target linked to support plans for children associated with Devon’s MARACs.

11. Why victims of DV withdraw charges made against the perpetrator

Commissioned from Probation and Exeter University this report was based on interviews with survivors to explore why they sometimes find it hard to stay with cases that end up in the criminal justice system. It followed identification that this was an impediment locally to successful outcomes for cases in criminal court and was mitigating against local criminal justice agencies fully engaging in the strategy to tackle DA. It was pivotal in making changes to the later focus of adva strategy leading to Devon being one of the first pilot areas for the Special Domestic Violence Courts and the subsequent establishment of county wide coverage of SDVCs. Since their establishment 755 cases have been through two of Devon’s three SDVCs, maintaining an average successful prosecution rate figure of 80%.

In order to ascertain client satisfaction with the SDVC process adva developed and piloted in July 2009 a questionnaire, with the view to rolling this out across Devon, via the SDVCs, from Autumn 2009. Initial findings from six clients show that 5 were very satisfied with the support of the idva; 3 were satisfied or very satisfied with the police support; 3 would not have gone through the criminal justice system without an idva; only one had had previous court experience and rated the SDVC experience as ‘much better’ than her previous court appearance.

12. Raising the survivor voice in Devon: A review of services for women experiencing DA across Devon

This work has been the most significant of all our consultations in engaging with victims. The report drew on the views of 89 women across Devon. It was launched at a conference in November 2005 to an audience of lead chief/senior officers from agencies across the county. The event was survivor lead and involved balanced workshops of survivors and the senior/chief officers. This enabled those in charge of providing statutory services hearing first hand what user experience had been and agreeing what action each Chief would be taking to improve their agencies response. A follow up conference report was produced and a follow up event in September 2006 lead by SEEDS again involving senior/chief representatives of all agencies to report back on progress against the agreed actions from the initial report. This process was also instrumental in establishing SEEDS Devon which now exists as an independent survivor representative body, funded by adva, but existing to continuously monitor services to ensure they respond to user needs.

13. REPAIR

An initial pilot project for male perpetrators outside the criminal justice system was established in 2004, funded by GOSW and adva. Based on the Duluth model it was adapted and rolled out across Devon, in three areas, funded by Treasury Invest to Save and adva monies from 2005-2008. This project has been evaluated by Sue Penna Associates, and is now part of adva’s core service provision. The service has increased safety for men, women and children. The programme lasts 42 weeks for men, and indeterminate lengths for women and children. In the ISB phase 334 men made contact with the service, 115 of whom started the assessment and one to one work. 42 of these 115 men started group work, 26 of whom completed the programme within the 2.5 year monitoring period. 96 women (partners or ex partners) were referred to REPAIR and 76 of these received support. 43 children and young people whose fathers were on the programme received support. It costs less than £8,000 per family (to support men, women, children over an eleven month period). A REPAIR event was held 19.3.09 for multi-agency senior managers to hear from men, women and children who had completed the programme.

14. Health Independent Domestic Violence Advisor

Adva commissioned an idva to establish an health intervention project in three GP Practices across the county. Modelled on good practice from WORTH, West Sussex, to provide specialist support services within health arenas to raise awareness and improve intervention, including safeguarding, for patients who otherwise would not be acknowledged to be people suffering from domestic violence and abuse. By introducing routine enquiry, and having a presence in three Practices in a six month period the health idva influenced the following:

  • 1107 patients were asked the question and 76 patients disclosed abuse
  • 38 patients were referred by a medical practitioner to the health idva
  • 8 patients were identified as ‘very high risk’ by the health idva and referred to MARAC.

15. DV and BME Communities

Adva has made several attempts at trying to understand the needs of the various BME communities in Devon so that services can respond more effectively. A report was produced in February 2005 following some consultation and engagement with elements of BME communities. To move this work on a consultation event was held on 11th April 2008 with statutory and community agencies involved. From this key issues were identified and are being taken forward by a jointly lead adva/bme group. This is funded by adva to advance work with this sector and has responded to one of the most pressing needs by establishing an emergency fund to support women With No Recourse to Public Funds. The Refuges in Devon all take women in this situation but the need for financial support has always been an issue which this fund is helping to address. In addition the BME/adva group has an annual action plan; this has generated a further consultation, in five languages – Polish, Arabic, Bengali, Farsi, and Mandarin, to BME communities in July 2009. The outcome of this will help to further improve services and training provision in the county.

16. Domestic Violence and Abuse and Employers

Adva initiated the introduction of a domestic violence and abuse employer policy in 2004, on the back of a consultation with staff (5,000) which identified that staff were experiencing dva at the same rate as the national standard (1:10 in any year). This lead Managers Training (Duty of Care) supported by Corporate Management Board to be delivered to all Managers on a rolling-annual basis. Over 300 Managers have received this training to date. A second consultation of over 5,000 staff was conducted in 2007 to identify how much knowledge and awareness had increased since the earlier consultation. A unique initiative established 15 trained DVACs (domestic violence and abuse contacts) who are trained volunteers able to provide support to colleagues experiencing dva. A survey of managers who had received training identified that 24 victims had been supported by them, since the training; and six victims supported by the DVACS in one year. The Director of Corporate Resources has worked with adva to promote DCC’s Employer scheme with Devon’s other large public sector organisations, the PCT and the Police, in addition to an event with the local Chartered Institute of Personnel Development. Four District Councils (East, South Hams, North Devon and Teignbridge) have subsequently adopted similar Employer policies and Managers Training (run by adva), and are considering joining a multi-agency DVAC scheme, run by adva. Publicity materials (posters, leaflets, business cards, stickers) have been designed and widely distributed across Devon County Council offices. These materials are available to other agencies to adopt, and re-badge to promote consistency of image and message.

17. Awareness Raising in Devon

Every year adva has invested in publicity (newspaper, television, radio) to raise the profile of its services in Devon. Additionally it has run seven conferences or large-scale events since 25th November 2002. Every year it part-funds and co-ordinates, with District Domestic Violence Forums, county-wide awareness-raising activities during national domestic violence and abuse week. MADA (music against domestic abuse), supported by adva, was established by another agency colleague to raise awareness to a different client group. Adva has produced numerous publicity materials, including 2 x DVDs, which are cascaded through DV Forums and specialist support services. In recent years it has identified a private sector organisation to work alongside the partnership to further enhance the publicity of domestic violence and abuse services.

18. Peninsular Model of Domestic Violence and Abuse

Adva has worked closely with the Assistant Chief Constable to write and present to all statutory agency Chiefs across Devon, Cornwall, Plymouth and Torbay a model of intervention for families experiencing domestic violence, largely based on Devon’s Vision and Strategy 2009-2011. It is hoped that by working closely with partners across the peninsular economies of scale might be achieved, as well as the potential establishment of a Multi Area Agreement. It is envisaged that this model will be used as the lever to establish sustainable funding for specialist support services across the four counties by April 2011.

The Future

The work of the Adva Partnership since its inception has enabled services to be developed which have drawn on national good practice. Central to this has been implementing the Home Office model of service provision - “Co-ordinated Community Response to DV”. The elements of this are now in place within Devon. Hence the model has sound local and national underpinning validation and spans child/family intervention and criminal/civil justice interventions. It is also vital that all elements of the model are in place for it to be effective overall in providing the range if interventions from early self-referral through to heavy end homicide prevention.

The minimum level of funding required to deliver this model in Devon is costed at £1,100,000 per annum for county wide coverage. Given the current level of demand on service which is outstripping provision the ultimate cost of the model if all demand were to be met is potentially at least three times that amount. Adva now has a budget in excess of £2m which against current economic constraints is a major achievement. It will continue to seek the full budget needed and to seek good practice responses to the different needs of those affected by dva. The next major focus will be in integrating dva work into the emerging new Government Strategy “Think Family”.

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