Adva was delighted to receive some positive affidavits of its work and impact in Devon in 2009 from:

• Assistant Chief Constable, Paul Netherton, Devon and Cornwall Police
• BCU Commander, Superintendent Nigel Boulton
• CAADA Chief Executive, Diana Barren
• Exeter Community Safety Partnership, Michael Miller
• Exeter Women’s Aid Manager, Chris Pearson
• Home Office, Jenna Marsh
• Government Office South West, David Warren

Assistant Chief Constable, Paul Netherton, Devon and Cornwall Police

I am writing to you in reference to your recent inspection into Devon County Council and in particular the area of domestic violence services.

As Assistant Chief Constable in Devon and Cornwall responsible for territorial policing I have been involved over the last year and half in the critical area of responding to domestic abuse throughout the peninsula. I have been extremely impressed by Devon County’s response and the impact aDVA has made in this area.

Having worked in several other Forces I can say that Devon’s response is by far the best I have seen in my service.  It is both innovative and holistic in its approach focusing not only the safety, justice and support to victims but crucially picking up issues around perpetrators and the children involved in domestic abuse situations.

I would highlight some key areas which have impressed me.  Firstly, adva has driven forward the peninsula domestic abuse model which has drawn together both action plans and funding streams at a strategic level with a range of partnerships.

Secondly, adva work around raising awareness has been significant including, public events, multi-agency forums and particularly effective has been their approach of getting employers to engage with their own staff to see who is suffering domestic abuse and providing support for them by targeting large employers such as the County Council, District Councils, the police and health they have reached a significant proportion of the workforce of the county.

Another key area has been their work around offender programmes such as REPAIR which has been highly successful in dealing with perpetrators and their families. This area has also highlighted aDVA ability to drawn in the increase funding by showing the relevance of their work in reaching other agencies targets such as for the police and for health.

I would strongly support Devon’s green flag for domestic abuse, I consider the work here to be certainly innovative and leading the way nationally and would expect this to continue for the next 3 to 5 years as they deliver on the peninsula domestic abuse model.

Yours sincerely

Paul Netherton
Assistant Chief Constable
(Territorial Policing)

BCU Commander, Superintendent Nigel Boulton

Domestic Violence service delivery in Devon County Council area

I am a Police Superintendent serving with Devon and Cornwall police currently serving as the head of Crime and Operations for Devon Basic Command Unit which covers both the Devon County and Torbay Unitary areas. I have a service history which has focussed mainly on homicide and serious and organised crime.

Devon County Council co ordinate and majority fund a dynamic and in my view unique partnership with the intention of delivering the highest levels of both statutory and non statutory services to both victims and perpetrators of Domestic Abuse including their wider families.

The ADVA partnership, as named, co-ordinates the work of all statutory partners together with a range of non statutory and voluntary agencies. It reports to the Devon Strategic Partnership and performance manages itself in line with agreed LAA targets. This co ordination has led to highly effective and efficient delivery across the partnership of statutory, non statutory and voluntary services but has also been pivotal in the design, implementation and support of new areas of business which I would highlight;

• Support services for male and female survivors of domestic across Devon
• Family intervention programmes across the county. This is aimed at perpetrators and also supports their children and families
• 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.
• Establishment of 4 Independent Domestic Violence Advisers (IDVAs) working to the four Multi-agency Risk Assessment Conferences (MARACs) which have been established in Devon.
• Establishment of an Idva to work with the three Specialist Domestic Violence Courts within Devon. This is demonstrating improved success in dealing with cases in the criminal justice system.

There are other areas, where the partnership across Devon has made a significant impact to peoples lives in relation to Domestic abuse but the above relate to my portfolio within the criminal justice system.

Without the leadership and co-ordination of the ADVA Executive partnership the dramatic increase in reporting of Domestic Abuse would not have occurred. Victims and their families would not have had the long term support and care and perpetrators would not have been deterred from re offending. I am utterly convinced that the work of the partnership in Devon has significantly impacted on the reduction of homicides in the force area.

Superintendent Nigel I BOULTON

CAADA, Diana Barren

I am glad to have the opportunity to comment on ADVA’s work in Devon to help keep victims of domestic abuse safe.  As you know, CAADA works across the UK and so we are in a fortunate position to have some perspective on what is happening in the field nationally.

I would say that there are a number of things that distinguish the ADVA partnership and its approach to domestic abuse.  Above all however, is the integrity of the team.  The ADVA team approach their work with a commitment, consistency and intellectual rigour that is almost unique in the country.  This is reflected in a genuine partnership, tangible progress in all aspects of domestic abuse service provision, and a commitment to evidence based practice.

Key Points:

• Scope of services: The creativity of the ADVA team is reflected in the range of services that are provided to all victims of domestic abuse and their children. The depth of understanding of the team and their openness to service user input is highlighted by the scope of local provision that runs from preventative services to those that address those in crisis.
• Commitment to the Third Sector: development and expansion of services has consistently taken place in partnership with the third sector, building on and benefiting from the expertise that exists there, while offering crucial support in service development.
• Innovation: Devon was one of the first counties to embrace the IDVA and MARAC approach to working with high risk victims of domestic abuse.  Already in 2005, when this was still at its pilot stage, ADVA funded all its local practitioners to attend the CAADA IDVA training.  Similarly, linking individual IDVAs with health services represents another innovative and crucial service.
• Targeted use of resources: ADVA has been most proactive in providing training to existing practitioners, ensuring that all are kept up to date with the latest developments in practice.  This investment can be a catalyst to improving practice on a county wide basis.

ADVA is a much respected partner organisation of ours and I wish you every success in your work,

With kind regards
Diana

Exeter Community Safety Partnership, Michael Miller

The adva partnership provides the drive and direction for the development and delivery of domestic abuse services across the whole county of Devon.  Without the partnership, domestic abuse services in Devon would probably still comprise only the three Women’s Aid refuges, and any required additional projects brought about through government expectation and funding.

What is the definition of “innovative” ? Is it completely new ideas and projects which have never been thought of anywhere else before, or is it the introduction of new ideas and projects into an area where new ideas may not have been particularly welcomed previously ?

In many respects, within Devon, the very existence of the adva partnership was an innovation.  There have been many loose affiliations of agencies, including the overall community safety network, but adva was the first cross-county body with a partnership agreement, with agencies signed up to deliver services, and to provide some measure of funding to the overall budget. This in itself was a major achievement. The support at a senior level from the statutory agencies across Devon is now expected and sustained.

The partnership is now discussing the expansion of services to cover the peninsula of Devon and Cornwall, and this is a typical example of the constant desire to develop services and improve the lives of all those who experience domestic abuse.

But, more importantly, the effect of the adva partnership’s drive and commitment on the lives of many women and children is immeasurable.  Reports to the police have increased significantly over the years since the partnership started, and support services have grown, not to meet the need, because the need is yet greater, but at least to make a greater contribution to meeting demand.

The list of new services which have been introduced into Devon as a result of the innovative approach of the adva partnership is impressive.

Outreach

Children’s support services

Multi-agency Risk Assessment Conferences

Specialist Domestic Violence Courts

Enhanced evidence gathering

Pattern-changing courses

Survivors groups

Projects to tackle perpetrators

Support services for male victims

Many of these would not exist, or would not be so well developed, were it not for the drive of the adva partnership and workers.

As well as continuing the struggle to maintain the existing services, the adva partnership also strives to expand the range of work, services, agency commitment.  Work is ongoing with BME communities to develop services to meet the specific needs of those communities. Agencies are being encouraged to develop their own employer/employee domestic abuse policies.  Services for children and families are being extended, and work with schools to raise awareness at an early age is ongoing.

The adva partnership has brought about the support service provision to enable many women, children and men to improve their lives. The partnership has also brought about a change in the attitude of statutory agencies to the whole issue of domestic abuse. There will be no Chief Executive in Devon who is not aware of the issue, and of the need to improve his/her agency’s service delivery in this area.

Michael Miller

Partnership Co-ordinator
Exeter Community Safety Partnership

Exeter Women’s Aid Manager, Chris Pearson

Exeter Women's Aid (EWA) has been working closely with the ADVA partnership team for the last 8 years and during this period of time we have seen the profile and awareness of domestic violence and abuse (dva) in Devon change beyond all recognition and the range of services to those affected by dva has been significantly extended so that there is a now a wide range of co-ordinated support services. Thanks to ADVA's success in raising money EWA has expanded over the last 8 years from the provision of emergency refuge accommodation to providing a wide range of preventative and proactive outreach work in the community, IDVA's to work with very high risk victims both in MARAC and through the SDVC and the Repair perpetrator programme to work holistically with all the family members. Without ADVA, few of these services would exist and the 800 or so women we have worked with in outreach over the last year alone would have been without any support. The support provided by these services enables women to move on in their lives, creates confidence in the criminal justice process, helps women to keep themselves and their children safe and in some cases can literally help save lives - all of which has a benefit both financially and socially to the wider community and to a wide range of other services, such as police, health and children's services who would otherwise be dealing with the direct and indirect consequences of on -going dva. With financial support from ADVA we are also able to fund a dedicated team of workers at the refuge to provide specialist support to the children and young people we accommodate - again, without this support their needs would not be addressed and there would be an increased likelihood of the impact of dva on these children and young people being far more severe and prolonged.

In recent months we have worked with ADVA to develop and provide a service for male victims of dva and we are also exploring ways with ADVA of improving access for those from BME and other marginalised communities in order to provide services that are truly inclusive. Without the drive, enthusiasm, commitment and fund-raising abilities of the ADVA team and partnership none of this would have been possible and the co-ordinated and consistent services that we pride ourselves on would simply not exist.

I hope this information is helpful - please contact me if you require any further information.

Chris Pearson
Manager

Exeter Women's Aid
PO Box 121,
Exeter
EX4 2XN

Home Office, Jenna Marsh

The Home Office welcomes the positive work being done by Devon County Council to tackle domestic violence. The Government strongly believe that a multi-agency approach to tackling domestic violence is the most effective way to ensure that more offenders are brought to justice, victims are better protected and further violence is prevented.

Jenna Marsh
Interpersonal Violence Team

Violent Crime Unit
4th Floor, Peel Building
NE Quarter
2 Marsham Street
SW1P 4DF

Government Office South West, David Warren

David Warren has asked me to forward this to youas he is currently way from the office:

Devon's work, through the adva partnership, is one of the most innovative in the South West region, for many reasons: the partnership has been long-standing (which in itself is unusual in the field of domestic violence and abuse work nationally); it has successfully increased funding from a multitude of sources to increase its investment in specialist service provision across a large rural county, and the funding has reached unprecedented levels in the South West region.

Adva is unique in providing holistic, comprehensive support services to every element of the family - perpetrator, victim and children. The partnership has succeeded in implementing the Home Office's recommended co-ordinated, community model which promotes specialist support services to families within both the criminal / civil justice system and the community: again, this is not seen anywhere else in the South West region where other counties focus more usually on just the high-end risk associated with domestic violence.

Adva has worked tirelessly with all the key agencies in Devon to change their attitudes and practices to increase the safety of victims, including the safeguarding of children who suffer from domestic violence but fall below the radar of risk within Children and Young People Services.

Adva works in a joined up way to reduce the harm that victims suffer, and have undertaken some innovative consultation and awareness raising with survivors themselves who in turn continue to influence practice change within the county. This anticipates a key focus of the Violence against Women Government drive. I have highlighted the work of adva as good practice on many occasions to other partnerships, both in theSouth Westand in other parts of the country.