{"id":1370,"date":"2024-09-02T16:35:11","date_gmt":"2024-09-02T15:35:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/beta.devon.gov.uk\/dsva\/information-for-professionals\/legislation-and-responsibilities\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T16:22:05","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T15:22:05","slug":"legislation-and-responsibilities","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/dsva\/information-for-professionals\/legislation-and-responsibilities\/","title":{"rendered":"Legislation and responsibilities"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Domestic Abuse Act 2021&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The\u202f<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/publications\/domestic-abuse-bill-2020-factsheets\/domestic-abuse-bill-2020-overarching-factsheet\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Domestic Abuse Act 2021<\/a>\u202fis a wide-ranging piece of legislation that aims to raise awareness and understanding about the devastating impact of domestic abuse on victims and their families, improve the effectiveness of the justice system in providing protection for victims of domestic abuse and bringing perpetrators to justice, and strengthen the support for victims of abuse by statutory agencies.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/publications\/domestic-abuse-bill-2020-factsheets\/local-authority-support-for-victims-of-domestic-abuse-and-their-children-within-safe-accommodation-factsheet\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Part 4 of the Act<\/a>\u202fplaces a new statutory duty on tier 1 local authorities \u2013 including Devon County Council \u2013 to provide support to victims of domestic abuse and their children when they are in certain types of safe accommodation. These include refuges and specialist safe accommodation of various kinds. The duty is to provide support, not the accommodation.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As part of the duty, local authorities have to:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>appoint a multi-agency Domestic Abuse Local Partnership Board and consult the Board as it performs certain specified functions&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>assess the need for accommodation-based domestic abuse support in their area for all victims and their children who reside in relevant safe accommodation, including those who come from outside of their area&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>prepare and publish a strategy for the provision of such support to cover their area having regard to the needs assessment&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>give effect to the strategy (through commissioning or decommissioning decisions)&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of the strategy&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>report back annually to central government&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Devon County Council created the Devon Domestic Abuse Local Partnership Board in April 2021. The Board has agreed to extend its remit to address a wider range of interpersonal and gender-based violence and abuse and has therefore rebranded and is now known as the Interpersonal Gender Based Violence and Abuse Board (IG-BVA).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Strategy documents<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/devoncc.sharepoint.com\/:b:\/s\/PublicDocs\/Corporate\/IQArTBNOxRmWSZWMS7i_rURkAdEuVHiULeRyPy9EJe0LPmY?e=sMAf9y\" rel=\"noopener\">Devon Domestic Abuse Support in Safe accommodation Strategic plan 26-30<\/a> sets out the Council\u2019s commitment to ensuring that all victims of domestic abuse have access to support in dedicated safe and appropriate accommodation.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Partnership Board, with the Council\u2019s coordination, has undertaken a strategic needs assessment on Interpersonal and Gender-based Violence and Abuse (IG-BVA) in Devon. This <a href=\"https:\/\/saferdevon.co.uk\/interpersonal-gender-based-violence-abuse\/\" rel=\"noopener\">IG-BVA needs assessment<\/a> is published on the Safer Devon Website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Throughout 2025, the Partnership Board developed a new IG-BVA Strategy that brings together people&#8217;s lived experiences, professional experiences and findings from the needs assessment. Called <a href=\"https:\/\/devoncc.sharepoint.com\/:b:\/s\/PublicDocs\/Corporate\/IQCQvITJ-yIVQYJrtlvo6HUQAf5NS_aHDOu5ymWIrgHEOBg?e=rSGfTd\" rel=\"noopener\">Safe Lives, Strong Communities<\/a> it is Devon&#8217;s response to Interpersonal and Gender Based Violence and Abuse from 2026-29. All related documents can be found <a href=\"https:\/\/devoncc.sharepoint.com\/:f:\/s\/PublicDocs\/Corporate\/IgD7Zgvt2151R6WVVZfWlU31AcoLz9mNPAex7qIGgAVI-MY?e=pZJsER\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/saferdevon.co.uk\/devon-preventing-serious-violence-strategy-2024-29\/\" rel=\"noopener\">Devon Preventing Serious Violence Strategy 2024-29<\/a> is also published on the Safer Devon website. This Strategy has been developed in response to the Serious Violence Duty, introduced in 2023, which requires specified authorities in local areas to &#8220;work together to prevent and reduce serious violence&#8221;.&nbsp;It outlines Safer Devon\u2019s framework for preventing and reducing serious violence in Devon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Domestic Abuse Act 2021&nbsp;&nbsp; The\u202fDomestic Abuse Act 2021\u202fis a wide-ranging piece of legislation that aims to raise awareness and understanding about the devastating impact of domestic abuse on victims and their families, improve the effectiveness of the justice system in providing protection for victims of domestic abuse and bringing perpetrators to justice, and strengthen the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"parent":7,"menu_order":4,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-1370","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-04 18:03:40","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/dsva\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/dsva\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/dsva\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/dsva\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/dsva\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1370"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/dsva\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1370\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1438,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/dsva\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1370\/revisions\/1438"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/dsva\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/dsva\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}