Agenda item

Councillor Mary Martin will move:

“That this Council:

Recognises that:

1. Each year nearly 2 million people in the UK suffer some form of Domestic Abuse.

2. Anyone can be a victim of Domestic Abuse, regardless of gender, age, ethnicity, socio-economic status, sexuality or background.

3. Domestic Abuse can manifest itself in many ways including; emotional, physical, sexual, psychological and financial.

Notes that:

1. The Council is already engaged in awareness and education around Domestic Abuse including the work carried out through the Community Safety Partnership Board to increase the local communities and organisations understanding and awareness of the extent and impact of Domestic Abuse.

2. The Council places a lot of emphasis on prevention and early intervention and is committed to working with partners to seek resolutions to reduce the prevalence of domestic abuse and to provide support for children and young people whose lives are affected by domestic abuse.

Requests that the Cabinet Member for Public Safety:

1. Continues to robustly adopt a zero tolerance approach to any form of domestic violence and abuse, and strongly reaffirms our steadfast commitment to tackle domestic violence and abuse through taking a public health approach with our multi-agency Domestic Abuse Strategy and Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy, supported by awareness campaigns.

2. Encourages anybody from any background who is suffering from the impact of domestic violence and abuse to come forward and get the help and support they need from the extensive range of partners working collaboratively with Swindon Borough Council including the police, health services, schools and other key partner organisations such as the 24 hour English National Domestic Violence Helpline, Swindon Women’s Aid, Citizens Advice Bureau, Victim Support and Galop.

3. Resolves to continue to promote awareness across the Borough to ensure residents, both adults and children, understand what constitutes domestic violence and abuse and who they can go to locally to access support.”

4. Welcomes the Final Report and Recommendations of the Domestic Abuse Task Group to the Adult's Health, Social Care and Housing Overview and Scrutiny Committee (HHAOSC) in April 2019 and ensures that the recommendations contained in the report receive the weight of consideration due to such an important subject.

5. Ensures that the Swindon and Wiltshire CSPs are requested to take the lead in continuing to deliver a high level of service to support those who experience Domestic Abuse, with a particular focus on early intervention, vulnerability and health connections.

6. Ensures that the CSP considers how best to promote engagement and work to include wider partnership, the private sector, the MOD, especially Army.

7. Be asked through the CSP to build on GP/GWH work being delivered by SWA and look to extend this into Wiltshire.

8. Ensure that the outcomes of the meeting between Swindon CSP, Wiltshire CSP and the Police which will take place in the near future be taken to the CSP to ensure that any request for relevant action is discussed and followed up.

          Councillor Mary Martin moved and Councillor Bob Wright seconded:

“This Council recognises that:

1.      In 2017-18, there were more than 5,000 reported incidents of Domestic Abuse reported to the Police in Swindon, approximately 2,500 of which were recorded as crimes. There have been more than 300 high risk cases reported to Swindon MARAC (Multi Agency Risk Conference) which involved 680 children in those families. The cost to organisations across Swindon is approximately £19M per year.

It is understood that many incidents of Domestic Abuse go unreported and the figure for actual incidents of DA is higher than the reported figure.

2.      Anyone can be a victim of Domestic Abuse, regardless of gender, age, ethnicity, socio-economic status, sexuality or background.

3.      Domestic Abuse can manifest itself in many ways including; emotional, physical, sexual, psychological and financial.

Notes that:

1.      The Council is already engaged in awareness and education around Domestic Abuse including the work carried out through the Community Safety Partnership Board to increase the local communities and organisations understanding and awareness of the extent and impact of Domestic Abuse.

2.      The Council places a lot of emphasis on prevention and early intervention and is committed to working with partners to seek resolutions to reduce the prevalence of domestic abuse and to provide support for children and young people whose lives are affected by domestic abuse.

Requests that the Cabinet Member for Public Safety:

1.      Continues to robustly adopt a zero tolerance approach to any form of domestic violence and abuse, and strongly reaffirms our steadfast commitment to tackle domestic violence and abuse through taking a public health approach with our multi-agency Domestic Abuse Strategy and Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy, supported by awareness campaigns.

2.      Encourages anybody from any background who is suffering from the impact of domestic violence and abuse to come forward and get the help and support they need from the extensive range of partners working collaboratively with Swindon Borough Council including the police, health services, schools and other key partner organisations such as the 24 hour English National Domestic Violence Helpline, Swindon Women’s Aid, Citizens Advice Bureau, Victim Support and Galop.

3.      Resolves to continue to promote awareness across the Borough to ensure residents, both adults and children, understand what constitutes domestic violence and abuse and who they can go to locally to access support.

4.      Welcomes the Final Report and Recommendations of the Domestic Abuse Task Group to the Adult's Health, Social Care and Housing Overview and Scrutiny Committee (HHAOSC) in April 2019 and ensures that the recommendations contained in the report receive the weight of consideration due to such an important subject.

5.      Ensures that the Swindon and Wiltshire Community Safety Partnership (CPS) leads in continuing to deliver a high level of service to support those who experience Domestic Abuse, with a particular focus on early intervention, vulnerability and health connections.

6.      Ensures that the CSP considers how best to promote engagement & work to include wider partnership, the private sector and the Ministry Of Defence (especially the Army).

7.      Be asked through the CSP to work collaboratively with Wiltshire across the wider system building on the current successful provision of the Swindon based Independent Domestic  Violence Advisor (IDVA) service within both the primary care General Practitioner setting and the secondary care Great Western Hospital setting.

8.          Ensure that the outcomes of the meeting between Swindon CSP, Wiltshire CSP and the Police, which will take place in the near future, be taken to the CSP to ensure that any request for relevant action is discussed and followed up.

9.      Ask the Community Safety Partnership to consider asking education providers in Swindon to draw up a local education policy to address equality and respect, together with a means of measuring changes in behaviour & attitude and to consider whether the Community Safety Partnership would want anything added in to such a policy.”

The Motion was put to the vote and declared carried.