Domestic abuse in west Cheshire
SafeLives was commissioned to carry out our needs assessment. Alongside this SafeLives conducted a systems review, specifically focused on those who harm. The assessment took account of data from 2019/2020 and 2020/2021.
Findings
It was challenging for all agencies involved to provide the level of data required in a consistent format. Many agencies cannot report on which person is the one harmed and the one causing harm. Full ethnicity details were not always captured, there is a high level of unknown relating to disability and sexual identify. Capture of socio-economic characteristics were also very limited. To provide a holistic response that is risk and needs led it is vital that these demographics are known, well understood in the context of the abuse individuals are experiencing or perpetrating, and clearly recorded. This is an area of learning for all agencies operating within west Cheshire and is reflected in the action plan linked to this strategy. All these demographics and characteristics represent the whole person and the whole family, it is therefore important to capture this information to get the right support at the right time to the right people.
Despite this it is clear is that adults aged between 25 - 34 years and their children are the most impacted group by domestic abuse in west Cheshire. It is important to note that children in the age category 0 - 5 years accounts for 44 per cent of all child victims.
Cheshire Police recorded 5,281 domestic abuse incidents across west Cheshire in 2020/21 compared to 5,056 the year before. This represents a 4.5 per cent increase. Domestic abuse crimes make up 18 per cent of all crimes reported to Cheshire Police. The Council's Homelessness team saw an overall increase of 30 per cent for those seeking support due to domestic abuse.
Conversely, for the same period from 2019/20 to 2020/21, the overall number of those who were harmed referred to the Local Authority Domestic Abuse Intervention and Prevention Service (DAIPS) reduced by 13.57 per cent.
During the period 20/21 there was an 8.2 per cent decrease in referrals to children's services front door i-art compared to the previous year. In the 12 months to July 2021, 24,339 individual contacts were received by i-art, of these 4,409 related to Domestic Abuse (18.1 per cent) of whom 2,542 were child contacts and 1,867 were adults over the age of 18 years. 790 of these individuals (17.9 per cent of the 4,409) progressed into Early Help and Prevention for support and 815 progressed to a Children's Social Care referral (18.5 per cent). 67 per cent of domestic abuse contacts come from the Police (2,966 contacts), followed by Education/School (5.8 per cent, 257).
Since the introduction of the statutory requirement for Community Safety Partnerships to conduct Domestic Homicide Reviews (DHR) in April 2011, the Cheshire West and Chester CSP has received 11 notifications of deaths to consider conducting a review. All DHRs once approved by the Home Office DHR Quality Assurance Panel are published online on the Cheshire West and Chester Community Safety Partnership website. The completion of the action plans for each review are overseen by the CSP. All learning has been incorporated into the development of the priorities and actions for this strategy.
Similarly, the Safeguarding Children Partnership under the auspice of Working Together 2018 has a duty to consider all serious safeguarding incidents involving children where abuse or neglect is known, or suspected, and a child has died or been seriously harmed. This is achieved through the Rapid Review Process and all learning is shared with the National Child Safeguarding Panel and Department for Education. All Rapid Reviews, Local Safeguarding Practice Reviews and other quality assurance activity at a local level is shared with the partnership agencies and frontline staff. Any learning in relation to domestic abuse has influenced the refresh of this strategy and specific reports are acknowledged in the body of the document.