Against Domestic Violence and Abuse Partnership
Notes of the Meeting Held on 7 June 2005
The LOOP Centre, Exeter
Present:
Cllr Jill Owen - Chair
Sarah Adams - Sure Start
Najat Al Sharmi - Exeter HAG
Michael Beechener - Independent
Ann Burgoyne - Women’s Aid
Sharon Clayborough - Victim Support Devon
Peter Dale - South Hams District Council
Louise Deane - Social Services
Melody Floyde - Devon County Council
Zoe Joslin - Central Devon Magistrates Court
Rachel Martin - Devon County Council
Michael Miller - Exeter CSP
Chrissie Morris - Devon County Council
Jo Morrish - North Devon Women’s Aid
Rose Neave - Independent
Carol Needs - Domestic Violence Officer, Police
Bill Pascoe - Police
Chris Pearson - Exeter Women’s Aid
Vicky Plastow - East Devon Outreach
Maureen Read - Judiciary
Viv Savage - Probation – HMP Exeter
Mary Smeaton - NHS Direct and Ambulance
Simon Snell - Police
Caroline Thornton - Victim Support Devon
Roy Tomlinson - Devon County Council
Apologies
Alison Allen – North Devon PCT; Ken Fuller – DCC; Juliet Hammacott – DCC; Andrew Lloyd – DCC; Christine McKenna – South Devon Women’s Aid; Mary Mitchell – Probation; Ann Morecraft – Health; Kristina Nilsson – Exeter Women’s Aid; Amanda Palmer – Safer North Devon; Ann Marie Parkin – North Devon Women’s Aid; Ruth Saltmarsh – Magistrates; Katy Shorten – Housing; Steve Swani – Police; Lesley Valentine – Police; Wendi Wallen – Police;
1. Welcome and Update
Jill Owen welcomed everyone and updated on progress since the last meeting:
· The ISB bid was successful
· Exeter Women’s Aid will shortly be advertising an Advocacy Post.
· The new Strategy Document for 2005-08 is currently being printed and will be available soon.
2. ISB Bid
Rachel and Roy updated on the successful ISB bid (presentation attached)
ADVA has been awarded £618k over the next three years. Rachel and Roy have met with John Dunworth from the Home Office to confirm the money.
The bid has been formulated around developing a Family Intervention Model based on the North Devon work. Where the REPAIR Perpetrators Programme, Children’s Worker and the Women’s Aid Pattern Changing Courses are all running and provide services to whole families.
The aim is to introduce IDASSUs (Integrated Domestic Abuse Safety & Support Units) into 3 parts of Devon – North; Exeter, East & Mid; and South.
The Community Perpetrator Programme posts for Exeter and South Devon have been advertised, and 20+ applications have been received.
There will hopefully be 2 Advocacy worker posts introduced over the next year. The first of these is being advertised by Exeter Women’s Aid next week.
A parenting module will also be introduced as an addition to the REPAIR programme.
3. Awareness Raising Week (21-27 November 2005)
Michael Beechener reported that a sub-group of 11 people, representing five of the district forums, had met in April, concentrating on feedback from last year’s week and planning for this year.
There needs to be a balance between central and local co-ordination of events. The budget for the week is £15k centrally and £1k for each of the six district forums.
The Key Central Events for the week will be:
· Advertising on Bus Tickets throughout Devon
· Survivors Conference on 25th November for Survivors and Chief Executives of Key Agencies.
Other ideas are currently being researched, e.g. seeking corporate sponsorship and celebrity input.
The next meeting of the Planning Sub Group will be held on 14 September.
Peter Dale undertook to investigate advertising inside buses which is possibly free if crime related.
There was a query over which number would be used on the bus tickets. It was felt one number would need to be used, as it would be costly to produce different tickets for each district. This will be agreed nearer the time.
4. Forum Updates
West Devon
No representative was present from West Devon. However Peter Dale reported on the ballot held for members of West Devon and South Hams & Teignbridge Forums about the possibility of joining the two forums together. The conclusion was that whilst people were happy to do some joint events, it was not appropriate to join the two forums together.
South Hams & Teignbridge – Peter Dale
· The CSP have produced a new strategy
· The forum is aiming to get statutory employers in the area to develop DV strategies
· An Awareness-Raising Sub Group has been set up whose core task will be planning for A-R week.
· South and West BCU have regular link meetings where they plan marketing throughout the year.
· The GOSW conference in Torbay had a very good DV Workshop around the 5 phases of perpetrator work. (This was run by Paul Wolflite and it was suggested by Rachel that he could be invited to the next meeting to give a talk on this).
North Devon – Jo Morrish
· Alison Allen (North Devon PCT) is the new Chair of the Forum, and Jane Smith (Solicitor) is the Vice Chair.
· The Forum is currently looking at plans for the forthcoming A-R week.
· The Outreach Project has been piloting a direct out-of-hours referral scheme with the Police. This works when a perpetrator is arrested and the victim wants support. This will continue for the next few months but will eventually be taken on by an advocacy worker.
Exeter – Michael Miller
· Lesley Valentine (Police) is the new chair of the forum.
· An Awareness Raising Day was held on 11 May in St Stephens Church with stalls and information being handed out. This was very successful with over 150 people attending.
· Exeter City Council are running a Sanctuary Scheme and this has been allocated another £10k of funding for this year. Rachel requested further information and feedback on this scheme.
East Devon – Carol Needs
· Dominique Holmes and Andrea Toman (both Health) are the new joint chairs of the Forum. The first meeting with the new chairs was due to be held on 8 June 2005.
ADVA Strategy 2005-08 - the Role of Forums
The current main role of forums is one of sharing information and networking. The strategy would like to see forums move towards establishing an executive steering group to take responsibility for mainstreaming domestic violence services but recognise this will be difficult to implement.
It was felt that the role of the forum is to identify gaps and monitoring, not necessarily to put these things right. This would be a different body to the one that currently exists locally.
The links between forums and CSPs vary from district to district.
It was suggested that forums should have their meetings prior to the ADVA meetings so that they will be able to report back on new issues. However, many forums use the ADVA Partnership meetings to report back to their forums on central issues. This may be something that can be agreed next year, as most forums have already set their dates for the year.
Some of the ISB Money will be used introduce a part-time co-ordinator post for the ADVA partnership.
5. How the North Operates – Jo Morris (North Devon Women’s Aid)
Jo gave a brief account of the work currently happening in North Devon.
The North Devon DV Forum meets bimonthly and is a practitioner’s network.
The REPAIR Community Perpetrator Programme has been running for a year now. Currently there are 7 men on the programme. 4 further men have been assessed on a one-to-one basis, and 4 are on the waiting list. All of these men were at crisis point when they were referred. The programme can take a maximum of 8 men at any one time.
REPAIR is a rolling programme lasting 30 weeks, made up of 10 topics which last 3 weeks each. Men can join the programme at any time. The project also employs a women’s safety worker for 10 hours per week, who supports the partners of men on the programme. Currently the safety worker is working with all partners of men on the programme. These women are offered the opportunity to attend the Pattern Changing course and there is currently 50% take up from them.
As well as REPAIR, the Probation service also runs a perpetrator programme in the area.
The Pattern Changing course, run by Women’s Aid, is delivered to 70 women per year. A recent evaluation of the course has been produced, and is currently being printed.
North Devon doesn’t yet have MARACs in place, but Risk Assessments are undertaken as part of the REPAIR programme which involves SSD, Police, Women’s Aid and the Programme Manager.
In addition, the Women’s Safety Worker and the REPAIR workers have monthly group supervision sessions.
Post REPAIR services are available to help keep families together.
The Children’s Worker has been in post for nine months now, and works full time, receiving referrals direct from Outreach Workers, rather than outside agencies.
The children’s worker has been working in local schools. In one secondary school, she has set up a pilot group working with teenaged boys who have experienced domestic abuse at home. She has also piloted two groups for 8-12 year olds. Additionally she is piloting the Pattern Changing Course in a further education college for girls who have experience domestic abuse.
It is anticipated that the role of the children’s worker could change once the ISB funding comes through.
Jo has been attending Advocacy training, run by CRARG, in London and reported that they will be running a course in Okehampton later this year. 11 women’s aid workers will be able to attend, and it will be up to the Women’s Aid Managers to select which workers will attend.
It was noted that there are currently no contact / handover centres in North Devon and in other districts. There is the Little House Contact Centre in Exeter, which is a very valuable facility.
Action: Rachel Martin to invite a representative from Little House Contact Centre to talk at a future ADVA Meeting.
Action: Circulate an email to forums to identify what contact centre provision exists, the gaps and the perceived need for such services. (Rachel Martin)
6. Any Other Business
Mary Smeaton reported that the new Guidance for Health Professionals is being released at the end of June and will be available from the Department of Health Website.
Date of Next Meeting: Tuesday 20 September 2005, The LOOP Centre, Exeter (Times TBC)
4