Agenda item

Nicole Jacobs, Domestic Abuse Commissioner, introduced item two.  Nicole’s presentation focused on:

·         The synergies between community safety and resilience, and her role.

·         Her appointment had taken place six weeks before the meeting, and she had been appointed with the remit of improving the response to domestic abuse (DA) in England and Wales.  Nicole commented that her role gives public leadership to the role and provides practical ways of moving forward in terms of services and a coordinated response at a national level. 

·         Nicole discussed the Domestic Abuse Bill, which has now ceased due to the proroguing of Parliament and the upcoming General Election. Nicole stated that her role & office will continue regardless, however, the Bill would have given her role additional powers which would have been helpful – for example, the ability to lay reports in Parliament.  In addition to this, Nicole stated that whilst she could not give any definite assurances, she believed it likely that the Bill would come back in the new session of Parliament, given the cross-party support and discussions she has had with leading parliamentarians.  

·         This role is brand new, and is similar to the Victims Commissioner, the Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner, and the Children’s Commissioner.  Her office is currently developing a Memorandum of Understanding with the other Commissioners, to highlight the Commissioner’s function, as well as handle issues where there is an overlap with the other Commissioners’ remits.  

·         Nicole stated that she has started to undertake the mapping of service provision, which is an essential part of her role.  This mapping aims to highlight good practice, where practice is, and where practice ought to be, and would be drawing on previous mapping exercises. The Commissioner has started to meet with analysts and exploring how best to undertake this large task.   This mapping will also need to identify what good service provision within local areas looks like (including examples of coordinated community response), as well as identifying key early intervention practices to reduce and eventually minimise crisis points. 

·         The Commissioner said she would also be looking at Domestic Homicide Reviews to understand what could be learned from them and how the recommendations are being implemented at a local level.

·         The Commissioner said one of her priorities would be specialist DA courts, as well as producing a refreshed manual at the start of 2020 that looks at what works to tackle and prosecute DA within courts.

·         Some parts of the Commissioner’s role relate specifically to children and Black, Asian and Mixed Ethnicities (BAME) communities.

Following the Commissioner’s presentation, members raised the following points:

-          Members discussed the proposed statutory duty to provide accommodation to victims noting that this would require engagement with a range of statutory services and there may need to be a duty to cooperate placed on them. They also noted proposals from some to extend the duty to provide wider domestic abuse services as well.

-          Members highlighted the need for early intervention and prevention, and stated there was an opportunity to do this through the revised curriculum in schools and PSHE to educate young people around healthy relationships. 

-          Members discussed how lack of funding to local government is the key in every issue the sector is facing; members noted that the £15 million made available to local areas to bid for was not a substitute for the need for funding the new responsibilities councils would have.

o   In response to these, the Commissioner stated that one of the few upsides of the stalling of the Bill process is more time to consider what the statutory duty on providing accommodation would entail, and how it would be funded; the Commissioner stated that costing this properly is key if the duty was to be broadened, and noted that her view was it was odd to support some services with a duty and not others. It would therefore be helpful to have views on what is realistic and what the constraints faced by local government are.

-          Members discussed PCCs work on DA, as well as Local Partnership Boards and how these differ in practice.  It was discussed how sharing best practice on DA are essential so all local areas are at the same level to tackle this issue.  Members also questioned what work the Commissioner’s office will be doing on perpetrator intervention; where the Commissioner’s recommendations will be going; and how will engagement with local authorities be mapped?

o   In response to this, the Commissioner: agreed that sharing best practice amongst all government bodies – including all the way up to central Government – should be practiced; regarding perpetrator intervention, the Commissioner admitted that this work varies across local areas, and is not extensive across the country – normally perpetrators just enter into the criminal justice system, but there had been some mapping of perpetrator programmes; there needed to be more of a strategy to perpetrator interventions including taking a more punitive approach, and a better understanding of what works; mapping is still in the very early stages of completion, and advice on how to complete it would be useful as the staff in councils who responded often did not have an overview of all the services provided; and an Annual Report will be presented to Parliament and the Home Secretary (with the latter having limited powers to change the report, given the independent jurisdiction the Commissioner has in her role). 

-          Two issues raised by members included media reporting on DA cases, and the significant impact this has on victims, as well as the essential links between DA services and Housing Associations.

o   In response to this, the Commissioner stated that Housing Associations providing support to victims, as well as signposting & actively working with DA support services is an excellent example of multi-agency working.  The Commissioner also stated that she will be working with the Victims Commissioner, focusing on media reporting.  

-          Members brought up other issues that link with DA – including female gentile mutilation (FGM), breast flattening, forced marriage, honour based violence, and abuse in the workplace.  Will the Commissioner’s office support organisations working towards tackling this abuse? Members also requested further clarification on support organisations that would maintain single sex provisions for victims. 

o   In response to this, the Commissioner admitted that there had been some debate over the remit of her role.  The Commissioner stated that many areas have a Violence against Women and Girls (VAWG) strategy in place, and so there have been discussions over to incorporate VAWG issues or not. However, the Home Secretary and Minister very were clear on the role being focused on DA, however the Commissioner acknowledged the obvious overlaps with other issues. The Commissioner is in contact with the Victims Commissioner, agreeing on where their respective focuses will be.

o   In relation to single sex provision of refuge services, the Commissioner commented that there had been lots of debate about whether Bill should be gendered. The Commissioner noted there were a variety of victims of domestic abuse, and that services should not be commissioned on a gender neutral basis. There should be some women only spaces, but also support for men – though there tended not to take up refuge space so men might want a range of other services.

-          Other issues put the Commissioner included the lack of youth service provisions, which will be an excellent place for young people to learn about DA at an early intervention point, and to challenge views about the acceptability of violence n relationships. 

-          Members also mentioned the work of the multi-agency safeguarding hubs. 

The Commissioner thanked members for their time, and expressed her hopes to create an active partnership with all councils, and the Board, in order to influence delivery at a local level.  In terms of driving engagement she would be interested in local government’s views as a statutory duty was not the only way to do that, and other means might work better. The Commissioner concluded that local government were on the frontline to tackle DA and despite funding cuts, were providing brilliant services. 

The Chair concluded the discussion by mentioning three lobbying asks:

1.    Sex and relationship education, starting in primary schools, so children and young people know what healthy relationships look like.

2.    Limit and regulate the availability of violent pornography, as this significantly impacts young people; the Chair stated that a generation of young men, having watched this, have now grown up thinking this behaviour is normal.

3.    A need for nationwide access to accredited perpetrator programmes for local areas, so they know what programmes they can refer perpetrators to that actually work.

Decisions

1.    Members noted the paper; and

2.    Provided further feedback to the Commissioner.