Currently there
is no balance of refuge provision or domestic violence services across
the county of North Yorkshire. The County Council works in partnership
with the seven Crime & Disorder reduction partnerships (CDRPs)
across the county (based in district areas) to tackle crime and disorder
- contributing through its own core business work programmes, through
additional resources for task specific ventures and in a direct financial
capacity, giving £70,000p.a. to CDRPs. CDRPs also receive Safer
& Stronger Communities funding from the Government and have access
to other short term funding provision such as the Basic Command Unit
Fund (through the NY Police) and the Capacity Building Fund (allocated
through Government Office of Yorkshire and Humberside). All of the
CDRPs are signed up to the North Yorkshire Domestic Abuse (DA) Strategy
and DA is a key feature of their individual triennial Community Safety
Strategies. Domestic Abuse priorities for 2005-08 strategies include
the increased of reporting of domestic abuse and the reduction in
repeat victims.
The work programme
of the CDRPs shows a contribution to the following:
Craven:
Provision of administrative
support to the Craven DA forum
Provision of multi
agency training
Support of programmes
aimed at perpetrators (in association with Harrogate CDRP)
Support of training
for CDRP officers in the field of DA
Introduction of
missdorothy.com into 1 primary and 1 secondary school
Production of
service DA directory and translation into urdu
Provision of outreach
support for victims and survivors of DA
Appointment of
DA co-ordinator
TOTAL SPEND ON
DA: £34,151 approx
Hambleton:
To increase levels
of reporting by 20%
To reduce levels
of repeat victimisation by 20%
To develop emergency
family accommodation
Appointment of
a DA co-ordinator
TOTAL SPEND ON
DA: £18,286 approx
Harrogate:
To provide services
which encourage increased reporting
To provide services
to reduce the levels of repeat victimisation
Increased awareness
and understanding of DA issues
Appointment of
a DA co-ordinator
TOTAL SPEND ON
DA: £41,897 approx
Richmondshire:
To make a positive
and lasting difference to any person in Richmondshire suffering from
DA including work to increase reporting, reduce repeat victimisation
and establish baseline statistics for the district
Appointment of
a DA co-ordinator
TOTAL SPEND ON
DA: £47,000 approx
Ryedale:
To reduce DA by
10%
Implementation
of the county DA strategy
Appointment of
a DA co-ordinator
TOTAL SPEND ON
DA: £14,286 approx
Scarborough
Reduce all crime
by 17.5% with a particular focus on violence - including DA
Increase reporting
on DA
Support of DA
forum
Appointment of
a DA co-ordinator
TOTAL SPEND ON
DA: £47,256 approx
Selby:
To reduce violent
crime
Increase services
to tackle domestic abuse
Spend of at least
£14,000
Since 2005 - through
the NYCC Community Fund (established through the additional revenue
raised from the reduction in discount on second homes) the County
Council has contributed the following amounts to projects in support
of DA:
Enhancing DA services
in Craven £15,787
Refurbishment
of a DA flat in Richmondshire £16,000
Making Safe IDAP
project in Ryedale £34,797
Women's Aid in
Scarborough £10,530
CLS project Officer
- who has helped facilitate and co-ordinate training in DA to services
across Selby. Total project cost £55,184
The CDRPs co-ordinate
more funding streams than just that of the County Council....just
under £1.1m is invested annually in community safety issues
through the Safer & Stronger communities fund from Central Government.
Our contribution forms only a small part of their total spend. The
CDRPs would determine how the money is allocated, according to local
need.
The forthcoming
introduction of Local Area Agreements will change the way that CDRPs
are funded - money coming to the county level and being distributed
according to priorities within the LAA Agreement. This will take effect
in April 2007. However the funding that has previously been used primarily
in support of the appointment of DA co-ordinators across the county
- the BCU fund will most likely come to an end at that time so the
future funding of DA co-coordinators is still to be determined. Also
there is an ongoing review of the structure of DA services in support
of the NY DA strategy. This is due to report in August 2006 and that
may well change or have implications for the future structure and
funding of DA services (including the DA co-ordinators) across the
county.
Where an individual
fleeing from domestic violence presents as homeless to one of the
District/Borough councils, they will be treated as in priority need
and housed in a place of safety. Within North Yorkshire there are
two domestic violence refuges, Scarborough Women's Aid and Harrogate
Woman's Aid. They receive direct funding from the council via Supporting
People contracts: £66,853pa to Scarborough and £130,253
to Harrogate. The refuges specifically support women with children,
although both refuges do undertake outreach work funded by other sources,
so there will be some crossover of funding.
Accommodation
for men fleeing domestic violence will usually be through the homelessness
procedures provided by the District/Borough Councils, as the domestic
violence refuges in North Yorkshire are for women only. Women's Aid
does take calls from male victims, and will refer to Castleford refuge,
which does take men.
The council has
Service Level Agreements with MESMAC and North Yorkshire Aids Action,
who may include men experiencing domestic violence amongst their clients,
but obviously this is not their primary remit.
