Doncaster gets £3m innovation funding to tackle domestic abuse

Doncaster Children's Services Trust was established last October as part of efforts to improve services for children and families on the back of a string of highly critical reports in recent years into the council’s child protection services.

The funding, from the Department for Education’s £100m Children’s Social Care Innovation programme, will focus on supporting victims of domestic violence and their children.

The town currently has one of the highest rates for domestic violence in England.

Across South Yorkshire domestic abuse accounted for a third of all recorded violent crimes during 2014/15.

In the 12 months from October 2013, Doncaster’s multi-agency risk assessment centre (Marac) discussed 650 high-risk domestic violence cases.

This is around 150 higher than a national average calculated by domestic abuse charity Save Lives, based on Doncaster’s population size.

The trust is looking to use the money to reduce the number of domestic violence cases reported through the Marac by a 25 per cent within the next year.

It also aims to cut the number of cases where children are subject to a formal child protection plan or are removed from their families.

The trust’s chief executive Paul Moffat said: “Domestic abuse is a blight on the lives of children and young people.

"We and our partners are determined to help break the cycle of abuse.

"In the first year we aim to work with over 500 families to make immediate improvements to their lives and remove the spectre of domestic abuse for future generations.”

Central to the work will be helping women to avoid a pattern of moving from one violent relationship to another and also to help their children avoid repeating the same behaviour as they grow up.

Work with children will also focus on addressing the trauma of experiencing violence in their home.

Another focus is to ensure that families are supported across a number of services, including the police and social care.

Additional police officers, with a specialism in tackling domestic abuse, will also be recruited.
 
Given the high prevalence of domestic abuse in Doncaster another aim is to use promotion to address a “normalisation of abusive relationships”.

Among the highly critical reports that led to Doncaster Council being stripped of control of children’s services and the trust being set up was a report in 2013 by a panel of experts including Professor Julian Le Grand from the London School of Economics.

This said that child protection failings by the council were so serious that a “decisive break” was needed.

The children’s services department had also been placed under government supervision in 2009.