Social care alone cannot address domestic abuse

New Department for Education figures reveal that children's services in England carried out 197,700 child protection assessments where domestic violence was a factor in 2014/15. The figures, published in parliament by Home Office minister Karen Bradley, represent the first time the government has compiled data on the number of domestic abuse concerns referred to, and assessed by, social services. As such, they lift the lid on the scale of the domestic abuse problem and serve to highlight concerns previously raised by children's leaders that councils are struggling to cope with the sheer weight of domestic violence work.

Recorded instances of abuse against women have fallen 20 per cent in the past decade, but over that time, understanding has grown into the links between domestic violence and child abuse and wellbeing. Witnessing domestic violence can seriously traumatise children, so it should be particularly worrying that, according to latest Office for National Statistics figures, a child was present in 46 per cent of instances of partner abuse.