We do not tolerate domestic abuse and take seriously our duty to support victims and survivors.
Anyone disclosing domestic abuse to us will be treated with empathy and spoken to in a non-judgmental manner.
Victims and survivors know their own situations best and should have control over their own decision-making.
Any response to a disclosure of abuse will be led by what the survivor wants, and all disclosures will be treated as confidential, unless there is an immediate risk of harm, or there are safeguarding concerns that mean we need to share information with other agencies to keep victims and survivors safe.
We adopt a coordinated community response in our response to domestic abuse, which means we work in partnership with other council teams and other services to keep victims and survivors safe, hold abusers to account and prevent domestic abuse.
We aim to:
Prevent domestic abuse - while housing services will often interact with survivors at crisis point, we will aim to prevent domestic abuse by taking a zero tolerance approach to abuse and by focusing on early intervention and preventing re-victimisation.
Support victims and survivors - housing services interacting with survivors will provide appropriate support, maintain good knowledge and awareness of options available to survivors, and will ensure they are working jointly with domestic abuse services, including by-and-for services, to provide coordinated support.
Hold perpetrators to account - we will take proactive action against perpetrators depending on the needs or wishes of the survivor to reduce the disruption that domestic abuse causes to the survivor's life, and ensure that perpetrators access support they need, including for behavior change.
Collaborate to create change - we will continue to build on our existing partnerships with domestic abuse and community-led services, create opportunities to work with survivors to review how our response is working and how it could be improved, and will play an active role in multi-agency safeguarding forums.
This policy is in line with our Violence Against Women and Girls 2022-2027 Strategy, which also applies to men and boys at risk of violence or abuse.
We know that anyone can experience domestic abuse, in many forms of relationships, including familial relationships and same-sex or gender intimate partner relationships.