Almost 200 people gathered at a conference in Cardiff in February to talk about housing’s role in ending domestic abuse and anti-social behaviour. Julie Nicholas takes a look back on an inspiring day
Organised BY CIH Cymru and supported by welsh government, the Safer Communities event brought together specialists from the domestic abuse, anti-social behaviour and housing sectors, to hear directly from two ministers committed to building a wales free from violence and exploitation, and over 20 additional speakers, sharing expert opinion, legislative updates and best practice.
Huge numbers of people are at risk of experiencing domestic abuse and anti-social behaviour. The Home Office estimated that 1.2 million women suffered domestic abuse in 2012, and the tragedy of the Fiona Pilkington case demonstrates how devastating anti-social behaviour can be to those who experience it. Domestic abuse and anti-social behaviour are different issues, but they share some characteristics, not least that the people at risk are subjected to abuse in the places that should feel safe, in their home and in their community.
Timely and correct organisational responses, from the many professionals that are involved, are vital in protecting victims and holding perpetrators to account. Often the housing professional is the first point of contact; a disclosure during an interview, receiving a ‘noise nuisance’ report from a neighbour, suspecting there is more to the damaged doors and broken windows than a repair need.
Housing and support services will be increasingly expected, in new legislation, to take an active role in tackling and responding to domestic abuse and anti social behaviour, and have been a crucial partner in developing collaboration and good practice to date. We have solid foundations to build on in Wales: both the multi-agency risk assessment conference (MARAC) and the domestic abuse conference call (DACC) began here.
Safer Communities was a truly inspiring day, an event dedicated to spreading the word around Wales that domestic abuse and anti-social behaviour will not be ignored, those at risk will be supported, and those perpetrating the behaviour will be held to account. Whilst the fantastic range of workshops demonstrated the huge progress made in professional
practice in the last decade, the plenary speakers challenged delegates to go back to their organisations with a rallying call to respond better, communicate more and improve further.
I should probably lay my own cards on the table at this point; as someone who has been involved in domestic abuse services for almost two decades, as a support worker, service commissioner and trustee of a local Women’s Aid group, and tell you that I, like every one of the conference speakers, am convinced that housing is a crucial component in promoting safer communities and ending domestic abuse and violence against women. In March CIH Cymru will be delivering free domestic abuse awareness training, based on the Peabody approach and thanks to Welsh Government support, to 30 housing professionals from across Wales, as well as running a half-day anti-social behaviour fringe-session at TAI, including a simulated courtroom experience. CIH Cymru is taking part in the renewed and revitalised agenda that is committed to building safer Welsh communities – what about you?
Here is a summary of the conference content (see www.cih.org/presentations/safercommunitiesfor presentations):
Plenary sessions: domestic abuse
Ministerial address
Lesley Griffiths AM, minister for local government and government business
The minister gave an update on the new Ending Violence Against Women and Domestic Abuse (Wales) Bill currently progressing through the National Assembly and the new requirements it holds for landlords, local authorities and partner organisations. She talked about developing a national training framework, the importance of housing’s role in the new approach, discussed recent research that linked domestic abuse and anti- social behaviour in housing management at Bron Afon Housing and launched the Valentines Day #lovesmelovesmenot campaign.
Developing workplace policies on domestic abuse
Liz Armitti, Welsh Women’s Aid and Jennifer Dunne, Equality And Human Rights Commission Wales
In 2013 the housing minister wrote to all Welsh housing organisations and housing- related support providers to encourage them to develop workplace policies. Liz and Jennifer explained to delegates how effective workplace policies can help employees to feel safe and supported in work. They played a short film about one woman’s experience of surviving abuse and how organisations can better respond to and support employees affected; ‘the only safe time I had was in work’.
Improving homelessness services for victims
Cheryl Emery, Rhondda Cynon taff County Borough Council
Cheryl explained how her homelesness service began developing innovative ways of working with households presenting with domestic abuse issues several years ago; introducing specialist move- on panels, creating joint protocols with landlords, developing on-line multi-agency training, a specialist domestic abuse interviewing officer and its new one-stop shop.
Developing partnership approaches to tackling domestic abuse
Sophie Howe, deputy police and crime commissioner for South Wales
Sophie chaired the morning session that was dedicated to the theme of domestic abuse. She provided delegates with some startling statistics: domestic abuse kills more women under 40 than cancer and road traffic accidents and there are 6,000 individual victims in South Wales alone and rising. Domestic abuse is, she said, a ‘killer of epidemic proportions’. Sophie stated that developing partnership approaches and increasing information sharing across statutory and third sector agencies was vital to save lives.
A new approach to tackling domestic abuse
Gudrun Burnet, Peabody Housing
Guddy gave an overview of the ‘Peabody model’, which she has taken the lead on designing and delivering. Peabody believes that social landlords are uniquely placed to help individuals experiencing domestic abuse, and the England-based housing association has demonstrated how outcomes and interventions can be improvedwith a strategic approach that includes training for all frontline staff and more efficient case management.
Workshops
Bron Afon Housing good practice
Denise Pearce and Rebecca Jackson
Denise explained to delegates how Bron Afon’s community safety team has been pioneering new ways of supporting victims and assertively working with domestic abuse and anti- social behaviour perpetrators over the past five years, including taking part in the Gwent domestic abuse conference call (DACC) pilot, that brings cross- sector professionals together daily to share information, identify risk and plan responses. Rebecca’s research during her student placement in the team evidenced strong links between anti-social behaviour and domestic abuse within case management.
Welsh anti-social behaviour research report
Anne Delaney and Simon Inkson, housing consultants
Welsh Government commissioned Anne and Simon to undertake a review of how the Welsh Government, local partnerships and social landlords tackle anti-social behaviour and how this could be improved. The project aimed to highlight some best practice examples and evaluate the effectiveness of the housing management standard for tackling anti- social behaviour and the experience of tenants in receipt of services. Anne and Simon provided an update of the research and the findings.
Renting Homes (Wales) Bill update
Simon White, Welsh Government
The Renting Homes Bill will reform all tenancies in all tenures, including the private rente sector and supported housing. It includes proposals for a ‘prohibited conduct’ clause to be included in every rental contract to help address domestic abuse and anti-social behaviour, and afford greater protection to victims and their children. Simon gave an update on the consultation responses, and answered questions on what the changes will mean for tenants and landlords once the bill becomes law.
Cutting red tape – learning from the Kafka Brigade
Cheryl Emery, RCT CBC and Ann Evans, Oasis Project
The Kafka brigade aim to help organisations to work better by undertaking action research. Cheryl and Ann told delegates what happened when the brigade were invited to Rhondda Cynon Taff, to take a look at a ‘typical’ domestic abuse case; holding participating organisations to account, asking difficult questions from a citizen perspective and identifying bureaucratic dysfunction.
Valleys Inclusion Project
Andrew Jones, Valleys Inclusion Project and Alexis Hare, Shelter Cymru
The project offers support to families with complex needs, with the aim of tackling the causes of anti-social behaviour and to help prevent the households who
are allegedly causing it from losing their homes through eviction. Andrew and Alexis shared their work and approach with delegates.
Domestic abuse – training your staff
Gudrun Burnet, Peabody And Paula Hardy, Welsh Womens Aid
Guddy believes that social landlords are uniquely placed to help individuals experiencing domestic abuse, and her new ‘Peabody model’ has demonstrated how outcomes and interventions can be improved. Paula brought a Welsh context to the workshop drawing parallels between the Peabody approach and emerging good practice currently in place across Wales.
The Gwent Domestic Abuse Pathfinder Project
Denise Puckett
Denise shared the progress made to date in undertaking a holistic analysis of the domestic abuse services in Gwent, funded by Welsh Government. Six work streams aim to provide an understanding of systems, services and partnerships, including the effectiveness of the region’s innovative daily domestic abuse conference call and offender and perpetrator management.
Domestic abuse – working with BME communities Mwenya Chimba and Laura Davies, BAWSO
BAWSO gave delegates their experience of working as a domestic violence specialist with BME communities, and their pioneering work on complex subjects including forced marriage, so-called ‘honour’ based violence, female genital mutilation and human trafficking.
Plenary sessions: Anti-social behaviour
Anti-social behaviour policy and practice
Chris Grose, CIH Consultancy
Our afternoon conference chair explained how CIH had worked closely with ministers and civil servants to make sure the sector’s needs and views were taken into account in the development of the draft bill on anti-social behaviour. Chris then focussed on four key areas of anti- social behaviour work; case management, specialist versus generic service provision, the importance of partnership working and the judicial landscape.
The anti-social Behaviour, crime and Policing Bill
Tony Thomas, ASB policy lead, Home Office
The Anti-social Behaviour Bill proposes a number of new measures to hold police and local authorities to account when dealing with incidents of crime, and introduces a new injunction, to be available for landlords and other agencies. Delegates heard directly from the bill manager about the new measures, including a new dispersal power for police, replacing Section 27 for those causing harassment and distress.
The role of RSLs in tackling ASB
Victoria Slade & Mike Owen, Merthyr Valleys Homes
Victoria informed delegates how registered social landlords are actively tackling anti-social behaviour, because they are not ‘just a landlord’ but are committed to investing in and sustaining safer communities in Wales, including partnership working with police and environmental health, and resourcing community-based projects. Mike presented a short video explaining how landlords are embracing technology to hold perpetrators to account and made the business case for tackling anti social behaviour.
Social Landlords Crime And Nuisance Group
Eamon Lynch, SLCNG
Eamon introduced the work of the SLCNG and provided key trends in anti-social behaviour, including an info-graph showing that whilst there has been a big decrease in ASB recorded police incidents recently, the decrease in landlord caseloads is much less marked.
Ministerial address
Carl Sargeant AM, minister for housing and regeneration This was an impassioned address to delegates from the minister responsible for the new Housing Bill and Renting Homes Bill. He said that Wales should be proud to be taking groundbreaking opportunities to end domestic abuse and violence against women, and stressed the crucial role that housing can play to build safer communities
and tackle anti-social behaviour. He challenged delegates to take back this message to all of their organisations: implement and build on good practice, share information, save lives and ‘I expect this conference to make a difference!’.