Issue - meetings

The Chair welcomed to the meeting Bob Stott, Director for Universal and Early Support Services; Helene Cooper, Community Safety and Justice Co-Ordinator; County Councillor Tony Martin, Cabinet Member for Adult and Community Services; Sakthi Karunanithi, Director of Public Health; Martin Hill, Head of Magistrates Prosecutions, Lancashire and Cumbria Crown Prosecution Service; and Assistant Chief Constable Tim Jacques.

A report was presented on the strong history of partnership working in relation to Domestic Abuse in Lancashire and the continued commitment in making it a safe place to live, work and visit. The key partners included Lancashire County Council, district and unitary authorities, Lancashire Constabulary, Clinical Commissioning Groups, Lancashire Fire and Rescue, Lancashire Probation Services, wider criminal justice partners and the Police and Crime Commissioner.

Lancashire Community Safety Strategy Group (LCSSG) brought together representatives of these organisations to set the strategic direction for coordinating partnership activity under a range of statutory duties, to reduce crime and re-offending, tackle anti-social behaviour and substance misuse.

Reducing the harm caused by domestic abuse was a key priority for LCSSG and was aligned across a range of strategic partnerships including the Lancashire Children and Young People's Trust and Lancashire Safeguarding Children Board.

A Domestic Abuse Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) had been developed which detailed the prevalence of domestic abuse in the county. This had been based on a substantial evidence gathering project, including service mapping, reviewing good practice, an assessment of resources available and extensive service user consultation.

There were 20,750 calls to police about domestic abuse between April 2013 and March 2014 in Lancashire. Burnley and Preston had the highest number of calls to the police about domestic abuse. Hyndburn, Lancaster and Pendle also had above county average numbers of calls. All had seen a reduction in calls over the last three years. 47% of the calls to the police about domestic abuse in 2013/14 related to households with at least one child.

Lancashire County Council children's social care received 4,995 referrals for domestic abuse from April 2013 to January 2014 which was less than half the number of referrals in the same period the previous year.

Between April 2013 and March 2014, 18% of attendees at accident and emergency departments in Lancashire for an assault, gave the assault location as being in the home.

There were 3028 high risk Multi-agency Risk Assessment Conferences (MARAC) that had taken place from April 2013 to March 2014 in Lancashire. This was an increase of 40% compared with April 2011 to March 2012. Increased awareness and workforce training had contributed to the increase. There were 3799 children in the households where MARACs took place. The rate of repeat had stayed fairly constant at around 23% over the last three years.

Between April 2013 and March 2014, Lancashire County Council's supporting people service provided 1050 services to people whose primary need was domestic abuse. Floating support, outreach services and women's refuge were the main services provided.

The number of successful prosecutions had risen year on year. In 2013/14,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5