Successful bid for funding to help victims of domestic abuse

Bury Council has today been successful in a bid for a share of a £3.5 million government grant to make sure that victims of domestic abuse get access to the support they need.

The £100,000 funding will be used to transform accommodation based support for victims and their families.

Through the Support, Empower and Turn Around (SET) project, five dispersed properties will be specially adapted to provide safe and secure accommodation for victims and their families who are fleeing domestic violence and abuse. This accommodation will provide everything they need in this situation. Funding will also be used to strengthen support services for victims and their families, working alongside them so that they are empowered to move forward with their lives.

Bury is one of 46 local authorities across the country getting a share of the fund. Nationally, this will mean that there will now be 710 new bed spaces in a range of safe accommodation providing shelter to victims of domestic abuse across the country.

Communities Minister Baroness Williams, with Home Office Minister Karen Bradley, led a review of services working with women’s domestic abuse charities, local authorities and other local service providers to gain a much clearer understanding of the range of challenges victims and services are facing.

Baroness Williams visited Bury last week to learn more about proposals within the bid, including a visit to accommodation currently used to support victims of domestic violence and abuse. She discussed the council’s plans to strengthen and improve accommodation based support for victims. She also met leaders from GMP and the council to learn more about the council’s strong partnership approach to tackle domestic violence and abuse, led by the Community Safety Partnership.

Baroness Williams said: “Domestic abuse is an appalling crime that shatters lives and this Government is determined to ensure that no victim is turned away from the support they need.

“This new funding will help Bury Council and specialist charities provide a strong safety net for anyone facing the threat of abuse in their own home.”

“In the Spending Round we have also secured an additional £40m over the next four years – to make sure that victims can access support wherever they are from, anywhere in the country.

“We’ll set out how this money will be used for victims and areas that most need it with the publishing of the new Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy.”

Councillor Mike Connolly, leader of Bury Council, said: “High quality accommodation based support is vital for victims and families who make the courageous decision to leave. Bury does not currently have a refuge so is reliant on either placing families in refuges outside the borough or using accommodation in Bury that may not always be ideal. The council is delighted to be awarded this funding which we will use to make a real difference to victims and their families.”

Chris Sykes, Territorial Commander for Bury and Rochdale and Chair of Bury’s Community Safety Partnership, said: “This funding is welcome and will play a big part in supporting the ambitions contained within our recently launched, hard-hitting three-year strategy to tackle domestic violence and abuse, helping to reduce repeat incidents.”

ENDS

Press release issued: 11 December 2015.

Picture: Baroness Williams (third from right) visits Bury to see the work being done to tackle domestic violence, with (from left) Chief Inspector Jo Marshall; Superintendent Karan Lee; Pat Jones-Greenhalgh, executive director of communities and well-being; Mike Owen, the council’s chief executive; Cllr Mike Connolly, leader of the council; and Cllr Tamoor Tariq, lead member for community safety and chair of Bury’s Domestic Violence and Abuse Steering Group.

Note to editors:

The Budget Statement announced a total additional funding of £3.2 million for victims of domestic abuse, made up of: £3.07 million for the Domestic Abuse Fund in 2015 to 2016 and £131,000 in 2015 to 2016 for additional workers for the UK Refuges Online. We have received a large number of high quality bids and managed to allocate a further £470k to support them, bringing the total spent on the bids to £3.54m.

As well as the additional funding, domestic abuse is a major priority for the government’s Troubled Families programme. The focus on tackling domestic violence and abuse has been increased in the new expanded programme.

Last year the coalition government announced a new £10 million government fund to help support refuges across the country and boost provision for vulnerable victims of domestic violence.

This built on steps taken by the government to end domestic violence, support victims and ensure offenders are prosecuted. These include:

• £40 million for Violence Against Women and Girls support services and specialist helplines
• new laws and powers - including a new domestic abuse offence to capture coercive and controlling behaviour, the criminalisation of forced marriage, and the introduction of new stalking laws
• the national roll-out of domestic violence protection orders and the domestic violence disclosure scheme