Minutes:
Fiamma Pather reported that Your Sanctuary, previously known as Surrey Women’s’ Aid was a domestic abuse specialist service provider, with a 24 hour helpline, a community outreach service for men and women and 2 refuges in secret locations in North West Surrey. Operating with 18 staff and 65 volunteers, Your Sanctuary sought to protect, empower, be respectful to and non-judgemental of domestic abuse victims.
Domestic abuse was considered to be any incident or pattern thereof involving controlling, coercive or threatening behaviour, violence or abuse between those aged 16 or over, who were or had been intimate partners or family members regardless of gender or sexuality. This could typically, but not exclusively include psychological, physical, sexual, financial or emotional abuse. Prior to 2013, the lower age limit for domestic abuse had sat at 18.
Whilst the majority of domestic abuse was against women, men were also victims and the Surrey Police and Crime Commissioner had recently provided funding for a male outreach worker to cover Surrey.
Ms Pather reported that in the financial year 2013/14 there had been 12,000 reported domestic abuse incidents in Surrey, though this was likely to be severely under-reported as people were frequently subjected to a number of incidents before submitting a report.
3,455 new referrals had been received by the Surrey Domestic Abuse community outreach services in 2013/14 and it was reported that 1 in 3 women and 1 in 6 men would experience domestic abuse some time in their adult lives.
Your Sanctuary itself, in 2013/14, received 2,039 helpline calls, 714 new referrals to outreach (640 female/74 male) plus 593 children. It had 186 referrals to outreach for Surrey Heath residents, with 55 women and 69 children supported in a refuge. The Surrey Heath outreach worker would handle between 35 and 40 cases at any given time.
Your Sanctuary provided 1:1 support from a trained outreach worker, group work in local venues, access to a 24 hour helpline and support through the Specialist Domestic Violence Court. It also provided training to other professionals and worked with multi-agency partners to reduce risk through appropriate information sharing and joint work.
Your Sanctuary was funded from grants from statutory bodies, Trusts, businesses, charities and individuals. With most of the funding going on salaries, there was increasing pressure due to year on year reductions in statutory funding.
65 – 70% of referrals to Your Sanctuary came from Surrey Police. High risk referrals were made without consent being sought but permission was sought on medium risk cases. People were interviewed away from the danger area and outreach workers were non-judgemental, advising and advocating on behalf of victims. Whilst, in general, women found group work very helpful, men seemed to prefer 1:1 support.
Whilst many victims were supported to live safely in their own homes with secure locks and panic buttons in case perpetrators returned, some needed removing from the environment, either being allocated a refuge place or being assisted under the ‘Sanctuary’ scheme.
Members noted both personal and resident casework examples of domestic abuse, focussing in particular on how difficult it can be for victims to see their way to getting out of an abusive relationship, often only reporting abuse to protect children.
In response to Members questions, Ms Pather reported that Your Sanctuary had provided training for frontline practitioners in the previous year and that this had been open to Members. She indicated that she would welcome the opportunity to provide further training and that all Members would be welcome to attend. YS had difficulty in achieving the levels of publicity they would wish, including better access to schools and GP surgeries.
Members encouraged Your Sanctuary to consider having a stall at the Surrey Heath Show.
Resolved, that the presentation be noted and that Officers be asked to:
(i) Examine vehicles for publicising Your Sanctuary, such as Heathscene and social media;
(ii) Facilitate a meeting with the Surrey Heath Clinical Commissioning Group; and
(iii) Promote a training day for frontline staff and Members.
For the record Councillor Paul Deach reported that he produced a podcast on Your Sanctuary.