A commitment to preventing domestic abuse and improving outcomes for victims could get the Isle of Wight Council’s seal of approval this week.
With thousands of incidents logged and domestic abuse amounting to 20% of all police recorded Island crime in 2023/4, the Isle of Wight Domestic Abuse Strategy 2024 – 2029 will be presented to County Hall on Thursday evening (18th December).
The strategy contains key insights such as that men were twice as likely as women to be an offender of a domestic abuse flagged crime and that 36 per cent of the crimes occurred within the 20 per cent most deprived areas on the Isle of Wight, during 2021 and 2022.
Between April 2020 and September 2022, around 83% of referrals to domestic abuse services were female.
Unitary authorities have a statutory duty to prepare and publish a Domestic Abuse Strategy under the Domestic Abuse Act 2021.
The strategy must spell out how the council will prevent domestic abuse, protect and support victim-survivors and their children, and coordinate multi-agency responses, according to a council report.
3 priorities of the Isle of Wight strategy are the prevention and reduction of harm, increased access to specialist support and collaboration and working together.
The 23-page document is signed by both County Hall and the Isle of Wight Domestic Abuse Partnership Board (DAPB), a multi-agency group providing strategic oversight and coordination of the Island’s response to the issue.
Its overall vision reads:
“Improve outcomes for people subjected to domestic abuse and create opportunities for change for people using harmful and abusive behaviours.
“We envisage that the Isle of Wight will be a place where people feel safe to live and visit, and can thrive, free from fear of domestic abuse.”
An implementation plan accompanying the strategy details how its priorities will be achieved.
Four 2029 goals are listed for prevention and harm reduction.
They include embedding prevention as a priority across all partners, survivor-led and accessible public awareness and bystander campaigns, equipping multi-agency partners with knowledge and confidence to identify domestic abuse and respond effectively and strengthening criminal justice responses.
Those for priority 2 – increased access to specialist support – include accessible, inclusive and responsive specialist support which is responsive to diverse needs and all services being confident, trauma-informed and shaped by Survivor Voice.
The Survivor Voice Forum is a group of people with lived experience of domestic abuse, formed to provide important feedback to the DAPB.
2 other goals for priority two are having support which is available beyond crisis and people exhibiting harmful behaviours having access to suitable interventions.
For priority 3, collaboration and working together, aims include consistent, purposeful and coordinated system responses, Survivor Voice informing system design, training and communications, sharing data and insight to advance evidence-based decision-making and having actively engaged wider community partners.
The adult social care, public health and housing needs committee will meet at County Hall at 17:00 on Thursday evening.
Plain speaking would be appreciated on such a serious subject. Not the content I have just read in the article which is not clear in any way.
But, what about the cause, is this being addressed? Where does the abusive aggressive behaviour come from?
I would suggest a lot of bad influence comes from social media and television which seems to thrive on bad language and bad behaviour because it’s “newsworthy” in the eyes of the producers without thinking about the long term harm it gives. Most of the victims are women and are portrayed as prey.
Thats before considering the effects on young impressionable minds and then mixed in with drugs and alcohol.
Perhaps the The 23-page document being signed by both County Hall and the Isle of Wight Domestic Abuse Partnership Board (DAPB) should concentrate on the above instead of very wordy
There is a lot of Virtue signalling here but let’s have some real results “outcomes” they call it nowadays I think !
“Where does the abusive aggressive behaviour come from?”
agreed, re. Social Media & TV, etc.
but also (not necessarily caused by, but certainly exacerbated by) the rise of divisive / elitist politics, and political parties which gain popularity by focussing on targetted rejection of, and hatred towards minority groups.(e.g. imigrants) and promoting personal / corporate greed as a virtue, rather than promoting tollerance, empathy and acceptance.
As a woman, I can categorically tell you first hand that we’re not just portrayed as prey, we are seen as prey subliminally. Fair game, lesser, not likely to retaliate, sugar and spice and all things nice. Almost every single woman you’ve ever met, or known, has lived every day trying to be invisible, not draw attention to some extent or another. Every journey down the street is a subtle scanning of the horizon, silently weighing up options of fight, flight or freeze depending on the perceived threat. Watch what we wear, where we go alone, how we get home safely….things no man ever has to get used to thinking about. Years ago on pride week I asked a male taxi-driver if he was enjoying the fun. He said some blokes made him feel uncomfortable. I laughed and said ‘welcome to our world…we run the gauntlet of that feeling many many times over in a single day. He was horrified; it had never occurred to him. He himself would clearly never attempt to make a woman feel uncomfortable, but unfortunately for him….we’re already primed to see men as a threat. Because many of them are.
yet here we are again IE Showing a picture of a mans clenched fist and a cowering woman, when a proportion of abuse is perpetrated by women onto men.
stereotyping at its finest – get rid of this offensive picture
Not at all. Yes men are victims too. The facts stand that the percentages are disproportionate AND women are more vulnerable due to historic, entrenched and often subtle misogyny profiting from a female’s lesser physical strength.
If that wasn’t so, the government wouldn’t be spending millions teaching teachers how to spot the signs of misogyny in the classroom in an effort to curb the violence against women and girls. We’re not just talking about toxic relationships here, it’s about freedom of equality inasmuch as boys and men never ever having to be alert. That’s an entitlement all should have.