By Matt Jarram, Local Democracy Reporter
Services and staff to help children deal with the impact of domestic violence will be commissioned in Nottingham.
Nottingham City Council has been awarded £873,640 by the government to deliver a range of services to better support those fleeing violent and abusive relationships.
The council says domestic sexual violence and abuse reporting has “hugely increased during Covid.”
The grant – which needs to be spent by the end of March 2023 – will enable the council to fulfil the functions of its statutory duty.
The council said: “Children and young people will be identified as survivors of domestic violence and abuse in their own right for the first time in the statutory duty and it is recognised that a specialist role as part of the refuge team is critical to supporting children and young people effectively.
“Children are a large group of service users in refuge and move on accommodation and Nottingham has been unable to commission service for children since 2017 when the funding source ended.
“The Crime and Drugs Partnership flexed its funding to enable refuges to utilise budgets for children’s workers, but that has put pressure on support worker roles for women.
“Some refuges fundraised through charities and trusts, however as these funders recognise the role of the statutory duty in funding services for children, these funding sources have ended.”
Now, a specialist therapeutic service for children will be provided for those children and young people in refuge and move on accommodation.
It was previously delivered by Family Care, a charity which closed due to funding issues.
Services have identified a gap in provision for children. The service will support children to come to terms with the impact of domestic violence on them and the relationship with their mother.
It will also improve engagement and behaviour in education.
A number of children’s worker roles will be funded, working with children aged up to 16-years-old.
Training will also form part of the funding as recruitment has been problematic during the pandemic.
The council said: “We are aware that there has been a sudden increase in recruitment in Juno, Nottingham Women’s Centre – who deliver our therapeutic service – and Central the independent refuge. These services are all struggling to fund the training requirements for their new starters and for staff recruited during the pandemic.
“All (domestic violence) services UK wide are struggling to recruit skilled and experienced staff and locally recruitment has focussed on new staff with the right values, attitudes and transferrable skills.
“This training programme will ensure the staff have the right knowledge and skills to provide a service for this vulnerable cohort of citizens.”
Nottingham has 31 commissioned bed spaces and four additional bed spaces for survivors with ‘multiple disadvantage’.
The city also has 12 units of move on accommodation, with a number associated with each refuge.
The funding will create four additional bed spaces for survivors with multiple advantage and to support costs to deliver services to survivors in move on accommodation.
Funding is also allocated for a flexible housing fund, so that refuges can ensure that women with specific needs have access to a budget whilst they settle into the refuge.
Work is also being undertaken to consider the needs of male survivors for safe accommodation.
Further work is also required for survivors who identify as non-binary and who are not comfortable being referred to women’s services.
Nottingham City Council’s Commissioning and Procurement Committee met on Tuesday, April 12, to accept the grant and the delivery of services.
