The Sunderland Domestic Violence Partnership

The Domestic Abuse Act 2021 provides improved protection for the many victims of domestic abuse (DA) as well as strengthened measures to tackle perpetrators. For local authorities, the act places a statutory framework for the delivery of support to victims of domestic abuse and their children in safe accommodation and provides clarity over governance and accountability. This includes a duty on each tier one local authority in England to:

• Appoint a multi-agency Domestic Abuse Local Partnership Board which it must consult as it performs certain specified functions
• Assess, or make arrangements for the assessment of, the need for accommodation-based domestic abuse support in their area for all victims (and their children) who reside in relevant safe accommodation, including those who come from outside of their area
• Prepare and publish a strategy for the provision of such support to cover their area having regard to the needs assessment
• Give effect to the strategy (through commissioning/decommissioning decisions)
• Monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of the strategy
• Report back annually to central government

In 2021, Sunderland City Council established a Domestic Abuse and Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Executive Board. The Board enables the council to enact its statutory duties in relation to domestic abuse, whilst also supporting strong partnership arrangements across the city to help transform our approach to prevention, early intervention and support in relation to domestic abuse and gender-based violence. Specifically the Board oversees the following functions across Sunderland:

• Continued assessment of the scale and nature of the needs for support within relevant accommodation for all victims and their children, including those that require highly specialist and those that come from out of area
• Preparing and publishing a whole-area domestic abuse strategy setting out the steps needed to meet the needs of diverse victims and their children, and joining up strategies across local areas where appropriate
• Giving effect to the strategy by making commissioning and decommissioning decisions of support within relevant accommodation at a local level
• Monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of the strategy, including local delivery of support within domestic abuse relevant accommodation
• Reporting on progress and how funding has been used to relevant government departments, such as the Department for Levelling-up, Housing and Communities

The Board is supported by a multi-agency Domestic Abuse and VAWG Operational Partnership Group that takes forward actions in relation to the above functions. Both the Executive Board and Operational Partnership Group have wide multi-agency attendance, including strategic and operational representation from health, public health, housing, social care, criminal justice, education and the voluntary and community sector.