A shocking report has revealed significant gaps in Wirral’s domestic abuse service.
Despite one in four women falling victim to this crime, a council officer admitted it can be very difficult for victims to access support.
Wendy Monnelly, head of Wirral Council’s family safety unit, said: “The current provision is disorganised and fragmented.
"If you’re a victim of domestic abuse, unless you have local knowledge it’s really difficult to find out how you access support.”
Ms Monnelly said one way around this was someone else referring you to a domestic violence support service.
She added: “This is a real challenge for women who have children and are anxious about safeguarding.
"There is good provision from Tomorrow’s Women Wirral and Involve North West, as well as the Listening Ear, our own family support unit and the early intervention team.
“But there are some significant gaps in that provision, such as perpetrator programmes.
"One of the only ways you can access that programme is if you’re convicted in a court. Then you would access that programme through the probation service.
“You’re unlikely to be able to access treatment and find effective perpetrator programme [without the probation service] even if you’re willing to pay."
The final gap Ms Monnelly identified was the care provided for children who grow up experiencing domestic abuse around them.
Ms Monnelly said: “There is a gap in therapeutic intervention for under fives and teens.”
Cllr Ian Lewis, leader of the Tories in Wirral Council, said he wanted the council’s domestic abuse services to be measured on their speed of assessment and their rate of referral, rather than getting the number of reported incidents down, as this figure is partly a measure of how good the service is at detecting incidents of domestic abuse.
Paul Boyce, Wirral Council’s director of children’s services, assured Cllr Lewis that such measures were being used to assess the council’s performance on domestic abuse.
Labour councillor Yvonne Nolan raised the question of integrated services, calling on council officers to recognise that while domestic abuse affects children, it happens to adults.
Officers were happy to acknowledge this and state that they take any incident of domestic abuse very seriously regardless of whether or not children are involved.
