Domestic abuse in Bristol increased by more than five per cent in the last year – following a previous spike during lockdown. There were 11,093 reported incidents in the household across the city in 2021/22, up from 10,514 the previous 12 months, according to police data.
A report to be considered at a council meeting on Thursday, January 12, said the severity of abuse increased during the pandemic, with 64 domestic homicides in England and Wales from January to June 2020, but that the number of offences in Bristol had gone up since then. It said the problems were exacerbated because of a lack of local specialist staff, funding shortages and a lack of referrals of perpetrators to services that can help change their behaviour.
The 124-page needs-assessment report, conducted by Bristol City Council, includes a series of recommendations to tackle the scourge of abuse in the home. It said an estimated 67,150 Bristolians would experience domestic abuse in their lifetime, with 19,960 individual victims every year.
The report said the number of incidents reported to University Hospitals Bristol & Weston NHS Trust (UHBW), which runs the BRI, Children’s Hospital and Weston General, rose from a low of 83 in 2018/19 to 198 in 2020/21. It said that over the previous three years, the largest proportion of victims were aged 25 to 34, accounting for 21 per cent, but that in 2020/21, the most common age group was over 75, although this may be skewed by the fact that the former University Hospitals Bristol Trust merged with the Weston organisation that year, which cares for a much higher proportion of older people.
Papers to Bristol’s health and wellbeing board this Thursday said steps had already been taken ahead of a new domestic abuse and sexual violence strategy to be produced by the authority and other partners this year. These include new funding for additional accommodation-based services, such as direct support for male survivors, more help for child victims and counselling.
Two new services have also been piloted in Bristol, including respite rooms, which provide short-term intensive specialist support and refuge for women with a history of rough sleeping, domestic abuse and sexual violence, and Iris Advice which helps sexual health staff to identify and help victims. Iris is jointly commissioned by Bristol city and South Gloucestershire councils and delivered by Unity Sexual Health clinics alongside specialist support service Next Link, the report said.
It said a Survivor Forum was established in October 2021 as a requirement of the new Domestic Abuse Act to embed victims’ voices in services. The report said: “Service providers have recently found recruitment of specialist domestic abuse posts particularly difficult.
“Such roles require highly skilled and experienced individuals. The impact of Covid-19 and Brexit has resulted in an increase in referrals and cases held by the services and a shortage of suitable staff to fill the vacancies.
“This puts increased pressure on the services by increasing caseloads of the existing staff, increasing waiting times and reducing quality of services.” It said the same factors had created financial pressure on providers and that short-term funding arrangements did not allow them to plan long-term to meet survivors’ needs.
“Services working with perpetrators of domestic abuse have found it challenging to receive referrals from professionals into the service,” the report said. “Professionals do not often consider making a referral for the perpetrator and when dealing with cases which feature domestic abuse, the focus is still mainly on the victim/survivor and children.
“The majority of perpetrators are still not being held accountable through the criminal justice system. Only 40 per cent of domestic abuse reported to the police ends in a perpetrator being arrested, and only 12 per cent result in a positive charging decision.”
The report’s recommendations include raising awareness, encouraging victims to report abuse and providing better mental health care, financial and legal advice, and more support for housing or outreach work for those who want to stay in their own home. The 11,093 domestic incidents in 2021/22 represent a 5.22 per cent increase on the previous year.
Read next:
There were more than 10,000 domestic abuse incidents in Bristol last year
Hartcliffe singer signs with record label to empower domestic abuse survivors
'Epidemic' of male violence against women and girls in Bristol, warn female rights campaigners
POLITICS: To keep up to date with latest Bristol politics news, and discuss thoughts with other residents, join our Bristol politics news and discussion here. You can also sign up to our politics newsletter here.
Click here for the latest headlines from in and around Bristol.
