Family Justice Centre Anniversary
Derby’s Family Justice Centre – only the second centre of its kind in the UK – celebrates its first anniversary today (Friday June 18).
The centre, based in St Peter’s House in
In the first year, 520 people have been in contact with the Family Justice Centre. The centre operates an open door policy on weekdays and also takes referrals from front-line services including police and Derby City Council.
Based on successful models already working in Croydon and in parts of the USA, the initiative has been led by Derby Community Safety Partnership and brings under one roof all the agencies and voluntary organisations who already work within their own organisations to support people suffering abuse including Derbyshire Constabulary, Derby City Council, Derbyshire Probation Trust, NHS Derby City, Derbyshire Fire and Rescue, Refuge, Hadhari Nari and Relate.
Facilities include private consultation rooms, a medical room and shared office space for specialist workers from various organisations who are based there for at least part of their working week. This enables them to offer joined-up services to victims. On-going costs are met by partner agencies from mainstream funds.
Other developments in the past 12 months have included the development of support for cases of forced marriage and the successful application of several Forced Marriage Protection Orders to prevent people from being forced to marry against their will or taken out of the country for this reason.
Counselling by Relate is now available at the centre as well as drop in sessions run by Refuge and a support group for Asian women.
A befriending service for children and young people whose lives have been affected by domestic and sexual violence at home is also now being run by the Derby arm of SOVA, a the national volunteer mentoring charity.
Domestic and sexual violence is largely under reported nationally. However the reporting has increased year on year in Derby – largely due to improved working by Derbyshire Constabulary and the success of the Community Safety Partnership’s Domestic and Sexual Violence Unit who support victims through the criminal justice system and Specialist Domestic Violence Court.
Between April 2009 and March 20010 there 5,214 police calls for service regarding domestic violence, compared with 4,916 in 2008/09. Domestic violence also has more repeat victims than any other crime.
Domestic and sexual violence accounts for 16% of violent crime in the city and 90% of victims are women. On average, a victim will have suffered 35 assaults before they even contact the Police but, at the point where they do admit that they need help.
Tracy Arnold from the Family Justice Centre explained: “We are pleased with the progress made in the first year of operation with victims benefiting from the joined-up service provided by the centre.
“By coming together under one roof with a client-centred service, we are now better able to share information and act more quickly and provide the practical help that is desperately needed straight away and then the longer term support to enable the victims to take back control of their lives.
“However, there is still some way to go both in terms of raising awareness amongst people experiencing domestic and sexual abuse that help is easily accessible and available to them and in developing further services to ensure that we can quickly respond to their different needs which are often widespread and complex.”
Leader of Derby City Council Cllr Harvey Jennings continued: “The fact that
“Agencies and voluntary sector organisations have been working well to support victims but it has sometimes been difficult for victims to identify which services can help them. It has been reliant on the individual having the strength of character and the where-with-all to seek out the different services they need.”
Chief Inspector Gary Goacher, the police’s Public Protection Operations Manager, concluded: "This is a great partnership project that brings together the many agencies that can help people who are suffering from a range of domestic-related crimes.
"While we have always worked with other organisations, these new arrangements mean that our services are even better. Victims now feel more confident too and we hope as the FJC develops that more people will be encouraged to seek help."
Ends
Media enquiries: Sarah Jenkin-Jones, JJPR, Tel: 01332 515102/07951 945 665; sarah@jjpublicrelations.co.uk
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