THE Police and Crime Commissioner for Cleveland, Steve Turner has been awarded more than £200,000 to support work with perpetrators of domestic abuse.
The Home Office Domestic Abuse Perpetrator Programme (DAPP) Fund has awarded the OPCC a total of £200,333.33.
Cash for Cleveland was part of £11.3 million in Home Office funding given to 25 Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) across England and Wales to tackle domestic abuse.
The OPCC led a bid made on behalf of Cleveland’s four local authorities – Hartlepool, Stockton-on-Tees, Redcar and Cleveland and Middlesbrough.
Serial and Prolific Offenders
Funding will target serial and prolific offenders, who have complex needs. Those needs – including drug and alcohol abuse – may stop them from engaging effectively with traditional behaviour change and perpetrator interventions.
The funding will also target perpetrators, who remain in a relationship with their victims, as well as those who are not currently subject to safeguarding measures.
Funding will see a number of new, key roles introduced in the domestic abuse process across Cleveland. They include Domestic Abuse Complex Needs Co-ordinators and Perpetrator Navigators.
Navigators will play a key role in helping perpetrators to address issues, which contribute to their offending behaviour.
They will also help participants with specific needs to access a Perpetrator Personalisation Fund. The fund will help participants by supporting unmet needs which present barriers to positive engagement with support services and behaviour change programmes.
Domestic Abuse Complex Needs Co-ordinators will co-ordinate information from all agencies involved with both the victim and perpetrator. They will make sure informed risk assessments and action plans are put in place to take account of known issues around domestic abuse for both perpetrator and victims.
Specialist support will also be available to victims ensuring they have a voice.
Collaborative Working
Steve Turner, PCC for Cleveland, said: “It’s fantastic news that through collaborative working across Cleveland, we have been able to secure this funding to work with domestic abuse perpetrators.
“The project aims to stop domestic abuse at source through taking a joined-up approach through engaging perpetrators whilst continuing to protect and support victims.”
The Home Office Domestic Abuse Perpetrator Programme (DAPP) Fund focuses on interventions encouraging behaviour change to help stop perpetrators from committing domestic abuse. This has the ultimate aim of preventing further crimes being committed.
Home Secretary Priti Patel said: “To prevent the abhorrent crimes of domestic abuse from happening in the first place, we must deepen our understanding of who commits them, why they do so, and how it may escalate.
“This fund builds on the considerable work already taking place to tackle domestic abuse and aims to better understand key behaviours so we can put a stop to them for good.”
Funding runs from August 2021 to August 2022