Solicitor General: overview of Government DV strategies

19 November 2009

Vera Baird QC MP, Solicitor General

Thank you for inviting me to speak today on this important subject, and very timely as we mark International Elimination of Violence Against Women Day next week. The Government is resolutely committed to improving the response to Violence Against Women including domestic violence. We want to increase reporting and conviction rates; ensuring that victims are supported adequately, that the criminal justice response is improved and that prevention is maximised.

Each of you in this room has an important role to play and I hope to hear from you later about some of the challenges you face and where you feel things are going well.

I hope that you will be able to go away from today's event with a renewed sense of purpose, and perhaps most importantly, with a clear idea of the important function that each of you have in ensuring that we improve the response to domestic violence for victims and their children.

Role as Solicitor General
Before I share my vision, as Solicitor General, for the CJS, it may be helpful if I set out the key elements of my role currently.

The Attorney General and I are accountable to Parliament under statute for the superintendence of the CPS and share responsibility with the Home Secretary and Justice Secretary for criminal justice policy.

What does this mean in practice?

  • We answer parliamentary questions and represent the Government in debates on prosecution policy or on occasion, particular prosecutions
  • We are consulted on the development of criminal justice policy and legislation; have seats on the National Criminal Justice Board; and
  • We are the voice of prosecutors within government.

In addition, because we have a role as guardians of the public interest, we necessarily have a role in relation to certain individual criminal cases, for instance:

  • Cases requiring consent to prosecute;
  • Referring potential unduly lenient sentences to the Court of Appeal; and
  • Decisions on whether to institute proceedings for contempt of court (to name but some).

This means that in practice we have a much more direct involvement in individual cases than Ministers usually have, even where their department has a power to prosecute.
What are my immediate areas of focus for the CJS? Let me list a few of them:

  • engaging more with the community it serves;
  • improving public confidence;
  • being more effective;
  • doing so with greater efficiency; and
  • providing better support to vulnerable victims.
  • Setting out the context-Domestic Violence

We have been on a journey, from dysfunction to function, from poorly coordinated support of agencies to co-ordinated community support.

Addressing domestic violence has been one of our government's key achievements. I welcome the opportunity to share our learning and some of the positive outcomes, including a reduction in domestic homicides.

We have further to go, and our success in improving the landscape on domestic violence will not occur without the valuable specialist skills and expertise of the voluntary sector, along with effective multi-agency working.

I commend Women's Aid and others here today for the important and often life-saving work that you do.

Shocking statistics
We know that a child born into the most disadvantaged 5 per cent of families is 100 times more likely to have multiple problems at age 15 than a child from the 50 per cent best-off families.

One-third of child protection cases show a history of domestic violence to the mother.

For thirty per cent of domestic violence cases, domestic violence starts or escalates in pregnancy.

Approximately 750,000 children in the UK witness domestic violence in their homes.

Sadly, around half of the children in such families have themselves been beaten, and many are at risk of serious harm including homicide. Sexual and emotional abuse are also more likely to happen in these families.

In the NSPCC survey (2007), one in four children said that they had witnessed domestic violence between adult family members. Around half of incidents (47%) involved physical assaults and 13% the use of an object or weapon.

To make a difference for these families we need a programme with power, a programme of sufficient intensity and depth to change what can be a spiral disadvantage for life. After all, how we are parented is the most important influence in anyone's life. The safety and empowerment of women is the most effective form of child protection.

The cornerstone for our ambition for young people is our 'Every Child Matters' approach. This cuts across all areas, with the aims that children:

  • Be healthy;
  • Stay safe;
  • Enjoy and achieve;
  • Make a positive contribution; and,
  • Achieve economic well-being.


It is right that in the Criminal Justice System we are behind these aims. They are at the heart of our aims to build safer communities.

We know that witnessing domestic violence can have devastating impacts on children, in their development and educational attainment. In one study, in 75% of cases, children had delayed cognitive development and 86% had delayed speech development.

I am pleased that you will hear more later about the NSPCC West Sussex pilot and their role in providing recovery work for women and children.

Legislative and other measures
We provided the legal framework to address domestic violence through the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004, which ensures that all victims have coherent, appropriate and effective legal protection.

We have also been improving services on the ground. Through these combined measures, domestic homicides are lower than they have been in ten years.
Domestic violence training has been rolled out to all police and Crown Prosecution Service prosecutors.

Every police force and CPS area now has a domestic violence co-ordinator. Every police force also has a domestic violence champion.

There are over 600 specially trained Independent Domestic Violence Advisors nationally (IDVAs) to support victims.

Domestic violence advocacy is founded on an understanding that a co-ordinated multi-agency response to those at high risk is the best way to deliver safety, reduce repeat victimisation and increase awareness of children at risk of harm.

There are over 200 Multi Agency Risk Conferences nationally, to help protect high risk victims and their children.

There are over 125 Specialist Domestic Violence Courts, which are a fundamental part of the government's efforts to improve the support and care provided for victims of domestic violence.

The Specialist Domestic Violence Court programme promotes a combined approach to tackling domestic violence by the police, the Crown prosecutors, magistrates, courts and probation together with specialist support services for victims, which situates the court and the Criminal Justice System as part of a community-wide response to domestic violence.
Prosecution rates have nearly doubled since the introduction of SDVC's, to an average of 72.5 per cent and continue to rise.
Routine enquiry about domestic violence has been rolled out to all pregnant women and in adult mental health services.
The Children and Domestic Violence toolkit for frontline professionals was published in September, and includes risk assessments and safety planning tools for vulnerable children and young people.

The Corporate Alliance Against Domestic Violence (CAADV) was formed and is holding an annual event this month to highlight the work collectively and individually to reduce the impact of domestic violence on the workplace.

Family approach
'Think Family' practice - making sure that the support provided by child and adult services is coordinated and focused on problems affecting the whole family is the most effective way of working with families experiencing the most significant problems.

This is why the Government is committed to a national programme of reform and culture change which involve all schools and children services, the NHS, Job Centres, Police, Probation and prisons:

  • to improve the identification and support of adults experiencing problems who are parents or carers
  • to co-ordinate the support that is provided by different agencies to each family, especially those experiencing significant problems

Since 2007 we have been testing the Family Nurse Partnership across England, with the family nurses working with young, vulnerable first time parents and ensuring that they are linked into their Children's Centres and support.

This programme is supported by a research and development programme to help build our evidence base on effective interventions in England.

Along with the Family Nurse Partnerships, the Family Intervention Projects is a good example of effective partnership working to reach the most vulnerable families with multiple problems.

These projects gain the agreement of the family to a range of behavioural changes and engagement in interventions. Accredited parenting programmes are delivered and services such as health are brought in and coordinated around the families needs, based on a model from Scotland. A key worker 'grips' the family and builds on strengths. There will be a FIP in every area in England by next year.

In one of the evaluation studies, over eighty per cent of FIP families experienced poor parental mental health and substance misuse, and over fifty per cent were affected by domestic violence.

Significant outcomes achieved through FIPs includes a reduction in the number of children going into care, domestic violence reduced by two thirds in some areas, and over eighty per cent of children back in school. For families with serious levels of anti-social behaviour a reduction from sixty one per cent to just seven per cent.

Rape and sexual assault
As you are aware, there are many barriers to overcome in improving rape investigations and prosecutions.

We are seeking to challenge many of the myths that surround cases of rape and hinder successful prosecutions.

Government response
There is much work across Government to improve the response to rape. The Tackling Violence Action Plan drives forward work on sexual violence, with a particular focus on improving the investigation and prosecution of rape and the protection of children from sex offenders.

We are going to be more than doubling the size of the Sexual Assault Referral Centres (SARCs) by March 2011, ensuring that there is at least one in each of the 43 police force areas in England and Wales. SARCs bring together all of the different legal and medical agencies and departments in one place, which helps both the victims and those investigating the crimes.
SARCs offer victims of sexual crime an integrated service where victims can receive medical care, psychological counseling, legal advice and other support, all in one place from professionally trained staff.

Helping the investigation
We are also aiming to ensure that all victims should have access to an Independent Sexual Violence Advisor by March 2011. We have recently announced funding of £1.6million for new and existing SARCs and new funding will be available for Sexual Violence Advisors.

We have established a cross-Criminal Justice System Rape performance Group to monitor the work of all police forces and CPS Areas against a series of indicators. In addition, the government has introduced sexual offences training for police officers and advocates prosecuting rape cases.

Under the cross-government Tackling Sexual Violence and Abuse Action Plan, we have set ourselves further targets on improving access to health and support services for victims, on improving the criminal justice response and on maximising protection.

We are continuing to fund the invaluable work of the sexual violence voluntary sector. In the last year, £1.25 million of funding has been provided and this year we will be spending around £3 million to increase the capacity and stability of the sector. Last year we announced an emergency fund of over £1 million to prevent immediate closures of those rape crisis centres most at risk.

VAWG Strategy
The Violence Against Women & Girls consultation was launched by the former Home Secretary in March. Home Office officials analysed over 10,000 responses that have been received to inform the publication of a Cross Government VAWG strategy later this month.

Analysis of the consultation responses identified that in relation to sexual violence, and particularly the effective handling of complaints about rape, there is a gap in the consultation which we have agreed needs to be addressed.

Although a series of measures to improve the investigation and prosecution of rape to ensure victims received a consistent, high-quality service were announced by the Home Office in April we believe that we need to complement this work by taking a closer and broader look at the barriers preventing full implementation of current policy and to consider further what we can do to ensure the effective handing of rape by authorities.

We are providing a review on rape to supplement the consultation. It will:

  • Examine the response of the public authorities to rape complaints and examine how more victims can be encouraged to report;
  • Explore ways in which the attrition rate in criminal cases can be reduced and, how to fairly increase the conviction rate;
  • Identify how to increase victim and witness satisfaction and confidence in the CJS in addressing rape;
  • Explore public and professional attitudes to rape and how they impact on outcomes;
  • Utilise findings and information available from other relevant work, including the work on victims' experience being led by Sara Payne and the Health Taskforce Review led by Professor Alberti.
  • Make recommendations, with particular reference to improving the implementation of current policies and procedures.

The review is independently chaired By Baroness Stern and focuses on the systems and processes for handling rape complaints, from when the complaint is first made to when a court outcome is reached. The review will focus on gathering evidence from the wide range of public bodies responsible for providing effective frontline responses to rape complaints. The findings from the Review will be published early next year.

CPS-the Violence Against Women Strategy
I would now like to talk to you briefly about how the CPS has risen to the challenge of tackling violence against women crimes in a truly integrated fashion.
I think it can be said that the CPS is a pioneer in tackling violence against women. It is, we believe, the first public prosecution service to integrate all forms of violence against women under the UN definition into a strategy and action plan which relates work in this area to a wider gender equality agenda. It is through this type of work that the CPS is achieving its vision of becoming a world class prosecution service.
The CPS Violence Against Women strategy and action plan is aimed at integrating, coordinating and improving prosecutions and support for victims in a range of crimes, including but not limited to; domestic violence; rape and sexual offences, honour-based violence; prostitution; and human trafficking.

Examples of CPS work
In the next three years, the CPS is focused on improving the effectiveness and efficiency of the criminal justice system, through bringing more offenders of violence against women crimes to justice.

It will seek to achieve this through:

  • Improving prosecution performance with a new violence against women indicator, including targets for increasing successful outcomes in domestic violence, rape and sexual offences;
  • We have already met the April 2009 target of successful rape prosecutions of 59% and exceeded the target of 72% for domestic violence and sexual offences;
  • the development of specific guidance for prosecutors on Violence against Women;
  • the coordination and strengthening of Area coordinators and specialist prosecutors;
  • annually measuring the satisfaction of stakeholders and
  • improving training across a range of VAWG work.

In addition, the CPS is targeting improved victim and witness support, safety and satisfaction. This will be achieved through;

  • support systems for victims and outcome monitoring; and
  • the development of a system to measure the support for and satisfaction of women victims of violence, across the criminal justice system.
  • Finally, the CPS is also seeking to address any disproportionality across the equality strands through:
  • examining the equality profiles of defendants and victims; and
  • ensuring Witness Care Units have support systems and information on support for victims and witnesses from all communities.

Conclusion
I hope that I have been able to outline to you just some of the good work going on in this area, and some of the challenges that we face. The Government has done, and continues to focus attention on these important issues. We are seeking to properly equip front line practitioners to tackle the problem and are putting into place arrangements that will protect victims.

But there must be a committed and collaborative working at both a national and local level if full advantage is to be taken of these strategies. Events like this are so very important to achieving these aims.

I am so pleased that many of you here today will be able to take up this challenge and directly influence for the better the lives of victims and their families. I would like to commend you all on your efforts so far.

The message that we need to send out is that we are committed to working together effectively and sympathetically with victims and to protect them, enforce their rights and uphold the law.
By providing an effective multi-agency response and approach to victims and survivors we are implementing an ambitious programme to make our community a safer place for all.