Domestic abusers being forced to hear voice of child victims in bid to change behaviour

Catherine Mckenzie, head of children and family services at the Yorkshire Children’s Centre, spoke about an intervention programme that works with abusive fathers considered to be medium to high risk perpetrators. The pilot scheme saw the experiences of local child victims brought to perpetrators in the form of art, poems and videos.

According to the council report, one participant involved in the scheme said: “It made me think – oh my god what have I done to my children. It was a period of introspection that really made me think – If I could, what would I say to my children and the only appropriate thing I could say is sorry but I couldn’t get the word out.”

Other representatives from partnering organisations involved in dealing with domestic abuse in Kirklees also attended the last meeting of the council’s overview and scrutiny management committee.

Jill Greenfield, service director for communities and access services at Kirklees Council explained that the council has a statutory duty to support victims of domestic abuse in safe accommodation as the domestic abuse strategy for Kirklees was outlined. It was said that the council received £900k for this purpose with this expected to be received on an annual basis.

It was explained that a “whole family” approach is taken to tackling domestic abuse which includes supporting perpetrators to change their behaviour and helping victims to access housing. Chani Mortimer, service manager for domestic abuse at Kirklees Council highlighted that children are now recognised as victims in their own right and said: “A lot more is needed to keep victims, survivors and their families safe and hold abusers to account for their behaviour.”

Two schemes being carried out within the borough were outlined by Catherine Shackleton, Inspector for domestic abuse at Huddersfield Police Station for West Yorkshire Police. One of which being the Cut It Out campaign.

The Cut It Out campaign sees hairdressers and beauty therapists trained to spot the signs of domestic abuse and signpost victims to agencies who can help them. Coun Elizabeth Smaje wanted to check that this help could be provided discreetly. Ms Shackleton assured the councillor help would be given in private places such as staff rooms with a QR code and small cards with support services on them available.

Ms Shackleton also mentioned Kirklees’s Safe Zone initiative. This sees over 100 designated spaces in Kirklees with staff trained to identify abuse. These are safe places for victims to report abuse and are found in a number of locations including at Costa Coffee, Sainsbury’s, McDonald’s and all of Kirklees’ libraries.

However, Coun John Taylor was concerned that the safe zones were not evenly distributed across the different areas within Kirklees. In response, Ms Mortimer said she appreciated that the zones were Huddersfield-centric and that targeted work would be done for rural areas and Batley to increase the range of safe spaces available.