(A period not exceeding 20 minutes for questions and statements from
members of the public and Elected Members to the Mayor of Doncaster, Ros Jones. Questions/Statements should relate specifically to an item of business on the agenda and be limited to a maximum of 100 words. As stated within Executive Procedure Rule 3.3 each person will be allowed to submit one question/statement per meeting.A question may only be asked if notice has been given by delivering it in writing or by e-mail to the Governance Team no later than 5.00 p.m. of the third working day before the day of the meeting. Each question or statement must give the name and address of the person submitting it. Questions/Statements should be sent to the Governance Team, Floor 2, Civic Office, Waterdale, Doncaster, DN1 3BU, or by email to Democratic.Services@doncaster.gov.uk)
Minutes:
Councillor Nick Allen submitted the following question to Mayor Jones:-
“'I have read the reports regarding domestic abuse in Doncaster. I am sure you agree, the situation is horrific and demonstrates how prevalent this issue is across our town. However, I noted some discrepancies regarding LGBT victims and the data sets which have been used. There are still barriers which prevent LGBT victims from reporting crime, particularly work-place or domestic violence. What more could be done to ensure LGBT victims of domestic abuse can come forward, not just those in relationships but also young people, many of whom may still live at home.'
Ros Jones, Mayor of Doncaster referred the question to Councillor Rachael Blake, Portfolio Holder for Children’s Social Care, Communities and Equalities who gave the following response, which in the absence of Councillor Nick Allen would be forwarded to him following the meeting:-
“In relation to our high risk referrals to the Multi Agency Risk Assessment Conference (MARAC) we are slightly above the national average for LGBT+ referrals. The national figure is 1.4% of high risk referrals to MARAC being from LGBT+ victims. Our referral rate for LGBT+ victims was 1.8% in quarter 2. However we are below the suggested average set by SafeLives who monitor the performance nationally. They suggest that given the size of our population the percentage of LGBT+ referrals to the MARAC should be between 2.5% and 5.8%.
The number of people in same sex relationships referred or self-referring to the Doncaster domestic abuse hub was one person in quarter 1 and six individuals in quarter 2. We have not had anyone contact the Hub recorded as being trans, but we continue to work through the data from quarter 1 and 2 to ensure there are no gaps and our data is accurate and correct.
In 2018/2019 Doncaster Council was part of a South Yorkshire wide application to Government for additional funding to run a LGBT+ and domestic abuse project – looking at the barriers to reporting, additional risks for LGBT+ people and developing resources.
As part of that project Doncaster Council produced a new LGBT+ poster, this has been circulated to partner agencies for display across the borough. South Yorkshire Police used our poster for a South Yorkshire wide Domestic Abuse campaign in December 2019. There is LGBT+ information in the Doncaster domestic abuse protocol and all of our leaflets and posters have the rainbow flag and the trans flag on them. The language we use is inclusive.
LGBT+ domestic abuse training is part of our ongoing training programme:
We were also successful in securing funding for a project to raise awareness of domestic abuse with minority groups and the support available in Doncaster. We worked alongside Phoenix WoMen’s Aid to deliver that project with links made with various organisations and involving the domestic abuse partnership in events such as those run by Doncaster Pride.
The funding for those projects has now ended and we still haven’t seen the increase in referrals and self-referrals from LGBT+ that we had hoped for.
We recognise the need to do more. Over the past month contact has been made with the Chair and Deputy Chair of Doncaster Pride, to understand if there is more we can do to raise awareness. They have updated their website with the information we have provided and are committed to promoting this page and raising awareness of domestic abuse. The domestic abuse website has also been updated with a page dedicated to LGBT+ victims.
We are also trying to get the message out through workplaces. We have introduced the domestic abuse Charter in the strategy which will encourage organisations and groups to implement policies and procedures to raise awareness with employees and ensure that they have systems and procedures to support them if they disclose abuse to a colleague or manager.
Doncaster Council welcome engagement from any organisations and/or individuals that can help identify barriers to reporting and accessing support and who can help spread the word about domestic abuse and encourage more people to come forward.
If Nick were here, I would also ask him what more we could do and who can we contact to come forward and support us on this issue.”