Stockton Council bosses want more domestic violence abuse victims seeking help
Council bosses want to see domestic abuse figures rising because it means more people are seeking help.
Stockton Council’s community safety select committee heard of the effects of domestic abuse and the still small proportion of cases which led to convictions for abusers. Councillors starting an eight-month review of children affected by domestic abuse yesterday (June 26) called some of the facts “shocking” and “horrendous”.
Mandy MacKinnon, the council’s strategic health and wellbeing manager, said the council spent about £500,000 on domestic abuse, including safe accommodation and public health grants. She spoke of “attrition” in domestic abuse cases, “how people fall away from holding perpetrators to account”, with 64% of victims not willing to support prosecutions of their abusers.
She spoke of the prevalence of domestic abuse in Stockton, with about one in five people experiencing domestic abuse since they turned 16, according to the 2024 Crime Survey England & Wales. The town had 5,225 domestic abuse incidents, 3,907 of which were recorded as crimes, with 40% repeat victims, according to Cleveland Police data for 2023 to 2024.
Ms MacKinnon referred to statistics for England and Wales in 2023 to 2024, with an estimate of more than two million victims, but only 1.35m incidents recorded by police and of those, just over 850,000 recorded as crimes. A “very small proportion” of those suspects were referred and charged, and an even smaller number of offenders were convicted.
Ms MacKinnon said: “This is something that across Tees is being looked at. We have a Tees-wide strategy looking at tackling perpetration of domestic abuse, that’s led by the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner.”
She spoke of the immediate and far-reaching effects on children, including “severe and multiple disadvantage”. She added: “This is something as an authority we’ve been exploring further through our Powering Our Futures council transformation programme work, particularly around early intervention and prevention for people with complex lives.”
She said domestic abuse was one of the areas pinpointed here, along with drug misuse, homelessness, poor mental health and contact with the criminal justice system: “We know that severe and multiple disadvantage really is the heart of the inequalities that we see.
“It’s a trauma, and can have enduring impacts into life and is often a factor in the adults we see with complex lives. It can be termed an adverse childhood experience which we know has a bearing on how people fare in life and what they achieve.”
She said domestic abuse affected “many different cohorts” in all communities, from people experiencing deprivation to “somebody who’s isolated behind the gates of a Wynyard property”.
“We do see suicides as a result of domestic abuse as well,” she said, referring to the high risks pregnant women faced, with 30% of domestic abuse starting during pregnancy: “Suicide is a leading cause of maternal death, and 43% of those suicides had previously reported experiencing domestic abuse.”
She said the committee might want to look at “how we keep families together versus removal of the child… but obviously the primary concern is the safety and the support that’s given to families”. She told how victims and survivors were given a voice with a steering group through specialist service Harbour, as well as safe accommodation and refuge.
Asked about the trajectory of figures, she said: “It’s one of those odd ones because we’d like to see numbers go up because that means more people are coming forward for help. We want people to feel able to pursue a conviction and feel supported to be able to move through and hold perpetrators to account.
“In my professional opinion, given the changes around what we’ve being asked to do to support children and young people, I suspect we’ll see the figures rise around 16 to 18-year-olds, because we are looking to find it and make people aware and seek support. At the same time we’re working with groups of young people and even childcare providers, to look at how we challenge harmful behaviours and make people aware of the support that’s available.”
Councillor Ann McCoy, chair of the committee, said: “I think some of us might have a few lumps in our throats listening to some of those figures. I would like us to have a look and see… why are they some ‘incidents’, some crimes?
“We have said we want to involve midwives because they will be full of information for us. And the other thing is we need to know how we can hear the voice of the child.
“I think this is going to be a very important piece of work. It fits so much with our belief that every child should have the best start in life, to try to focus on young children where anything they do in future really stems from those very early years.”
Cllr Lynn Hall asked about self-harm: “How well is that investigated and followed through and checked out? We know it’s one of the symptoms and it can remain hidden for a long while. It’s really important we unravel it.”
Cllr McCoy said they would involve the Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust (TEWV): “I know that they’re dealing with younger and younger children, both with eating disorders and self-harm.”
More information on domestic abuse support is available on the council’s website.