Council told domestic abuse services at 'breaking point' amid increasing violence against women

Increasing violence against women is leaving services dedicated to tackling the problem at breaking point, despite a drop in recorded incidents of domestic abuse in East Ayrshire.

A report on how East Ayrshire is addressing the issue was heard by the council’s Governance and Scrutiny Committee.

Councillors heard how staff of support providers are facing the “guilt and responsibility for not being able to provide the level of service they want and need to.”

East Ayrshire Violence Against Women partnership’s annual report revealed that the number of incidents in the area recorded by Police Scotland had dropped for the first time since 2016/17, from 1,574 in 2021/22 to 1,552 in 2022/23.

It makes East Ayrshire the 15th highest for domestic abuse cases by council area in Scotland.

The report continues: “Local police statistics and statistics relating to all sexual crime in East Ayrshire, regardless of the gender of the victim/ survivor, indicate that sexual crime is continuing to increase.”

A range of related statistics for the period also revealed:

Reports of domestic abuse of women age 16-25 rose by almost 10% from 215 to 236 cases.
Reported cases of rape and sexual violence in the same group increased by more than 31%.
Reports of domestic abuse of women age 26 and over rose by almost 19.4% from 515 to 615 cases.
Reported cases of rape and sexual violence in the same group fell by more than 24% from 49 to 37.

The report continued: “The trend line demonstrates a continuing upward trajectory of children and young people who experience domestic abuse within family life.

“Figures continue to demonstrate an increasing trend, over the last four quarters, for domestic abuse to form a risk in a greater proportion of all Police child concern reports.

“These figures demonstrate that domestic abuse continues to be a harmful and challenging factor in our communities.”

The report makes it clear that the organisations working to tackle the problem are under more and more pressure.

It states: “There is a concern about increased numbers of referrals for women, girls and children who experience gender based violence and who require the support of specialist VAWG services in East Ayrshire.

“There is also a concern regarding the current challenges that VAWG services are experiencing and whether this could be impacting on achieving outcomes for women and girls.

“These services support victims of domestic abuse, sexual assault, rape and trauma. They are for the most part resourced through complicated, reducing, short-term funding arrangements.”

Feedback from these groups highlighted several key concerns.

It added: “Some organisations described being at ‘breaking point’ and requiring to magic resources out of nothing to support people.

“The services experience and hold the guilt and responsibility for not being able to provide the level of service they want and need to.

“Establishing waiting lists as a necessary means of managing unpredictable demand has increased risk as organisations are still ‘responsible’ for people who are waiting for their services.

“Often, a diluted form of support is offered whilst someone is waiting – and this also creates risk for the organisations.

“Providing support to victims of domestic abuse and sexual harm is stressful work which carries a risk of vicarious trauma.

“Dedicated specialist staff who are regularly being asked to do more are experiencing stress and burnout despite the comprehensive support built into their roles.

“For some of the third sector providers locally, the current funding and commissioning structures are causing significant strain and uncertainty with financial insecurity placing pressure on service managers. Short-term contracts for staff add to a sense of organisational pressure as retention rates are impacted.”