Sutton Council commits more than £1m to support local domestic abuse and women’s refuge services

This forms part of the council’s contribution to the Domestic Abuse Transformation Programme, set up in 2017 with partners across the borough, to tackle domestic abuse as an urgent priority and help make Sutton a safer place for everyone. 

The partnership involves Epsom and St Helier hospitals, Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, London Fire Brigade, Metropolitan Police Service, Primary and Secondary School Heads, Community Action Sutton, Sutton Clinical Commissioning Group and Sutton Housing Partnership, as well as Sutton Council, and was set up to combat the growing problem of abuse - domestic violence and abuse cases reported in Sutton rose 8% last year.

The council’s financial commitment follows a decision at its Strategy and Resources Committee on Monday 8 July to award a three-year contract to provide specialist domestic abuse and women’s refuge services to a local provider, which will be announced shortly. The Council has also reserved an option to extend the contract for two separate twelve-months periods.

The committee made its decision after the council commissioned a report from Standing Together Against Domestic Violence, a national domestic abuse charity. The report showed that while there are pockets of good provision within the borough, these are not very well coordinated, meaning victims asking for help and support may not always receive the best service. The transformation programme aims to better coordinate this activity, giving medium term stability to the services residents depend while we make longer term changes to improve the quality.

Leader of Sutton Council, Cllr Ruth Dombey, said: “We are making this significant investment to help protect the extremely vulnerable in our community.

“Our shared vision for the borough, The Sutton Plan, sets out how we want everyone to have a better quality of life and greater opportunities. Tackling the root causes of issues and helping people as quickly as possible will improve social problems and injustice. We are committed to working to ensure that everyone in Sutton can live safely in their homes and neighbourhoods.

“We are ambitious for Sutton to remain a great place to live, work and raise a family and we recognise we have more to do to make this a reality for our most vulnerable residents. That is why we are focusing on both reducing domestic abuse and also improving our ability to look after and guarantee the safety of victims, survivors and their children.”

-Ends-

Notes to editors:

The number of reported domestic violence and abuse cases rose from 1,451 to 1,573 between 2017 and 2018. 

https://moderngov.sutton.gov.uk/ieListDocuments?CId=453&MId=5219

https://moderngov.sutton.gov.uk/documents/s67149/Award%20of%20contract%20for%20the%20provision%20of%20specialist%20Domestic%20Abuse%20and%20Womens%20Refuge%20services.pdf