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Peer support can assist survivors with early recovery and specialist services offer group support work such as the Freedom Programmes, which benefit survivors in understanding healthy relationships and so reduce the likelihood of abuse in future relationships.
The MARAC process is led by Dyfed Powys Police and the process allows all relevant partner agencies to come together to increase safety options for victims of domestic abuse. Each county has an Independent Domestic Abuse Adviser (IDVA) service that provides short to medium term support to those at high or very high risk.
Target hardening (strengthening of the security of a building or installation in order to protect it in the event of attack) which allows survivors to stay in their own homes when it is safe to do so rather than flee to refuge is a preferred option and can reduce dependency on specialist services.
Each county has specialist services that provide refuge accommodation, move on accommodation and community support. In addition to this, Carmarthenshire have a dedicated Domestic Abuse Social worker in their children’s team and Ceredigion have a part time mediator thruogh Flying Start and Families First funding.
Each LA has dedicated safeguarding teams that provide support and protection to vulnerable people. Hywel Dda University Health Board have a safeguarding team that works with other agencies to address risk and support needs.
15.5. Gaps and Areas for Improvement
There are a range of gaps and areas for improvement that need to be addressed in the context of the new requirements under recent legislation. These are set out below against the core principles of the SSWB Act.
Voice and Control
Despite a significant amount of work in Wales including many awareness raising campaigns there remains a public perception that domestic abuse is ‘something that doesn’t happen around here’ and so signs of abuse in friends and family can be missed in the community. There are also enduring social problems of violence against women, domestic abuse and sexual violence and many men, women and children are still at risk of, or experiencing violence or abuse. More work across agencies is required to challenge perceptions and provide earlier interventions for survivors of abuse.
There is no benchmark for the number of children and young people reached through awareness raising sessions in schools and youth settings although each county reports increased concerns in teenagers and young adults’ understanding of what constitutes a healthy relationship.
West Wales Population Assessment March 2017 VAWDASV