Pandemic sees huge surge in domestic abuse referrals

The coronavirus pandemic has seen a huge surge in domestic abuse cases in Tameside – including children attacking their parents.

It was revealed at a meeting of the borough’s health and wellbeing board that there had been an almost 70 per cent increase in high risk referrals between April and September, compared to 2019.

Samantha Jury-Dada, Tameside’s strategic domestic abuse manager, described this as a ‘staggering statistic’.

Across the six months there had been 233 high risk domestic violence referrals for people who were identified as being at risk of ‘domestic homicide’ or serious harm. 

This was a 68 per cent increase on the previous year, Ms Jury-Dada told councillors.

There had also been a 40 per cent increase in referrals in to the service from July to September last year, compared to the first quarter of 2020.

“The number of high risk cases is about half of all the cases we are seeing which is a really big increase,” she said. 

“That is impacting not only on those individual victims but also their children so we have a high rate of demand for our children’s services around domestic abuse. 

“And that is actually kind of displaying itself in increased aggression in the home. 

“Some children may become withdrawn but with other children that may lead to acting out and other types of behavioural issues at school.

“That can also sometimes result in children abusing parents as well.”

There was also a high prevalence of ‘repeat victimisation’ and also ‘intergenerational’ domestic abuse in Tameside, Ms Jury-Dada added.

She explained staff were being ‘quite overwhelmed’ by the numbers of cases they were dealing with, but were continuing to support victims remotely and keep the refuge open.

“It can be really challenging to support someone virtually when you’re not 100 per cent sure necessarily all the time that the perpetrator isn’t in the home and is not able to overhear,” Ms Jury-Dada said.

“So it is a real toll on those staff, making sure we don’t have burnout of people who are supporting our most vulnerable residents.”

Council leader Brenda Warrington described the report as ‘really worrying’.

“There’s no getting away from the fact that domestic abuse and the impact on children obviously impacts greatly on the council’s children’s services and our ability to support those children that are cared for by the authority, not mention the cost,” she said.

“Covid hasn’t helped this, Covid has actually again exasperated the whole situation. Do all victims have the ability to react to you virtually? How much don’t we know? That’s a real worry.”

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