Wigan Police pilot IDVA car

Wigan Today

Greater Manchester Police based at Wigan Police Station are working in partnership with Wigan Council to offer a IDVA (Independent Domestic Violence Advisor) car working with police for domestic abuse incidents - with a hope the scheme will be implemented across the Greater Manchester Police force.

Transcript

00:00 My name's Claire Anderson, I'm the Chief Inspector over at Wigan Police Station.

00:04 Today I'm here to talk about the new domestic violence car supported by police and IDFAS.

00:10 Really proud to say we're working with the council on this project

00:14 to get the best service possible to our victims of domestic violence.

00:19 The car was implemented in July to service the whole borough.

00:23 We're hoping once we've trialled it, proved the success it provides to the victims,

00:28 this will be implemented across the force.

00:32 My name's Kieran Davis, I'm the Business Manager for Domestic Abuse, Sexual Violence at the Prevention Hub for Wigan Council.

00:37 I'm here to talk about the project which we're undertaking with Greater Manchester Police at the moment

00:41 and that is to place an independent domestic violence advisor in a vehicle with police.

00:47 The idea being that that vehicle immediately goes to an incident following domestic abuse.

00:53 So the police will still go out as normal, via the 999, make any arrests as necessary, but this is an immediate follow up.

00:59 The reason we're doing this is that the independent domestic violence advisor is a specialist around domestic abuse

01:05 and the support they can offer to victims and we want to get that support as close to possible as to the reporting to police.

01:12 The advantages of that is that we get an ideal opportunity in a safe environment to speak to that victim

01:18 and to put that support in place from the earliest possible opportunity.

01:23 The IDVAs do a very different job than police officers, but they work very closely with police officers.

01:28 They are the voice of the victim, the idea is that they advocate on behalf of that victim,

01:32 they put whatever support is necessary in place, that's holistic support, so it can be anything from drug and alcohol issues,

01:39 it can be to debt, it could be to rehousing, whatever it may be.

01:43 And we're very much led by what that victim wants and supporting that family as well.

01:48 So I'm Councillor Dane Anderton and I'm the portfolio holder for police crime and civil contingencies.

01:53 Part of my role is to be involved in the Police and Community Safety Partnership.

01:57 This is an innovative group which brings together multiple agencies to work together on problem solving.

02:04 We're very proud to work with GMP on our domestic abuse strategy and to make sure we can reduce violence across our borough.

02:11 This project is about enhancing our offer to domestic abuse victims, no matter what sexuality or gender.

02:17 This again is an example of an innovative approach like our Love is Not Abuse campaign as well,

02:23 which has been an award winning campaign to make domestic abuse victims much more aware of the signs of domestic abuse as well.

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