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Services for children and young people exposed to domestic abuse
Specialist services for children exposed to domestic abuse in Cheshire include:
- Refuge child workers - supporting children to settle into refuge life, new schools, cope with their experience and have fun.
- Macclesfield Women’s Aid - 01625 618162
- Crewe Women's Aid – 01270 250390
- Vale Royal Women’s Aid – 01606 871523
- Chester Women’s Services – 01244 314950
- Ellesmere Port Women’s Services – 0151 355 4759
- NSPCC Jigsaw programmes in East, West and Central Cheshire, these are multiagency programmes to help children and young people end the guilt, fear and loneliness of living with domestic abuse. Telephone: 01925 418430
- Safeguarding Children in Education (SCIE) Team – supporting schools, children and families to deal with domestic abuse and engaging in preventive work through the PSHCE curriculum. SCiE has commissioned a range of drama productions which are available live or in DVD form with teachers’ packs. The dramas link domestic abuse and bullying and encourage children to get support and offer help to their friends. Telephone 01244 977963.
- Changing Places – a programme to address the behaviour of young people showing signs of abusive behaviour. Contact Emily Alison: alison638@aol.com
- Schools resources – . Telephone: 01928 787226
More details can be found on the services for children leaflet
Support for adults to Safeguard their Children
Supporting non-abusing parents is essential safeguarding practice and requires closely co-ordinated multi-agency work to meet survivor needs. Cheshire’s two Domestic Violence Family Safety Units provide specialist crisis intervention and long-term support services, including work with parents to identify and respond to their children’s needs.
Domestic Abuse Family Safety Units 01606 351375
Publicity and resources for working with children exposed to domestic abuse
Publicity for children produced by the Safeguarding Children in Education Team - new child friendly posters and little cards are available for display in schools and other child related sites. If you'd like some for your agency please contact the team on 01928 787226
More resources for work with children ...
Children and Domestic Violence
Domestic violence on has a major impact on children - they are aware of and responsive to domestic violence to a greater degree than had previously been thought. Although many develop coping strategies, their development may suffer if they don’t get help to process their destructive experiences. There is also a high degree of overlap between partner and child abuse, making domestic violence a high priority on the child protection agenda.
How children and young people respond depends on their age, personality, support network, but outcomes are best when they are helped to understand and to process what is happening/has happened to them.
Children and young people may …
- Be directly abused by the person who is harming their mother - there is a correlation of up to 60% between partner and child abuse.
- Risk injury by being caught in between parents – 90% are in the same or next room when abuse is taking place
- Be used to threaten victims (to harm children or ‘have them taken into care’)
- Have their lives disrupted by a change of housing when escaping violence
- Run away from home
- Believe that the violence is their fault
- Feel confused, anxious, angry, afraid, isolated, ashamed
- Be unable to concentrate and to achieve at school
- Not have their own needs fully met by a parent who is struggling to cope with being abused
Responding to Disclosure
When children or young people’s disclose that they are living with domestic abuse it is very important to:
- Reassure them that the violence is NOT their fault
- Encourage them to express their fears and concerns so that they can be addressed
- Involve them in safety planning – dependent on age and ability
- Remember that the child/young person already has coping strategies on which to build
Contact
One very serious issue impacting the wellbeing of children is that of contact with abusive parents post separation/divorce. Courts start from the presumption that contact with the non resident parent (usually the father) is in the best interests of the child. In practice this means that contact is refused in a very small proportion of cases (1752 in 2000 – 4% of all cases heard by the courts).
Forcing contact with parents who have perpetrated domestic violence can put both the resident parent and the child at risk. 27% of 100 refuge residents, surveyed in a recent national study (Humphreys and Thiara 2002: 99) had major, on-going problems with child contact. The report highlights:
- Child contact arrangements being used to track down women escaping violence
- Child contact arrangements being used to continue abuse
- Children’s behaviour and emotional well-being adversely affected by domestic violence and ongoing child contact arrangements
- Litigation abuse
- A lack of cross over between statutory child care proceedings and private law proceedings
- Problems with lack of evidence and poorly undertaken investigations
Here in Cheshire four women talked of similar experiences regarding contact in the survey 'Agency Response to Domestic Abuse - The Experience of Service Users'.
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