North Yorkshire IDAS: ' Domestic abuse support funding falls short'
The Government announced a new crackdown on the most dangerous offenders
A domestic abuse support charity in North Yorkshire says closely monitoring the most dangerous offenders might not prevent harm.
It is as the Government announced a new crackdown with £8.4 million being spent over two years to fund victim support programmes in the UK.
The county's Independent Domestic Abuse Service says that money falls short of what charities actually need.
Carmel Offord is from there and said: "We know there's been several very high profile cases where offenders who are known to services, such as probation and police, have gone on to do serious harm. It's how we actively monitor those offenders and put things in place to stop them causing harm that's key here.
"Over the last few years we've seen a year-on-year increase in referrals for support, helpline calls and indeed last year we responded to 25,000 helpline calls and supported over 10,000 people in the community.
"We're seeing the situation for the people we're supporting growing in complexity particularly in the face of the cost of living crisis, people being trapped in abusive relationships because they don't have the financial means to escape, we're also seeing the escalation of abuse and how complex the situations are for people.
"We need to see an increase in convictions. We need to see services pulling round victims and survivors and really protect them. We need people to believe victims and survivors. We need people to be informed about how trauma impacts people."