Dealing with domestic abuse

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Domestic abuse is any incident of threatening behaviour, violence or abuse (including sexual, emotional, financial or psychological) between people that are or have been partners or family members. It can affect everyone, married and unmarried people, people who live together or in different homes, young and old, straight and gay, women and men. It can also affect different generations of people, for example grown up children abusing their parents.

You do not have to be physically assaulted to be suffering domestic abuse.

It can happen occasionally or regularly. It is rarely a one off, and a pattern tends to build up over a period of time.

It is never the fault of the person being abused. It is unacceptable whatever the circumstances and we will work hard to help you.

You can tell us about domestic abuse in confidence.

What will happen:

We will put you at the centre of what we do. Our first concern is the safety of you and any children, and we will discuss ways of keeping you safe.
We will aim to see you within 24 hours of you contacting us, at a location of your choice. You can see a person of the same sex if you wish. If you need it we can arrange for an interpreter.
What you tell us will remain confidential, unless you give us permission to talk to anyone else. There may be times when we have to talk to other people, such as if we need to protect a child or vulnerable person from harm, or to prevent a crime taking place. We will tell you about this.
We work closely with other agencies to keep you safe and support you. If you agree to it we will contact them for you. We will keep you informed about this and they may contact you themselves.
We can provide extra security to your home if you need it.
We will agree a plan with you about how we will help you.

This could be:

Supporting you to stay in your home safely
Advice you if you want to leave and need emergency housing
Help and support with moving house
Advice about your tenancy rights
Getting you specialist support
Advice about your rent, bills and benefits when this is a problem for you.
Looking at legal interventions such as injunctions and occupation and non molestation orders to protect you.

We won't:

Ask you to prove you are suffering domestic abuse.
Make you do anything that you don’t want to.

If you need to leave:

In an emergency

Dial 999.
Move to a safe place, avoid the kitchen if you can and try and get near a door.

Think ahead:

Try and keep the following items in a safe place where you can easily get to them