The president of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services has called on the Government to provide councils with sustainable funding so that they can invest in the prevention of the domestic abuse of children.
Alison Michalska was reacting to a report on domestic violence published by Ofsted, which noted that too little is being done to prevent domestic abuse.
Inspectors, inlcuding from Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission, conducted investigations in Bradford, Hampshire, Hounslow, Lincolnshire, Salford and Wiltshire to evaluate the response to cases of domestic abuse of children.
The report noted that more work needed to be done to prevent abuse from occurring and provide sufficient aftercare for victims, including access to child and adolescent mental health services.
It read: ‘While much good work is being done to protect children and victims far too little is being done to prevent domestic abuse and repair the damage that it causes.’
Ms Michalska recognised that the scale of domestic violence across the country meant that authorities spent all their resources on protecting children from immediate harm instead of on prevention.
She called on the Government to provide councils with the funding needed to do this.
Ms Michalska said: ‘The report rightly highlights the need for a long-term strategy to reduce the prevalence of domestic abuse, but we will not see the necessary shift from intervention at the point of crisis to prevention that we need to see without sufficient, sustainable funding from government.
'The Government must lead this endeavour from the front as a matter of urgency.’