Corby Council undecided whether to grant more funds for county's domestic abuse services

Corby Council not decided yet on whether it will give more money to help county’s in-crisis domestic abuse services

Corby Council wants to know more about what domestic abuse service The Sunflower Centre is doing for Corby before it hands over more funds.

The grants committee last night deferred a decision to increase it’s annual £13,000 grant by £4,000

The recommendation was made by chair Clr John McGhee who said at the start of the meeting he was disappointed that the Northampton based centre had requested the extra funds via email rather than talking to the council in person.

Recommending that the committee defer the decision to hand over the funds he said: “I think it would be money well spent and it is needed. I would like to have a full understanding of the service the centre does for Corby and what the outcomes are.”

Cllr McGhee suggested the additional £4,000 could come from an underspend on other grants that the authority was due to receive back.

Corby used to have its own Sunflower Centre base in the town but it was closed several years ago. According to recent data, Corby is just behind Northampton in the highest rates of domestic abuse.

A report from the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner’s office, which took over the running of the centre in October, has laid bare the problems within the service.

Referrals from high risk victims have increased by more than doubled in 2019 compared to the previous year and some victims are having to wait 12 weeks before their case goes up to a multi agency panel.

The report says the service, which has not had a funding increase for the past five years, is critically stretched and national domestic abuse charity Safelives has removed its accreditation because it does not think the Sunflower Centre is up to standard.

Part of the problem has been the loss of experienced staff and the staffing numbers are now at half what SafeLives recommends.

The extra money requested by the PFCC’s office to all of the partners councils and the health commissioning board would have helped pay to double the staffing numbers and have 14 staff on its books.

A recent report by Northamptonshire police revealed that a third of crime is domestic abuse related. Northamptonshire crime commissioner Stephen Mold said the levels of domestic abuse ‘keep him awake at night’ and his office has increased it’s funding of the service by £157,000 this year. The cost of running the service is around £700,000.

Cllr Kevin Watt had said he was happy to approve the grant and then hear from the Sunflower Centre about their work.

The matter will now be deferred to the next meeting.