All Homeless Officers receive extensive training and awareness raising relating to domestic violence so they have a robust understanding of it.

In our approach we accept that women may have to make homeless applications many times before finally fleeing a violent partner. We accept that women may return often before leaving for good.

We offer women only services, visits, interviews and case work.

We accept that in some instances women will have no proof that they have experienced domestic violence and would not allow to impact on decision making i.e. domestic violence is often hidden, women may not have approached anyone for help or disclosed the abuse to anyone, this does not mean it has not happened.

We would never contact ex partners re applications and nor would we pass on messages from partners to women as even innocuous messages can perpetrate the abuse. We have on occasion alerted women when it is apparent that the man is looking for them, this is to enable her to make some choices re her security.

We may discuss legal sanctions but would not insist upon a women returning to her property with an injunction.

We provide a surgery at My Sisters Place in order to take a holistic approach, and prevent the need for women have to come to Erimus Housing offices to make an application. This ensures a consistent approach and prevents the need for the woman to have to repeat her circumstances to a number of agencies. On request we provide a surgery to Middlesbrough refuge.

We offer practical security advice.

We provide advice leaflets to woman within the interview and when we accept them as homeless with a letter advising them of the decision. The advice leaflet details domestic violence helplines and sources of information which may be of use to women. We also send leaflets re domestic violence alarms.

All of these factors are included in formal homeless policy procedures and guidance.

Housing services are involved in a multi agency domestic violence partnership. We firmly believe that no one agency can work effectively in isolation and that a robust multi agency approach is the right approach in relation to domestic violence.

It ensures more robust protocols, a common understanding and a consistent approach, all of which are important to women experiencing or fleeing domestic violence.

The manager of Middlesbrough Council's housing needs service attends the crime and disorder act domestic violence task group/forum which consists of eleven agencies.

We have developed a domestic violence housing partnership with several other housing landlords in Middlesbrough who have adopted our approach. This is a formal partnership which ensures consistency.

We are active members of Middlesbrough Domestic Violence Forum and have instigated a number of initiatives which were developed through a multi agency approach. These services are developed to offer women increased protection which may lead to increased feelings of safety within the home. Domestic Violence CCTV cameras are available for gathering evidence about domestic violence incidents which can be presented to a court as independent evidence. We also install domestic violence care link alarms which are connected to or care link centre. If the alarm is activated the police are automatically called and respond as a 999 incident. The service is currently undergoing evaluation and many of the women using it state that incidents of harassment have decreased and that the presence of the alarm has had a positive effect on the lives of women and their children.

We have also developed help line cards and instigated multi agency research into the experiences of women and children.