Executive Summary
The Staffordshire Domestic Abuse Strategy 2025–2029 sets out a unified, countywide commitment to support victims and survivors, prevent domestic abuse, and hold perpetrators to account. It builds on strong existing partnership work while strengthening democratic oversight through a Staffordshire-led approach shaped by local evidence, lived experience, and statutory responsibilities.
Vision and Principles
The strategy aims to ensure that everyone in Staffordshire can live free from fear, harm, and abuse. It is grounded in four core beliefs:
- Victims and survivors are entitled to safety, support, and recovery: their voices will be heard, they will be respected and fully supported, and central to everything we do.
- Domestic abuse is preventable through education, early intervention, and community awareness.
- Perpetrators must be held accountable, with access to behaviour-change programmes alongside robust criminal justice action.
- Partnership working is essential, requiring whole-system collaboration across statutory agencies, voluntary organisations, businesses, and communities.
A trauma-informed, evidence-based, whole-family, and whole-system approach underpins all activity.
Strategic Priorities
We have 4 strategic priorities:
1. Support Victims and Survivors
We will provide safe, high‑quality support that treats people with empathy and understands trauma. We’ll step in early to stop situations getting worse and reduce the risk of people becoming homeless. We will manage risk well, including through Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conference (MARAC), and make sure children get the right support. We will also focus on people who face extra barriers, to make sure they can access the support they need. All services will link together smoothly so people can get the health, mental health, housing, and other help they need.
2. Prevent Domestic Abuse
We want to help stop domestic abuse by raising awareness in communities, workplaces and services, and by making sure professionals are well‑trained to spot and respond to all types of abuse. Children and young people will learn about healthy relationships from early years through post‑16, and we will challenge harmful attitudes and online influences. Schools and other settings will step in early when concerns arise, giving support before problems escalate.
3. Hold Perpetrators to Account and Change Behaviour
We want a criminal justice system that acts quickly and puts victims first. Agencies will work closely together to manage perpetrators, make better use of protection orders and disclosure schemes, and continue providing behaviour‑change programmes that also keep victims safe. We’ll also support perpetrators with issues like mental health or substance misuse to help reduce future harm.
4. Work in Partnership for a Coordinated Community Response
We will make sure people with lived experience help shape decisions and how services are delivered. Our partnership will include a wide range of voices and work closely with other key areas like mental health and violence reduction. We’ll improve how organisations share information so we have a clearer, real‑time picture of what’s happening. Businesses will be encouraged to play an active role, and we’ll work closely with partners across the county and in Stoke‑on‑Trent so support is consistent across local areas.
Delivery and Accountability
We are keen to ensure that our domestic abuse strategy delivers meaningful change, and we will measure our progress through data and performance measures, as well as feedback from people with lived experience about the changes they see and the impact on their lives.
The Staffordshire Domestic Abuse Partnership Board is accountable for the implementation and delivery of this strategy. The Board will:
- Oversee implementation of a detailed action plan.
- Monitor progress through an improved performance framework.
- Hold partners to account for meaningful change.
