20. Written evidence from Victim Support
Wales
Victim Support is the national organisation
for crime victims, witnesses, their families and friends. We offer
a range of services, whether or not a crime has been reported.
These are delivered locally by staff and volunteers who are trained
to help people cope with the effects of crime. We are an independent
voluntary organisation. We work alongside the criminal justice
system, government, and other organisations nationally and in
local communities. We work to promote the rights of victims and
witnesses.
Victim Support provides information, practical
help and emotional support to people who have experienced a crime,
and to their families and friends. Our services are based on the
principle of community involvement—for many people, the
expression of concern by a fellow citizen can be very helpful
in repairing the harm done by crime. We try to ensure that our
volunteers reflect the diversity of the communities in which they
work and that our services are equally accessible to all.
All criminal courts in England and Wales now
have a Witness Service, managed by Victim Support. Trained staff
and volunteers help victims, witnesses and their families and
friends at court by familiarising them with the court before the
hearing, supporting on the day, giving information about court
procedures, and arranging further help after court
Victim Support Wales is the umbrella organisation
for Victim Support charities in Wales. Victim Support Wales seeks
to develop additional capacity to meet the needs of victims and
witnesses throughout Wales.
Victim Support in Wales consists of five Areas:
Dyfed, Gwent, North Wales, Powys and South Wales. Each is an independent
charity and member of the National Association of Victim Support
Schemes (NAVSS). Areas are responsible for the delivery of services
to victims and witnesses in their area.
Together we promote the development of strong
and safe communities, reducing the fear of crime and encouraging
confidence in the criminal justice system in Wales. We achieve
this by promoting the rights of victims and witnesses and by co-ordinating
the delivery of high quality support services to victims and witnesses
throughout Wales
SERVICES PROVIDED
BY VICTIM
SUPPORT IN
WALES
Victim Support Dyfed
Victim Support Dyfed operates in Carmarthenshire,
Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire
In Dyfed there was a 30% increase in referrals
from crime victims during the past year (to nearly 6,500). The
Witness Service in Dyfed during the past year supported three
times as many people as in the previous year (over 1,600) at the
seven magistrates' courts and two satellite Crown courts. Improvements
in the service this year have included special facilities for
witnesses who are vulnerable or intimidated, making earlier contact
and special arrangements to avoid intimidation on the day of the
trial. Services are also available to support defence as well
as prosecution witnesses.
There are more fatal road collisions per capita
in Dyfed than any other area in Wales. In response to that and
in collaboration with Victim Support Powys, a service has been
developed for families who have been bereaved by death on the
road.
Priorities for the coming few years include:
— Outreach into hospital A&E departments,
to ensure information is available at these busy locations.
— To train volunteers in dealing with
young victims and witnesses.
Victim Support Gwent
The Victim Support Gwent Area is co-terminus
with that of Heddlu Gwent Police Authority. Currently there are
community-based offices in each of the County Boroughs of Caerphilly
Blaenau Gwent and Torfaen, the County of Monmouthshire and the
city of Newport. Witness service offices courts in the crown court
and each principal magistrates' court. The Area Committee has
identified and the report of the National Audit Office on the
work of Victim Support indicates that there is a need to reach
victims:
— Who do not report crime;
— Who are reluctant to attend police
stations;
— Are from diverse sections of the
community and do not feel able to access our services;
— That are referred but are unable
or unwilling to be seen in their homes or at a police station;
To this end VS Gwent has sought to establish
branch offices where they are more easily accessible and enable
the organisation to raise its profile in order to ensure our services
are more widely known and used. Two offices have been established
in the local community and a third is soon to open.
Victim Support North Wales
Victim Support North Wales was established in
1988. This followed the amalgamation of the local schemes based
on the boundaries of the 617,000 hectares of the North Wales Criminal
justice area. Serving a population of 663,744 Victim Support North
Wales is committed to providing the best possible service to all
victims of crime.
Victim Support North Wales has five offices
covering Môn/Gwynedd, Conwy, Denbighshire, Flintshire and
Wrexham and provide an outreach service for the most rural areas
as well as offering a bilingual service in Welsh and English when
requested.
Victim Support's Witness Service serving both
Crown and Magistrates was inaugurated in 2001 and further developments
have included an enhanced service for vulnerable and intimidated
witnesses.
Future Priorities;
— To train volunteers in dealing with
young victims and witnesses.
— Ensuring that all national quality
standards are met.
— Supporting people bereaved by road
traffic fatalities.
— Assisting with emergency planning
and mass fatalities.
Victim Support Powys
Established in 1986 and serving 126,000 people
in an area of 2,000 square miles, Victim Support Powys has offices
in Newtown, Llandrindod Wells, Brecon and Ystradgynlais.
The Witness Service, serving magistrates' courts
throughout Powys, has been running well for four years. Support
is also given to witnesses who have to travel to Crown Courts
outside Powys. Witness Service priorities are to enhance the services
to vulnerable and intimidated witnesses especially children.
Since 2002, in partnership with our colleagues
in VS Dyfed, VS Powys has offered a service to support people
bereaved through fatal road collisions. They have developed a
successful service model in close co-operation with Dyfed-Powys
Police that may form the basis of a Wales-wide service. As a further
development of this work a service to support people at the Coroner's
Court is under consideration.
Priorities for the coming few years include:
— Developing our learning programme
to enhance the skills of staff and volunteers.
— Ensuring that we meet all national
quality standards.
— Exploiting IT in order to share information
and operate more efficiently.
Victim Support South Wales
Victim Support South Wales was set up on 1 October
2003, following the merger of the 10 former Victim Support schemes
in the South Wales criminal justice area. This included 10 Victim
Services, 10 Magistrates' Court Witness Services and 3 Crown Court
Witness Services. An Area Plan was put in place with objectives
to be met over the 2004-05 period to ensure that Victim Support
South Wales becomes a corporate unit.
In the first six months of operation Victim
Support South Wales staff and volunteers supported 11,290 victims
of crime and 4,348 witnesses of crime, in both the Magistrates'
and Crown Courts. A training needs analysis established that a
large number of potential volunteers were awaiting training. This
priority issue has been resolved with in excess of 50 existing
and new volunteers attending the core training programme, and
progress being made in identifying staff training needs.
Priorities for the coming few years include:
— Achieving consistent standards and
provision of service across South Wales.
— Recruiting and training further and
existing volunteers within the NVQ framework.
— Identifying efficiency savings to
be fed back into improving service quality.
Our priorities for 2005-08 are:
To enhance quality service standards and share
resources throughout Wales we will:
— Extend national quality standards
and ensure they are appropriate for the people of Wales.
— Share personnel, skills, experience,
information and other resources within Wales.
— Promote equality and inclusion throughout
every aspect of our work.
— Support the development of ICT infrastructure
throughout Wales to underpin effective management of information
to the benefit of victims and witnesses.
To promote learning opportunities and the development
of transferable skills we will:
— Support the delivery of local and
Wales-wide training courses.
— Develop additional training materials
for Victim Support in Wales by working with partners.
— Promote IT skills for our staff and
volunteers to maximise the potential benefits of ICT.
— Apply the principles of life-long
learning and equip our staff, volunteers and trustees with transferable
skills.
To ensure greater public awareness and to enhance
our public profile we will:
— Ensure all general information leaflets
are available in Welsh.
— Develop and promote a new bilingual
corporate identity for Victim Support in Wales.
— Develop effective relationships with
the media to ensure that our services and work to promote victim
and witness issues receive maximum publicity.
— Ensure that the views and policies
of Victim Support are presented to Wales-wide bodies and in the
development of government strategies in Wales.
— Develop a bilingual web site for
people in Wales to access information on our services and contact
details with links to other sources of information and assistance.
To make additional funds available to benefit
victims and witnesses in Wales we will:
— Develop and deliver a long-term,
sustainable funding strategy.
— Secure funding from statutory bodies
(criminal justice agencies, local government and others).
— Secure funding from trusts, charitable
bodies, and others.
— Develop opportunities for corporate
sponsorship.
— Promote opportunities for the public
to maximise their donations.
— Act as the lead agency with Victim
Support Areas in All Wales consortium bids.
Victim Support's Work in Wales
Figures for April 2003 to March 2004
| Victim Service | 2003-04
|
| Total number of victims referred | 63,665
|
| Domestic violence referrals | 3,798
|
| Racially motivated crime referrals | 568
|
| CICA claims initiated | 951
|
| Sexual crime referrals | 1,147
|
| Homicide referrals | 81 |
| How we contacted victims |
|
| Number of contacts by letter | 52,662
|
| Number of contacts by phone | 12,332
|
| Number of home visits | 4,235
|
| Witness Service | |
| Total number of witnesses supported | 20,638
|
| Crown Court Witness Service |
|
| Number of witnesses supported | 6,248
|
| Number of pre-trial visits | 1,107
|
| Number of other types of support | 9,977
|
| Magistrates Court Witness Service |
|
| Number of witnesses supported | 14,390
|
| Number of pre-trial visits | 3,814
|
| Number of other types of support | 21,325
|
| |
500 Volunteers and 80 paid staff work for Victim Support
in Wales
Victim Support and the Police in Wales
Victim Support has and continues to work very closely with
the Police. Many Victim Support offices are located in police
stations and Victim Support staff and volunteers usually have
regular contact with officers on a local, an area and on a national
level. Victim Support staff frequently provide some input on core
training courses for police officers. The Wales Learning Manager
also contributes to the training of CID level one and CID level
3 (sexual offences) and Family Liaison Officer training.
The Victim's Charter (1996), produced by the Home
Office, sets out the standards of service victims of crime can
expect. Victim Support is bound by the charter.
Prior to 1998 the contact details of victims of the following
crime categories were automatically passed on to Victim Support:
— theft (other than theft of/from cars);
— assaults (other than domestic violence—please
see below);
— harassment (including racially motivated harassment);
— criminal damage against private premises;
Victims of the following crimes prior permission had to be
sought before details were passed on to Victim Support:
— sexual crime, including rape;
— manslaughter and murder;
In those cases, the consent of the victim, or in the case
of homicide the bereaved individual(s), was required before a
referral could be accepted.
However, after the introduction of the Data Protection Act
1998, there was a significant drop in the number of referrals
made to Victim Support. Many police authorities were worried that
the practice of making automatic referrals were not in accordance
with data protection principles. As a result, contact details
were only passed on to Victim Support if a Police Officer had
asked and gained the victim's prior permission. Inevitably hard
pressed police officers sometimes forgot to ask a victim if they
wanted Victim Support and for many victims the question of whether
they wanted support came too close to the event for them to be
able to think clearly.
Victim Support has been working for some time now with ACPO,
the Home Office, the Crown Prosecution Service and the Information
Commissioner to put procedures in place for the referral of victims.
However, on a local level some confusion still exists and as a
result there is a huge difference in the numbers of victims referred
to Victim Support.
Victim Support is bound by the response times detailed in
the Victim's Charter when following up automatic referrals.
The charter says that Victim Support will normally send a letter,
contact the victim by telephone, or arrange a visit from a volunteer
within four working days of the crime being reported.
This standard can only be met if the police meet their standard
of referral to Victim Support within two working days of the crime
being reported. Later referral to Victim Support will result in
later victim contact.
Should you require any further information please do not
hesitate to contact me.
Jon Trew
National Officer
17 January 2004
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