Inadequate services to deal with children in violent homes

THERE was a 29% increase in the number of domestic violence victims who reported similar abuse of their children in 2006.

The statistics were revealed yesterday hours before a new study said the services in place to deal with children caught up in violent homes are wholly inadequate.

Minister for Children Brendan Smith accepted not enough had been done to protect children growing up in violent homes.

“It is certainly a situation we are not happy with, but it is something we are trying to address. We have put a lot of investment into this area recently with the establishment of the new Cosc office [for victims of domestic and sexual violence] and we are committed to making progress,” he said.

The 2006 annual statistics for the Women’s Aid helpline showed it received 1,942 specific reports of child abuse where the mother was also the victim.

Some 5% of these occurred during access visits. This led Women’s Aid director Margaret Martin to call for supervised centres where violent parents can be with their children without the underlying threat of abuse.

“We would be very supportive of joint custody agreements in separation cases, but not where there is violence involved.

“When a victim leaves her partner she doesn’t always leave the abuse. Sometimes you have partners threatening to kill the children or they will put them in a car and threaten to drive them off the road.

“It happens when partners threaten to go down to the school and collect the children to abduct them and it leaves victims afraid of how they are going to protect their children and often they stay in a violent relationship,” she said.

However, Mr Smith said the Government could not commit to providing supervised access centres.

“In implementing this we are ultimately guided by the professionals working in this area which in this case is the HSE and we will listen to them,” he said.

The minister was speaking at the launch of research carried out by Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) into children’s experiences of domestic violence.

It documented the plight of children forced into refuges when their mothers flee violent relationships.

Researcher Fergus Hogan said in developing services for battered partners the needs of children were not being taken into account.

This included the suitability of facilities and the inappropriate nature of refuges for women with teenage children.

“Many people are working very hard for children, but we are saying working for children is not the same as listening to children,” he said.

The WIT study focused on 22 children and subsequent interviews with relatives and support workers.

It said there was a lack of child care workers in the domestic violence sector and a failure to involve children in the process.

Its findings said a lack of support meant some children were encouraging their mothers to return to violent homes so they and their siblings would benefit from the comfort of friendship networks.