Home Safety Options for Domestic Abuse in Edinburgh

The City of Edinburgh Council (CEC) working in partnerships with Lothian & Borders Police Service, Lothian & Borders Fire and Rescue Service, CEC Homelessness Services and CEC Community Alarm Telecare Service have developed a Home Safety Options Service to offer support to people experiencing domestic abuse.

Housing Safety Options is based on similar types of services across the country and is aimed at survivors of domestic abuse who present for housing advice to the Homeless Service or are identified as being at high risk by the police following a domestic abuse incident.

At all times there remains the option of moving house locally or moving from the area they live in, however the aim of the service is to maintain a sense of normality for the family and prevent the need to potentially flee the area, with all the social upheaval associated with this.

Clients accessing the service are offered the option of returning home. If this is the preferred option then a home safety assessment by police and fire officers is undertaken and would highlight areas of home safety that can be improved eg improving window and door locks, providing spy holes, external lighting and significant support from police teams. CEC would then arrange for these recommendations to be undertaken through in-house building services through an agreed Service Level agreement.

In addition a telecare solution is available - this involves an alarm in a ruggised box with both telephone and GSM connections and any other additional telecare triggers such as smoke detectors, personnel attack triggers and panic buttons mounted next to the front door.

The specially trained installers are able to install the alarm in secure locations so it can't be switched off or interfered with and this may include installing the system in lofts and other hidden areas of the home.

If the client raises an alarm it raises a silent alarm call so not to inflame any situation taking place in the home.

It presents on the call handling system under a specially designed banner which alerts the staff that a serious incident is underway; they in turn contact the police using a direct line which allows the police to respond to the call as a priority.

The service is also developing links with the council run CCTV services that are also alerted to the incident and may be able to use CCTV to record the incident or capture the perpetrator leaving the area and be able to direct police to their current location.

In addition to this, a response using the GPS device called Skyguard is being developed to support clients when they leave the home and attend to their daily routine as they may be vulnerable when collecting the children from school or going to the shops. If the client is confronted in the community then the panic button pushed - this connects to a specialist call handling centre who in turn contact the police giving the real time GPS location to allow the police to attend the incident.

In the last ten months CEC has enabled nine families to remain in the homes through offering the Housing Safety Options.