The Domestic Abuse Act 2021 received Royal Assent in April 2021. Part 4 of the Act established a new duty upon Tier 1 local authorities in England, including Torbay, to provide support to victims of domestic abuse and their children in refuges and other safe accommodation. This is referred to as the Safe Accommodation Duty, although the duty itself is not a requirement to provide “safe accommodation”, but instead to assess the needs of and provide support to victim survivors and their children within safe accommodation. The Act sets out definitions of what is meant by the terms “safe accommodation” and “support”.
The draft Safe Accommodation Strategy is available to download to read on the same page as the consultation questions . If you would like to comment, please reply 'no' to either of the questions which will open up free text fields for you to type in. We would invite you to respond before 21 November when the consultation closes.
It should be noted that this Strategy will form part of a broader and more wide ranging Torbay Domestic Abuse Strategy that will be published for consultation in due course.
Thank you for taking the time to respond to this consultation.
