Child Independent Domestic Violence Advisers (CHIDVAs) and Child Independent Sexual Violence Advisers (CHISVAs) commissioned
Our Ref: NY8906
Date: 08th January 2024
Freedom of information request reference no: NY8906
I write in connection with your request for information that was received by the Office of the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner for North Yorkshire (OPFCC) 12th December 2023.
Question/ Request:
We are requesting information to understand how many Child Independent Domestic Violence Advisers (CHIDVAs) and Child Independent Sexual Violence Advisers (CHISVAs) you currently commission. For the purposes of this Freedom of Information request, CHIDVAs and CHISVAs are independent domestic and sexual violence advisers who specifically work with children (under 18s), and not with adults.
We are looking to find:
1. How many FTE Child Independent Domestic Violence Advisers (CHIDVAs) have you commissioned in the financial years 2023-2024; 2022-2023; 2021-2022?
2. How many FTE Child Independent Sexual Violence Advisers (CHISVAs) have you commissioned in the financial years 2023-2024; 2022-2023; 2021-2022?
3. How many FTE Child Independent Domestic Violence Advisers (CHIDVAs) and FTE Independent Sexual Violence Advisers (CHISVAs) have you co-commissioned with local authorities in the financial years 2023-2024; 2022-2023; 2021-2022?
4. How may FTE Independent Domestic Violence Advisers (IDVAs) have you commissioned in the financial years 2023-2024; 2022-2023; 2021-2022?
5. How many FTE Independent Sexual Violence Advisers (ISVAs) have you commissioned in the financial years 2023-2024; 2022-2023; 2021-2022?
6. How many FTE Independent Domestic Violence Advisers (IDVAs) and FTE Independent Sexual Violence Advisers (ISVAs) have you co-commissioned with local authorities in the financial years 2023-2024; 2022-2023; 2021-2022?
Barnardo’s will use the information provided to inform our work on the Victims and Prisoners Bill which we are doing with a Children’s Coalition led by the NSPCC, calling on the Government to develop guidance for CHISVAs and CHIDVAs and to provide funding for these roles.
Answer/ Response:
To locate the information relevant to your request searches were conducted within the OPFCC.
I can confirm that the information you have requested is held by the OPFCC.
I have today decided to disclose the located information to you.
The Office of the Police, Fire & Crime Commissioner has jointly commissioned all Domestic Abuse Support Services and ISVA Services throughout North Yorkshire and York with our co-commissioners North Yorkshire Council and City of York Council since March 2019.
Therefore Q1, Q2, Q4 and Q5 are not applicable as all our services are co-commissioned.
Furthermore, we do not commission ChIDVAs or ChISVAS that work exclusively with children; all our IDVAs and ISVAs are multi-skilled/disciplined and many are dual trained (both IDVA and ISVA) in order to provide a more resilient and flexible service offer to meet the individual needs of our victims and survivors. All our ISVAS and IDVAs work with anyone over the age of 13yrs; therefore, the figures provided below in response to Q3 include FTEs who support C&YP alongside adult clients.
Finally, the OPFCC and our Co-commissioners have been allocated additional ring-fenced national funding by the Ministry of Justice (“MoJ”) National ISVA & IDVA Fund and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities (“DLUHC”) respectively which has enabled us to increase frontline capacity across both services from 2021/22 and these additional FTEs have been indicated in brackets in the tables below.
| Q3 – co-commissioned with local authorities | 2023/24 | 2022/23 | 2021/22 |
| FTE Independent Domestic Violence Advisers who support C&YP in addition to adult clients | 20.9 FTE
(+11.0 FTE) |
20.9 FTE
(+11.0 FTE) |
20.9 FTE
(+9.0 FTE) |
| FTE Independent Sexual Violence Advisers who support C&YP in addition to adult clients | 3.6 FTE
(+3.8 FTE) |
3.6 FTE
(+3.8 FTE) |
3.6 FTE
(+3.0 FTE) |
| Q6 – co-commissioned with local authorities | 2023/24 | 2022/23 | 2021/22 |
| FTE Independent Domestic Violence Advisers including the above | 20.9 FTE
(+11.0 FTE) |
20.9 FTE
(+11.0 FTE) |
20.9 FTE
(+9.0 FTE) |
| FTE Independent Sexual Violence Advisers including the above | 3.6 FTE
(+3.8 FTE) |
3.6 FTE
(+3.8 FTE) |
3.6 FTE
(+3.0 FTE) |
Please note that systems used for recording information are not generic, nor are the procedures used locally in capturing the data. It should be noted therefore that the OPFCC’s response to your questions should not be used for comparison purposes with any other responses you may receive.