Published date:
On Thursday 12th May, the Probation Board for Northern Ireland were delighted to host an online seminar “Tackling Domestic Abuse: The Experience in Northern Ireland and Lessons from the Pandemic“.
The seminar, which had over 100 attendees, was introduced by PBNI Head of Communications, Gail McGreevy. Speakers at the event were Chief Executive of Belfast and Lisburn Women’s Aid Kelly Andrews; Detective Superintendent Lindsay Fisher; Domestic Homicide Reviews Chair Anne Marks; PBNI Assistant Director Liz Arthur; and PBNI Assistant Director Jill Grant. The speakers gave attendees an overview of the experiences and impact the pandemic has had on tackling Domestic Abuse.
The event was recorded and you can watch the presentations and the discussion below
Below is the agenda of the event and you can access all the powerpoint presentations that were used below. The presentations have also been put into a ZIP folder so you can also download them all in one go.
Agenda
- 1 pm – Welcome from Head of Communications of PBNI Gail McGreevy
- 1.05 – “Overview of Domestic Abuse in NI and impact of pandemic” – Chief Executive of Belfast and Lisburn Women’s Aid Kelly Andrews
- 1.20 – “Protecting the public – How the police service has responded to domestic abuse reforms in NI and the impact of the pandemic” – Detective Superintendent Lindsay Fisher
- 1.35 – “Protecting the public – The role of PBNI in the Public Protection Arrangements for Northern Ireland. How probation has responded to domestic abuse reforms in NI and the impact of the pandemic” – Assistant Director Liz Arthur
- 1.50 – “Developing innovative practice upstream to tackle domestic abuse – the PPRP for non-adjudicated men” – Assistant Director Jill Grant
- 2.05 – “Domestic Homicide Reviews: A reflection of the first 18 months since the introduction of Domestic Homicide Reviews in Northern Ireland” – DHR Chair Anne Marks
- 2.20 – Q and A
- 2.40 – End
The Festival had a programme of 500 events to allow attendees to learn, share, connect and celebrate the great work taking place across the Criminal Justice System. This includes a number of events related to Probation with events being a mix of taking place face to face and online.
According to statistics released by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), during the 12 months from 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2020 there were 31,848 domestic abuse incidents in Northern Ireland, one of the highest rates since such records began in 2004/05.