DOJ - Advocacy Support Service for Victims of Domestic and Sexual Violence and Abuse

DoJ, in partnership with the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), wishes to appoint a service provider to deliver a new Northern Ireland-wide advocacy service to support qualifying victims of domestic and sexual violence and abuse (including those reporting to the police, or those who are subject to Multi Agency Risk Assessment Conference (MARAC) or report to the Rowan Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC)). The overall purpose of the new service is to provide co-ordinated and tailored support, responsive to individual need, in partnership with established services. It will mean victims are well-informed and listened to and that they are referred on to specialist services, as may be required, for further support and care. The service is intended to help victims feel safe and to help ensure that the risk of any further harm, especially serious harm, is greatly reduced or eliminated. This contract involves the provision and management of a new advocacy service on behalf of DoJ and PSNI - “the Clients”. Tackling domestic and sexual violence and abuse is a key priority for the Justice Minister, as well as for the PSNI Chief Constable, and much work has already been taken forward, and continues to be taken forward to try to address this issue - at a strategic, as well as an operational, level and in partnership with the other Departments within the Executive and statutory and voluntary sector bodies. The primary aim of the new service is to provide victims of domestic and/or sexual violence and abuse with access to a high quality and streamlined support service tailored to individual need. This can have positive outcomes for victims accessing the service. For some, this may be in terms of helping to keep them safe and reduce or eliminate risk of any further harm, especially serious harm. For others, an advocate could be considered a lynchpin to ensuring they remain engaged in the criminal justice system. The ability to provide a more positive experience for the victim could potentially lead to enhanced confidence in the system more generally. The primary objectives of the advocacy service will be to:

• act as a first point of contact for victims of domestic and sexual violence and abuse to enable them to better cope with the aftermath of that crime;
• assess individual need and risk and develop a safety support plan tailored to individual need;
• offer accurate, timely, non-judgemental and impartial support and signposting information in relation to domestic and sexual violence and abuse on a range of issues and encouraging victims to report crimes/incidents to PSNI;
• provide guidance and information, referring victims on to other statutory and non-statutory agencies for specialist support as appropriate;
• help maintain and encourage engagement of victims experiencing domestic and sexual violence and/or abuse within the criminal justice system; and
• work pro-actively with PSNI and SARC colleagues to support them, including attending and providing relevant briefings and meetings as required and including providing reports to help advise and inform police officers/SARC staff on related issues.