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Safer Shropshire Conference argues for intimate partner violence programme

Dr Mark Farrall was keynote speaker yesterday for a West Mercia-wide conference on establishing a voluntary perpetrator programmed for intimate partner violence and abuse.

The Ignition Strength to Change one to one programme has been a focus of interest in the area for some time, and the conference was extremely impatient to move forward to establish a service.

Dr Mark Farrall commented: "In Motivational Interviewing terms,  people have moved from contemplation - should we have a programme, will it work - to being convinced of the benefits and wanting to do it - taking action. Delegates also seemed very much to accept that we need to move beyond a narrow analysis based on power and control and gender, to more sophisticated therapeutically informed working".

Delagtes from across West Mercia  felt very strongly that such an initiative needs to be integrated across all of the local authorities making up West Mercia - Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Shropshire (inclusdng Telford & Wrekin).

Mark added that funding remains a problem, "despite the very clear savings in the millions which can be achieved by the Strength to Change programme, as demonstrated by our case study on Bracknell Forest Council."

The conference concluded with a wish to establish a robust, evidence based service within 12 months.