Tackling and preventing domestic abuse is everyone’s business

Every 30 seconds in the UK, the police receive a domestic abuse related call. Domestic abuse makes up 18% of all recorded crime in England and Wales and in the UK a woman is killed by a man every 3 days. Two million women are estimated to be victims of violence perpetrated by men each year. While men and boys also suffer many of these forms of abuse, they disproportionately affect women.

Cases of Domestic Abuse (DA) and Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) continue to be seen in Buckinghamshire, and everyone has a responsibility to play a part in recognising and calling out the signs of domestic abuse to protect those at risk and provide a safe environment for everyone living, working, and visiting Buckinghamshire.

Going from strength to strength, Buckinghamshire Council’s fully funded multi-agency ‘Tackling and Preventing Domestic Abuse’ training catalogue has published its fourth offering for Buckinghamshire for 2025/26.

This year’s offer includes eight new topics derived from local Buckinghamshire insight on DA and VAWG cases, including: being trauma informed, stalking and cyber stalking, post separation abuse, responding to disclosures, Buckinghamshire referral pathways, protective orders, mental health and suicide prevention, and understanding risk and managing safety.

The training catalogue is for anyone wishing to upskill their knowledge around domestic abuse and is not exclusively for professionals who work with vulnerable or at-risk audiences. The aim is to increase people’s confidence in identifying the signs of abuse and give appropriate support and signposting to victims. Whatever your role, whether you manage a team, teach, own a business, run a community organisation or work in the health, adult social care or children’s services sectors, these courses could help you challenge and change behaviours and help victims get the support they need, sooner.

The offer continues to be entirely free of charge to encourage as many individuals as possible to improve or refresh their knowledge. The training is a mixture of ‘power hours’, half and full day sessions. Power hour virtual sessions are delivered to encourage higher levels of attendance. Most of the courses in the catalogue are online to fit in with evolving working patterns.

Steve Bowles, Buckinghamshire Council's Cabinet Member for Communities, said:

“In Buckinghamshire we take a zero-tolerance approach to domestic abuse and violence against women and girls.

“The Domestic Abuse training catalogue for 2025/26 offers more courses, with greater flexibility of learning, and is another example of how we are addressing the priorities set out in the DA and VAWG Strategy including that ‘DA and VAWG is tackled at the first opportunity or is stopped before it starts’. To date, there have been over 1,850 attendances to the training, and this number continues to grow.

“If we continue to empower people in Buckinghamshire to be informed about DA and VAWG and have the confidence to signpost victims to appropriate support, then together we can provide the safe environment we strive for.”

To view the training catalogue and details of how to register for the courses, please visit the following webpage: bucksdap.org.uk/training-learning/bucks-training-catalogue