The document, which carries a foreword from Director of Public Health Diane Lee, frames domestic abuse as one of the most significant public health, safeguarding and community safety challenges in the area and sets out a multi-agency operating model that pulls partners, survivors, and the local authority onto the same planning grid.
Operational scope and partner architecture
The strategy is structured around a partnership delivery model rather than a single-agency response. According to the council, it was drafted with input from residents, local partners including Women's Aid, and individuals with lived experience of domestic abuse. Three priority working groups have now been stood up to examine the strategy's focus areas in detail, drawing on relevant operational experience and the council's in-house domestic abuse support team to drive implementation.
The statutory baseline is the Domestic Abuse Act 2021, which defines the issue as abusive behaviour between two people aged 16 or over who are personally connected — encompassing physical, emotional, economic and psychological harm, alongside violent or threatening behaviour and coercive or controlling conduct.
Local incidence metrics
The scale of the underlying problem is set out in the foreword. Nationally, the Office for National Statistics estimates that 1 in 4 people over the age of 16 have experienced some form of domestic abuse. At borough level, the document records that more than 2,400 victims were referred into North East Lincolnshire's Domestic Abuse Services during 2024/25 — a referral throughput that defines both the demand baseline and the resource allocation pressure on front-line services.
Cllr Nigel Oliver, Portfolio Holder for Health, Wellbeing and Adult Social Care, said the updated strategy would unlock a new strategic way of working against domestic abuse in the borough and thanked partner organisations for their continued work supporting victims and survivors.
What to monitor
The next twelve months will indicate whether the three working groups translate into measurable shifts in referral pathways, prevention outcomes, and inter-agency data sharing. Watch for published performance metrics from the priority groups, any movement in referral volumes against the 2,400 baseline, and updates on the council's domestic abuse support team capacity as the 2026–2030 strategy moves into its first delivery cycle.