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    Mobile App

    NCDV’s online referral system Refer Direct has a mobile app version that has won a number of awards. The app features a simple intuitive interface with quick access to the third party referral form and other NCDV pages.

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    At NCDV we take every client seriously which is why your feedback is so important to us. It means we can continue to serve you as best we can. Please leave us a review.

    Mobile App 1
    I referred a domestic violence victim to the NCDV as unfortunately there was limited options available to the Police at the time of our attendance. Within 24 hours of making my referral, I received an email informing me that the victim had been allocated a court, solicitor and would be guided through the process of a Non-Molestation Order. I made a follow up call with the victim who was very thankful to Police and the NCDV. The NCDV have allowed me to safeguard a vulnerable victim and provide her access to a legal process I cannot normally provide. Thank you.

    PC Norvill

    Lancashire Constabulary

    Mobile App 2

    I cannot thank all the people who I was in contact during a turbulent and difficult time in my life when I survived a physically and emotionally abusive relationship. All the people at NCDV were so supportive, attentive and caring towards me and gave me the strength to stand for my rights. If I didn’t get the confidence to make the decision to file a non molestation order against my ex partner from the NCDV, I wouldn’t have been safe today. Thank you to everyone who gave me sound legal advice, assisted in writing my legal statement and providing multiple support networks in the difficult time. Everyone is doing such a fantastic job and deserve all the credit and award.

    Anonymous

    Victim

    Mobile App 3
    I would just like to say that I use this service regularly and it is a brilliant tool to look at safeguarding victims who don’t really want the hassle of making a formal complaint and don’t want to be the reason their partner is arrested or taken to court (usually because the partner will use it against them, telling them its their fault etc.) By obtaining a restraining order, the emphasis is then put back on the suspect, its his actions and decisions after the issuing of the order will get him arrested and sent to court. Being able to tell victims that it is the suspects fault if they get arrested and taken to court and this decision is taken out of the victims hands seems to offer great relief to the victims. Like a heavy weight being lifted off their shoulders. For the many victims of domestic abuse out there, keep up the good work.

    PC Carrington

    West Mercia Police

    Mobile App 4
    Absolutely fantastic service, quick responses back to police and especially the contact being made with domestic victims after the referral has been completed. I have used the referral system for a few years now and always been kept up to date with regards to any referral as has the victim. I have had numerous victims inform me of the awesome work the staff at NCDV to do for them and how this has helped them in the future and prevent further contact being made by suspects or support further arrests when they breach any non-molestation orders that are put in place. Keep up the fantastic work and pray your service continues for many years to come. Without the support of NCDV in domestic cases I feel there would be far less positive results in domestic outcomes.

    PC Matt Evans

    Northamptonshire Police

    Mobile App 5
    I made a referral for a victim of domestic abuse who was very worried, she has had poor service from agencies in the past and had little faith that her police interaction would yield any results. She agreed to an NCDV referral and within less than 3 hours the victim had been contacted and lots of support had been put in place for her. Thank you for such great service, for both the victim and for the police!

    PC Ben Foster

    Wiltshire Police

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    Privacy, Data & Cookie Policy. Centre for Domestic Abuse and Violence Ltd Reg. 11159687

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    By Fiona Bawden, Times Online (8th May 2007)

    “Steve Connor, a student at City Law School, is a man on a mission. Six years ago he was a fairly directionless 27-year-old. Today, as well as taking the Bar Vocational Course, he is chairman of the National Centre for Domestic Violence, a ground-breaking organisation that he dragged into existence after a friend could not get legal help to protect her from an abusive partner.

    Connor’s route to the Bar has been circuitous. In 2001 he returned from a year in Australia (he says that he would not dignify describing it as a gap year), and took a job as a process server in South London. The job (“I just saw it advertised in the paper”) was not quite as dull as it sounds. On one occasion he was threatened with a machete, on another, he was nearly stabbed by a man he had arranged to meet on Clapham Common to serve with a non-molestation order: “He’d seemed really friendly on the phone…”

    The turning point in his life came when a friend, who was being abused by her partner, turned to him for support. Connor went with her to the police. She did not want to press criminal charges so the police suggested that she visit a solicitor to take out a civil injunction. “We must have seen 12 solicitors in a morning. We just went from one to the next to the next to the next. Everyone was very eager to help until we sat down to fill in the forms for the legal aid means test,” he says. The woman, who had a small child, did not qualify for public funding. But, Connor says, her financial situation as it appeared on paper did not bear any relation to her financial situation in reality. “She had a part-time job and she and her partner owned their home. Yet she didn’t have any money. Her boyfriend was very controlling and controlled all the money; he kept the chequebooks and didn’t let her have access to the bank account.”

    The injustice of the situation got under Connor’s skin. “I just couldn’t believe that there was no help available to people who did not qualify for public funds but could not afford to pay.

    I just kept feeling that this must be able to be sorted if only someone would address it.”That “someone” turned out to be him.

    In 2002, thanks entirely to Connor’s doggedness, the London Centre for Domestic Violence was formed. It started out with him and a friend, but is now a national organisation, covering 27 counties, and has helped approximately 10,000 victims last year to take out injunctions against their partners.

    NCDV now has nine full-time staff, 12 permanent volunteers and has trained over 5000 law and other students as McKenzie Friends to accompany unrepresented victims into court. We have also trained over 8000 police officers in civil remedies available regarding domestic violence. The National Centre for Domestic Violence (NCDV) has branches in London, Guildford and Manchester and is on track to have branches in 16 areas within the next two years.

    NCDV specialises exclusively in domestic violence work and could be characterised as a cross between McDonald’s and Claims Direct. The high degree of specialisation means that its processes are streamlined: clients can be seen quickly and the work is done speedily and cheaply. “Sometimes, we will have one of our trained McKenzie Friends at a court doing 10 applications in one day,” Connor says.

    Clients are not charged for the service. NCDV staff take an initial statement: clients who qualify for legal aid are referred to a local firm; those that don’t get free help from the centre itself. It runs on a shoestring, heavily reliant on volunteers and capping staff salaries at £18,000 a year.

    Steve expects to qualify as a barrister this summer and hopes that having a formal legal qualification will give the centre added clout. “We are already acknowledged as experts and consulted at a high level, so I thought it would be helpful if I could back that up by being able to say I’m a barrister,” he says. He is just about to complete a one-year full-time BVC course at the City Law School (formerly the Inns of Court Law School) and, all being well, should be called to the Bar in July. Although Connor sees his long-term future as a barrister, he says that he has no immediate plans to practise. “I want to get NCDV running on a fully national level. Then I may take a step back and have a career at the Bar.”