New Victims of Crime service to be launched in North Wales.
A new Victim Help Centre is being established by the North Wales Police and Crime Commissioner Winston Roddick CB QC.
The centre will create a one stop shop for victims by bringing together the support services of North Wales Police, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and the former Victim Support organisation.
The integrated service will start in July and will cover the whole of North Wales, providing a service tailored to the needs of individual victims.
North Wales Police and Crime Commissioner Winston Roddick and project manager Nicole Green
Mr Roddick said:
“The new Victim Help Centre will be a more joined up service involving all the relevant agencies so that people don’t fall through the cracks.
The police are involved at the very early stages of the crime but there are others involved thereafter – the health service, social services, the third sector, the CPS and witness support services.
We need the victims to realise that we want their support and that we care for them and the effects of crime on them.”
The Victim Help Centre will be based in St Asaph and will provide an outreach service across North Wales.
Nicole Green, the project manager in charge of setting it up, is also confident it will lead to an improved service for victims.
She said:
“What we’re trying to do is focus all victim support in one area so that victims can go to one contact point and benefit from the support of a number of agencies.
It’s a one-stop shop essentially and what we’re trying to do is provide as much information as possible so that we can create a tailored service for everybody.
It means that people won’t be pushed from pillar to post and we won’t be duplicating services. The whole point is to make the journey easier for victims.
It will be easier for victims to get in touch and they will also be able to self-refer if they don’t want to report to the police.
It will be very easy to contact us on the website, over the phone or if they prefer they can actually come in as well.”
“If they do need something we will do a tailored plan. They might need emotional support. They might have mental health issues because of the trauma they’ve been through.
The new centre will focusing on support those with the greatest, victims of serious crime, vulnerable and intimidated victims and also those persistently targeted through anti-social behaviour
