REFERRALS to the council’s domestic abuse service have soared over the past year – but officers insist the numbers are positive.

A report presented to members on Cheshire West and Chester Council’s people overview and scrutiny committee on Monday said that more than half of the referrals received by the service are high-risk cases, or cases where abuse is escalating.

The number of such cases rose from 539 in 2016-17 to 627 in 2017-18, with 56 per cent of last year’s cases being referred to the service by police.

Meanwhile, there were 96 referrals to the service by GP practices in 2017-18 – almost three times as many as the 33 in 2016-17 – and the number of referrals from the Countess of Chester also increased.

Helen Brackenbury, interim head of integrated early support, said: “We’re seeing an increase in demand but we don’t see that as a negative, we see that as a positive.

“What we need to just look at is how we enable our resources to be able to deliver something at a medium-risk or earlier stage.

“We’ve got an open door, we’ve trained lots of practitioners, we have a work force that is far more able to recognise and refer on.

“So as much as resource-wise it creates a lot of spinning plates altogether, we need to view it as a positive.”

A review into CWAC’s domestic abuse service is now set to consider how early intervention work can be improved.

The committee agreed to set up a task and finish group to look more closely into how the council’s domestic violence and abuse services are working.