Norfolk police has defended its training for officers to deal with domestic violence, after it emerged the force was not using the nationally accredited course due to its cost.

Domestic abuse now makes up almost one in four of all crimes investigated in the county with police responding to 24,000 incidents in 2021.

In the wake of the murder of Sarah Everard, chief constable Paul Sanford said the force was determined to improve how it investigates violence against women and girls, including providing extra training for officers.

Eastern Daily Press: More than 300 officers have received Norfolk police domestic abuse trainingMore than 300 officers have received Norfolk police domestic abuse training (Image: Getty Images)

But it has been revealed Norfolk officers do not receive the Domestic Abuse Matters training programme which is the national benchmark, recommended by the Home Office and College of Policing.

Norfolk was one of 15 forces which responded to a freedom of information request and which had not adopted the accredited course by the end of 2021, citing the “cost consideration”.

Instead it said it runs its own in-house domestic abuse training course, developed by local experts, and that its content had been adapted to take account of the national programme principles.

The in-house training had been undertaken by 336 officers up to October 2021, it added.

A “fundamental overhaul” of training was a key recommendation of a report by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) in 2014 that found police forces were being “overwhelmed” by big rises in domestic violence cases.

A programme aimed at creating “cultural change” was subsequently launched by the charity SafeLives to “transform the police response to domestic abuse” by challenging officers’ attitudes and behaviour.

Mr Sanford said in the past specialist units had been able to absorb domestic abuse investigations but the number of cases now meant all frontline officers were being given additional training.

Eastern Daily Press: Paul Sanford said Norfolk Constabulary was doing all it could to clamp down on the epidemic of abusePaul Sanford said Norfolk Constabulary was doing all it could to clamp down on the epidemic of abuse (Image: Norfolk Constabulary)

A Norfolk police spokesman said: “Our core domestic abuse training is internally-delivered but we have also hosted joint training with CPS on evidence-led prosecutions in particular and use subject matter experts from our investigation and safeguarding teams in delivery of lessons.

“We have also worked with victims who have appeared both in person and via video recording to illustrate the reality of the impact of domestic abuse on victims for our officers and staff.

“Evaluation shows that these sessions are greatly appreciated by our teams.”