A staggering increase in reports of domestic abuse in Kent has been put down to victims feeling more confident about the way allegations are investigated by the police.

But the force has warned the funding it needs to help tackle abuse could be at risk as other organisations like councils and clinical commissioning groups face up to a continuing budget squeeze.

According to a report, Kent Police dealt with 34,403 incidents of abuse in the 12 months up to the end of September this year - compared with just 18,000 five years ago.

The increase is in line with national trends.

Of those cases brought to court, about 75% have led to convictions and the force is one of just three forces to have used new powers to protect victims by charging abusers under the offence of coercion and control.

Kent Police has also significantly increased applications to court for so called Domestic Violence and Prevention Orders (DVPOs). In the last four months, it was granted 104 orders - double the number over the previous period.

Abuse claims are also increasing because of a rising number of incidents involving children abusing parents - a previously under-reported phenomenon.

Kent chief constable Alan Pughsley said the figures indicated more willingness of victims to report abuse and reflected the success of campaigns to raise awareness.

“The public is more confident about reporting this to Kent Police. The force is focusing very much on vulnerable people and encouraging them to come forward,” he said.

However, a report presented to Kent crime commissioner Matthew Scott warned the continuing public sector spending squeeze “necessarily presented a risk of decreased provision available to abuse victims.”

“There has been a withdrawal of some funds by some district councils and between CCGs and Public Health. Medway and KCC have also opted to separate how they commission services.”

The Kent Police budget for tackling abuse is £3.2m.

Mr Scott said he was prepared to allocate money from his own office to support schemes to help abuse victims.

“There is a lot more confidence that people can come forward and report but I do think that we are starting to see a trend of more incidents.

"We are starting to see the emergence of a new trend of young people being abusive to their parents, which has not been reported as abuse before in the same way.”

Asked why adolescent to parent abuse was on the rise, he said: “It might be where violence in the household has become normalised and that child has been assaulted themselves or have seen a parent hit another parent and we are seeing that go from generation to
generation.”