Children who experience long-term domestic abuse have been let down by the multi-agency response, according to a government report.

For five days, Ofsted inspectors immersed themselves into the team which helps children who experience domestic abuse, which includes controlling, bullying, threatening or violent behaviour from parents and guardians.

They found agencies, including Medway CCG, Medway Council, Kent Police and Medway Local Safeguarding Children Board, were not consistently effective in ensuring children received the correct services quickly.

While response to severe individual cases was quick, children who were repeatedly abused were left un-assisted.

Ofsted followed the struggles of a 12-year-old girl they have called Amelia - not her real name- who has lived with repeated domestic abuse.

Amelia reported the domestic abuse of her mother by her mother’s partner to the police on several occasions.

She had to call most recently on her birthday in 2018.

She was held in police custody twice following shoplifting offences. Her school was not informed by the agencies. The incident caused her extreme distress, and she broke down to teachers on her return to school.

Amelia said: “All the social workers I have means I get mixed up, so I don’t want to talk to them.” Ofsted said the failures in Amelia’s case was due to lack of communication between the agencies and not enough focus on the emotional impacts of living with domestic abuse. In a joint statement, the agencies said: “We will work better together at sharing the relevant information so each agency can offer their specialist support. Earlier intervention remains a key priority.

“We will continue to hold twice-weekly multi-agency allocation meetings, which the inspectors recognised were ensuring a more joined-up initial response to referrals.

“We are pleased the inspection report acknowledged the work on safeguarding in schools, the services and signposting ‘One Stop Shop’ provides to victims and The Community Rehabilitation Company’s commitment to changing the behaviour of convicted and non-convicted perpetrators of domestic abuse.”

The agencies will send Ofsted a “statement of proposed action” by the date of Monday, November 12.