A team has been appointed to develop a county-wide response to domestic abuse.

Working with the North Yorkshire's community safety units, three co-ordinators will cover domestic violence in Scarborough, Ryedale, Craven, Hambleton, Richmondshire, and Harrogate.

They will partner existing voluntary organisations as well as local authority agencies, setting up a new network to tackle the problem.

Support services for victims and their families, programmes for perpetrators and projects to ensure the needs of children are met are all in the pipeline.

Meanwhile, all three co-ordinators will also join experts at a conference on domestic violence in Harrogate next Thursday.

Challenging Attitudes has been arranged by the Harrogate and District Domestic Violence Forum, in association with the Domestic Abuse Co-ordinated Response Committee, North Yorkshire Police, Harrogate and District Women's Aid and Harrogate and Area Council for Voluntary Service.