2,500 domestic abuse cases in homes with children in space of a year

The council's children's chief called the figure 'shocking' and said he believed there were many more people suffering in silence.

The information has come to light in a council report which they revealed there seven cases of violence around children reported every day last year.

Councillor Tim Crumpton, cabinet member for children's services, said although the figures were startling, the authority and support services were more committed than ever to tackling the issue.

He said: "When you first see the figure it is shocking, it is a lot of people.

"It is not just mums and dads who are involved, we know there are children seeing terrible things going on between parents but there are lots of mechanisms now to get something done about it.

"Ensuring our children are in a safe home environment is an absolute priority and at the council we enjoy close working relationships with partner agencies to help identify issues and take action where appropriate. Our domestic violence and abuse strategy launches on March 23.

"Not that many years ago there wasn't anybody taking domestic violence as seriously as it should be, people would say 'it's just a domestic' and it shouldn't be like that.

"Now we are encouraging more people to report it."

Particularly concerning to council bosses will be the number of attacks around children.

In each of the 2,568 cases between April 2013 and March 2014, children lived at the home but may not have been present at the time of attacks in all cases.

Between January 2014 and 2015, a total of 4,112 children were signposted for support by Dudley's Domestic Abuse Support Team.

Of that number, 312 cases were deemed to be serious enough for schools to step in and offer support.

Councillor Crumpton said he did not believe domestic violence was more of a problem in Dudley than anywhere else, but that it is a huge problem across the country generally.

"If you work in a workplace with eight to 10 people, one will be a victim of domestic violence of some sort.

"That's how prevalent it is in society unfortunately," he said.

"From what I can tell it is not an abnormal figure in Dudley compared to the rest of the country."