West Midlands domestic Violence & Abuse Standards Purpose – promote safe and effective practice

Why Themes of recommendations made by DHRs across all years Technology/ Systems Guidelines Identification of risk Training Policy Inter-agency communication Multi agency working Record keeping Awareness raising Report on/share action plan/findings Other DHR learning consistently identifies issues The most common theme occurring in intimate partner homicide DHRs was record keeping. This was highlighted as an issue in 28 out of 33 (85%) intimate partner homicide DHRs sampled.  Risk assessment was the next most commonly occurring theme with 27 out of 33 DHRs (82%) highlighting this as an issue.  Communication and information sharing between agencies was identified as an issue in 25 out of 33 (76%) DHRs sampled.  There were 24 cases (73% of those sampled) where victims or perpetrators presented to agencies with possible signs of domestic abuse and/or domestic violence but this was not recognised or explored further.

Identification and understanding of domestic abuse Need to improve awareness of domestic abuse Many agencies are well placed to identify abuse. They have the opportunity to intervene early and direct victims to the most appropriate services

Information sharing and multi-agency working Agencies sharing information about the risk of domestic abuse Record domestic abuse incidents in order to identify repeat incidents and patterns of behaviour

Training Need for improved training on domestic abuse Understand the dynamics of domestic abuse

Discussion What is needed to support compliance with the DA standards? What is needed to support DHR learning?