Foreword
TBC
David Stevens
Chair of Sandwell Domestic Abuse Strategic Partnership
Section 1 – Introduction
The Partnership in Sandwell
Domestic violence and abuse is a serious issue within Sandwell and has a devastating impact upon both the victim[1] and their family. It affects people, regardless of race, geography or social background. The Domestic Abuse Strategic Partnership has a pivotal role in bringing together partners and agencies to plan and work together to deliver the priority actions detailed within this Strategy.
For victims and their children this means:
- Ensuring they feel protected, safe and secure in their homes, so they feel less isolated
- They are provided with accessible, high quality & comprehensive support services
- Ensuring their voice is heard and responded to
- Preventing children and families from experiencing domestic violence and abuse (DVA)
For perpetrators, this means:
- They are held accountable by effective and early interventions
- Appropriate sanctions are introduced
- They are delivered a clear message that domestic violence and abuse is wrong
- They are supported to change their behaviour for the better
For practitioners and commissioners of services this means:
- Committing to make the prevention and reduction of domestic violence & abuse a priority
- Allocating sufficient resources to where its most required based on intelligence
- Improving efficiency through coordination & information sharing
- Raising awarenessand better equipping staff who work on the frontline
- Delivering higher standards and better services to meet the needs of adult victims, children and perpetrators
For the public of Sandwell and all who serve them this means:
- Raising awareness about the prevalence of DVA and its many forms
- Enabling reporting of DVA
- Building resilience against DVA in children and vulnerable adults
The Domestic Abuse Strategic Partnership (DASP) is responsible for addressing domestic violence and abuse through leading a co-ordinated approach to tackling the issues in Sandwell.
The key attributes to our successful partnership are:
- Domestic violence and abuse (DVA) is our number one priority
- Supporting victims and their families
- Holding perpetrators to account
- Prevention of DVA is our objective
- The earlier the intervention to prevent or stop DVA the better
- Having aclear and unified understanding of DVA
- Strong leadership from all members supported by their agencies
- Well-developed and well-governed partnership structures
- Successful strategic & operational partnership working in practice provides the foundations for future successes
- Effective communication with and between stakeholders, including with the users of our services and the people of Sandwell
- Learning lessons from domestic homicide and serious case reviews; and sharing good practice
- Being able to successfully attract a variety of funding
- Introducing new and innovative ways to help and support those affected by DVA
- Being able to deliver quality services which have a positive impact on the lives of adult and children, victims and perpetrators
The role of the Partnership is to:
- Identify priorities for development of services and programmes
- Identify responsibilities and resources for actions
- Provide the framework for a coordinated response
- Set specific targets to measure the effectiveness and progress of delivery
- Report on progress of the Strategy to the Safer Sandwell Partnership Board
The purpose of the Strategy is through a strong and committed Partnership to break the cycle of domestic violence and abuse in Sandwell.
Domestic violence and abuse: definition
The Domestic Abuse Strategic Partnership use the national definition of domestic violence and abuse for the purposes of this Strategy as follows:
Any incident or pattern of incidents of controlling, coercive, threatening behaviour, violence or abuse between those aged 16 or over who are, or have been, intimate partners or family members regardless of gender or sexuality. The abuse can encompass, but is not limited to:
- psychological
- physical
- sexual
- financial
- emotional
Controlling behaviour is a range of acts designed to make a person subordinate and/or dependent by isolating them from sources of support, exploiting their resources and capacities for personal gain, depriving them of the means needed for independence, resistance and escape and regulating their everyday behaviour.
Coercive behaviour is an act or a pattern of acts of assault, threats, humiliation and intimidation or other abuse that is used to harm, punish, or frighten their victim.
This definition of DVA includes so called ‘honour’ based violence, female genital mutilation (FGM) and forced marriage, and is clear that victims are not confined to one gender or ethnic group.
Whatever form it takes, domestic abuse is rarely a one-off incident, and should instead be seen as a pattern of abusive and controlling behaviour through which the abuser seeks power over their victim. Typically, the abuse involves a pattern of abusive and controlling behaviour, which tends to get worse over time. The abuse can begin at any time, in the first year, or after many years of life together. It may begin, continue, or become worse after a couple have separated.
How the Strategy has been developed
The Domestic Violence Needs Assessment: understanding what domestic abuse is and how it impacts on individuals, families and communities is crucial to ensuring that high quality and cost-effective services are delivered in Sandwell. The Domestic Violence Needs Assessment collates a wide range of data and information to inform our collective understanding of the issues; shape Sandwell’s Domestic Violence & Abuse Strategy and inform commissioning intentions. The DVNA will be regularly reviewed and updates /amendments reported not less than annually to the DASP.
The Sandwell Domestic Violence & Abuse Strategy is produced following consideration of the Needs Assessment and consideration of priorities. The Strategy will be refreshed not less than annually to take account of new data and intelligence about needs, to reflect changes in policy, or to incorporate newly learned good practice.
A Delivery Plan is produced following the approval of the Strategy. This will outline the specific actions which will be undertaken to deliver the priorities of the Strategy. The Delivery Plan will be regularly monitored and reviewed by the Domestic Abuse Strategic Partnership, and will be the basis of our performance reporting to the Safer Sandwell Partnership Police and Crime Board, the council and other partners
Section 2 -Working Together
Alignment with national policy; regional and local developments
Over the past few years, national and regional developments have reinforced the policy and legislative response to domestic violence and abuse. These include the national roll out of Domestic Homicide Protection Orders and the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme, the criminalisation of forced marriage, and the mandatory reporting of child Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) cases by teachers, health professionals and social workers.The Government has introduced Forced Marriage (FM) Protection Orders and FGM Protection Orders, and has published several important pieces of guidance for public authorities including multi-agency statutory guidance on dealing with FM (2014), FGM (2014) and statutory guidance on working together to safeguard children (2015). The Serious Crime Act 2015 created a new offence of controlling or coercive behaviourinintimate or familial relationships.
The West Midlands Police and Crime Panel produced a report in 2015 on tackling FGM which outlines recommendations for action. Two important sets of regional standards for the West Midlands were introduced - Domestic Violence and Abuse Standards in 2015 and Rape and Sexual Violence Standards in 2016. These outline the minimum standards for statutory organisations and specialist providers to achieve, and provide a basis for organisations to develop their professional practice, improve services, shape commissioning of future services and deliver the right response in all settings and sectors.
The Government’s Ending Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Strategy 2016-2020 sets out an ambitious vision to shift focus from crisis response to early intervention and prevention. The themes of that Strategy (preventing violence and abuse; provision of services; partnership working; pursuing perpetrators) have been used to inform Sandwell’s strategy for 2017-2020.
The West Midlands Police and Crime Plan 2016-2020 sets out details of the Police & Crime Commissioner’s objectives for the region. The Plan includes priorities to increase reporting of hidden crimes like domestic abuse; and support victims of crime. Safer Sandwell Partnership Police and Crime Board (SSPPCB) also has a priority to Prevent and reduce domestic abuse and support victims. Sandwell DASP andSSPPCB work closely with the Office of the Police & Crime Commissioner to support and deliver these priorities. Sandwell partners also contribute to the collaborative approach of the West Midlands Preventing Violence Against Vulnerable People Board in the regional work to prevent and reduce violence and exploitation.
As we move forward, we will continue to proactively manage the risks and challenges over the period of this strategy, as we seek to do more with less resources. We will also be working with the new Children’s Trust in our work to safeguard and support children experiencing domestic violence and abuse. Sandwell DASP will continually review its policies, strategies and action plans, aiming to maximise alignment with national and regional policy, always maintaining a firm focus on the issues experienced by the local people of Sandwell.
Building Blocks
The effectiveness of Sandwell’s strategy is dependent on the building blocks that underpin the whole partnership approach and the delivery of services and improvement activities. These building blocks provide a solid platform to take both the Partnership and Strategy forward.
Stakeholder Involvement
Sandwell’s Domestic Abuse Strategic Partnership consists of senior representatives from:
Sandwell Council
West Midlands Police
Sandwell & West Birmingham Clinical Commissioning Group
Sandwell & West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust
Black Country Partnership Foundation Trust
Birmingham Community Healthcare Trust
National Probation Service
Community Rehabilitation Company (Probation)
Black Country Women’s Aid
Murray Hall Community Trust
Cranstoun
Swanswell
Accord Housing
Representative of Head Teachers of Primary & Secondary schools
Sandwell Safeguarding Adults Board
Sandwell Safeguarding Children’s Board
All these agencies work as a partnership along with other key stakeholders involved in key threads of activity which have an impact on domestic violence & abuse across Sandwell, including the Safer Sandwell Partnership Strategic Plan, Preventing Violence against Vulnerable People Plan, Homelessness Strategy and Early Help Strategy.
The involvement of our stakeholders has been integral to the development of the Strategy.
Performance Management
- We will continue to improve the performance monitoring framework for the Domestic Abuse Strategic Partnership to measure and monitor the progress of the Strategy
- We will ensure governance arrangements are effective and hold members accountable for the delivery of actions
- We will evaluate interventions against outcomes and share lessons learned
- We are accountable to the Safer Sandwell Partnership, Safeguarding Boards and Health & Wellbeing Board
Sharing Intelligence
- We will improve information and data sharing analysis across the partnership to identify early intervention needs
- We will utilise strategic intelligence to inform local responses to meet the needs of and to encourage hard to reach groups to seek help
- We will use data and intelligence from all available sources to prevent and reduce DVA using locality working, MASH and Early Help teams to respond
Good Governance
- We will improve the coordination between services establishing mechanisms for closer working, joint assessment of cases, linking risk assessment & care plans
- We will make connections between domestic abuse work and other agendas both locally and nationally, in particular those where positive outcomes would support perpetrators, victims and their families
- We will work with other strategic partnership boards to support collective and co-ordinated action to prevent and address violence against vulnerable people
- We will work with local scrutiny arrangements to review the effectiveness of single agency and partnership working to address domestic violence and abuse
Targeted Commissioning/best use of available resources
- We will ensure service provision is targeted to the domestic abuse intelligence profile
- We will analyse trends to support the type, frequency and location of services we commission
- We will develop mechanisms to enable service user involvement in commissioning services to meet their needs
The 4 strategic objectives of Prevention; Provision; Protection and Partnership Working can only be successfully achieved through working together.
Sandwell’s Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub
(MASH) is an integrated approach where agencies are co-located with access to their respective information systems to identify the risks to children at the earliest opportunity and to respond with the most effective interventions.
The MASH enables the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Team to use intelligence effectively to carry out joint, confidential, targeted screening of notifications relating to children with multiple needs including those children and families affected by domestic abuse. It consists of Children’s Social Care, Targeted Services, Police, Health, Education, Probation, Housing, and Women’s Aid.
It incorporates screening of domestic violence notifications to identify the risks to children and adults. The purpose of the MASH is to deliver the best safeguarding decisions which ensure timely, necessary and proportionate interventions, improving the outcomes for vulnerable children, adult victims and families.
Multi Agency Risk Assessment Conference
(MARAC) is a meeting where information is shared on the highest risk domestic abuse cases between representatives of local police, probation, health, children’s services, housing practitioners, Independent Domestic Violence Advisors (IDVAs) and other specialists from the statutory and voluntary sectors.
After sharing all relevant information about a victim, representatives discuss options for increasing safety for the victim and turn these options into a co-ordinated action plan. The primary focus of the MARAC is to safeguard the adult victim and ensure there is appropriate consideration of safeguarding children. Sandwell MARAC will also identify domestic abuse perpetrators for referral to multi-agency domestic abuse offender management arrangements to manage the behaviour of the perpetrator.
At the heart of a MARAC is the working assumption that no single agency or individual can see the complete picture of the life of a victim, but all may have insights that are crucial to their safety. The victim does not attend the meeting but is represented by an IDVA who speaks on their behalf.
Early Help
Sandwell’s definition of Early Help is an approach to working with children and families who are below the threshold of social care intervention, but require a multi-agency approach that stops problems emerging and supports families to improve their situation.
The Domestic Abuse Strategic Partnership Strategy is a key component of the wider approach to Early Help. Work on Sandwell’s Early Help Strategy has cited domestic abuse as a key risk factor in children becoming vulnerable.
Another key component of Early Help is Community Operating Groups (COGs). A COG is a locality based problem solving forum where a range of partner agencies meet to share information and devise joint action plans around families with the aim of providing early help. The six COGs (one in each town)are designed to streamline the multi-agency approach for Early Help, making effective use of partner resources and therefore provide better outcomes for victims and families in Sandwell.
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Domestic violence and abuse – Sandwell’s response model
Report of Domestic Violence and Abuse
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Domestic Abuse Strategic Partnership structure diagram
Victims and Families
SPECIALIST SERVICES
MASH – Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub; Children’s/Adults Social Care; Sandwell Safeguarding Adults and Children Boards; Domestic Homicide Reviews; Refuge/Emergency Accommodation/Housing Options; MARAC – Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conference; IDVA/ISVA – Independent Domestic/Sexual Violence Advisers; Police
TARGETED SERVICES
Children’s/Adults Social Care; SARC – Sexual Assault Referral Centre; MASH – Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub, MARAC – Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conference; MAPPA – Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements; IDVA/ISVA – Independent Domestic/Sexual Violence Advisers; Police; 3rd Sector
UNIVERSAL PLUS SERVICES
Health and Wellbeing Team – Complex Needs, GPs, Mental Health Services, 3rd Sector, Family Support/Early Help, Domestic Abuse Advocates, SARC – Sexual Assault Referral Centre, COGs – Community Operating Groups, Mental Health Services, Police
UNIVERSAL SERVICES
Health, 3rd Sector, GPs, Family Support/Early Help, Children’s Centres, Access to Information from specialist DVA support service
Perpetrators