Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 21
21
The Department told us that it provided specific training for staff to identify domestic abuse...
Conclusion
The Department told us that it provided specific training for staff to identify domestic abuse and coercive control, and that it could put in place controls to avoid contact with the paying parent (such as non-geographic bank accounts). It explained that it also had a “six-point domestic abuse plan for any threat of danger”.42 However, stakeholders sent us evidence suggesting a lack of awareness, understanding and responsiveness on the part of the CMS. Gingerbread told us that 90 per cent of respondents to its survey who reported being subject to ongoing coercive control, did not feel that CMS staff had shown awareness of their situation in how they had responded to them. Families Need Fathers told us that “CMS is driving conflict amongst many parents to the detriment of their children”.43 An individual parent who wrote to us felt that the ex-partner’s attitude towards her had deteriorated significantly because she asked for a review of his finances.44 37 CMS 0044, para 16 38 CMS 0044, para 13 39 Qq 42–43; C&AG’s Report, paras 2.11–2.13 40 Q 9 41 C&AG’s Report, para 2.11 42 Q 39 43 CMS 0042, para 3.14; CMS 0044, para 8; CMS0037 written evidence submitted by Families Need Fathers, 22 March 2022, para 10 44 Q 40; Written Evidence CMS0009, Anonymised, 22 March 2022 18 Child Maintenance 3 Cost and effectiveness of administering child maintenance Enforcing maintenance payments
Government Response
Not Addressed
HM Government
Not Addressed
3. PAC recommendation: The Department should, as part of its Treasury Minute response, outline how it will identify cases which potentially involve domestic abuse or coercive control and adapt its services and communications in response. It should build into its transformation plans: clearer routes for parents to flag and communicate domestic abuse and coercive abuse; better integration with wider support services for victims of domestic abuse and coercive control; early identification and intervention for Direct Pay arrangements that are not working; and routine follow-up for cases that close or move from Collect & Pay onto Direct Pay. 3.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented 3.2 The department already has robust processes in place for identifying victims of domestic abuse and ensuring they receive the right support. The department has call scripts that ask directly about domestic abuse; mandatory domestic abuse training for all CMS staff; a Complex Needs Toolkit and a Domestic Abuse Plan to guide caseworker responses to domestic abuse victims and survivors. 3.3 The department also commissioned an independent review of CMS domestic abuse processes in Autumn 2021, which has now completed. The government is currently assessing its recommendations. 3.4 Furthermore, the department will assess the forthcoming Domestic Abuse Statutory Guidance, once published by the Home Office, to assess implications for ways in which coercive control can be best identified and for best practice with regards to service delivery and communications for domestic abuse survivors. 3.5 The department is in the process of adapting its Transformation Programme to incorporate further support and communications with domestic abuse survivors into CMS organisational design and throughout the customer journey, which will continue throughout 2023. 3.6 More comprehensive conversations are being considered to ensure customers are closing cases for the right reasons and are aware they can return to our service. Although the department will not be able to routinely follow-up on closed cases, once cases move from Collect & Pay to Direct Pay parents are given clear communications about what to do if the arrangement is not working through mobile text messages, letters at each annual review and there are prompts on ‘My Child Maintenance Case’.