About this page. This page summarises a Domestic Homicide Review published in the Home Office DHR Library. The full report is available at the source link below. Victim and perpetrator names are not included in extracted summaries on this page.
Source · Domestic Homicide Review
Birmingham review
CSP: Birmingham
Published: April 2023
Year of death: 2012
Extracted: 10 recs
Statutory domestic homicide review under section 9 of the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004. Source: Home Office DHR Library.
View full report (PDF) ↗
Source: Home Office DHR Library
Summary
The review identified flawed risk assessments, poor inter-agency information sharing, and a lack of understanding of domestic violence dynamics, including coercive control. Professionals failed to adequately assess the perpetrator's risks and placed unrealistic expectations on the victim, whose concerns were not sufficiently heard.
Extracted recommendations
| # | Recommendation | Addressed to |
|---|---|---|
| 1.1 | A working group should be jointly established by the BCSP and the BSCB consisting of representatives from the core agencies of both. The working group should also include some domestic violence service users, and/or surviving family members, with the aim: - To establish mechanisms to break down the boundaries and to promote collaborative working across the divide between adult focussed and children focussed services where there are concerns of domestic violence involving adult victims and children. - To develop proposals to improve safe services for adults and children. - The working group should report to both BSCB and BCSP regularly. - The BSCB and BCSP should monitor progress and implement proposals made by the working group. | Birmingham Community Safety Partnership | Birmingham Safeguarding Children Board |
| 1.2 | Cross representation between the BSCB and the BCSP should be reviewed to ensure that there is an active and up to date exchange of developments, cooperation and joint working in place at all levels on both bodies. | Birmingham Safeguarding Children Board | Birmingham Community Safety Partnership |
| 2.1 | The use and the application of risks assessment tools such as DASH should be carefully examined by the police and partner agencies including the current linked training in the light of the findings of this Review. A regular quality assurance process should be in place. | West Midlands Police | Partner Agencies |
| 2.2 | The police should produce and disseminate a briefing for partner agencies of the purpose and best practice of using the tool in domestic violence and abuse referrals to form a professional judgement about the actions to be taken. | West Midlands Police |
| 3.1 | A review should urgently be undertaken of the protocol between the police and the children’s Independent Conference Service to confirm that all child protection conferences, where domestic violence and abuse are a known or suspected issue, will have police representation in attendance with up to date information about the alleged perpetrator. | West Midlands Police | Children’s Independent Conference Service |
| 3.2 | Regular audits should track police attendance and report to the BSCB. Any obstacles or gaps in attendance should be addressed within the safeguarding structure promptly by the Conference Service. | Birmingham Safeguarding Children Board | Conference Service |
| 3.3 | The BSCB and the conference chairing service should review and update the current guidance and training for Conference Chairs in relation to the safe management of domestic abuse and violence. | Birmingham Safeguarding Children Board | Conference Chairing Service |
| 4.1 | An analysis of current domestic violence training should be undertaken by the agencies participating in this Review to establish that it addresses the issues in the findings of this Domestic Homicide Review. All the training should promote collaborative working to respond to victims and their children with sensitive and effective delivery of services. | Agencies participating in this Review |
| 4.2 | The commissioning process for domestic violence and abuse training should be reviewed and should in future draw on the joint expertise of interagency trainers in both the fields of domestic violence relating to adults victims and the field of safeguarding children and should ensure that the training is targeted to frontline professionals and their managers. | Agencies participating in this Review |
| 5 | A briefing ‘awareness raising’ launch and dissemination program should be implemented across all member agencies of both the BSCB and the BCSP to embed the change in the definition and to underpin the learning from this Domestic Homicide Review. | Birmingham Safeguarding Children Board | Birmingham Community Safety Partnership |
| Recommendations extracted from the published report. Source: Home Office DHR Library. View full report ↗ | ||