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
Cheltenham review
CSP: Cheltenham
Published: May 2023
Year of death: 2014
Extracted: 28 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 identifies systemic failures in early intervention, multi-agency information sharing, and risk assessment for young people experiencing domestic abuse, especially regarding coercive control and balancing autonomy with safeguarding duties. It also notes challenges in supporting young perpetrators.
Extracted recommendations
| # | Recommendation | Addressed to |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Further national guidance on risk management is given to professionals when the victim is under 16 and advice on expectations as to professional response in the context of statutory safeguarding systems. | Home Office |
| 1A | For the Gloucestershire Multi Agency Quality Assurance Sub-Group (MAQuA), on behalf of the GSCB to carry out a review to test the effectiveness of existing arrangements for young people having access to preventative work on healthy relationships. | Gloucestershire Multi Agency Quality Assurance Sub-Group (MAQuA) |
| 1B | For the Gloucestershire Children’s Partnership to ensure that the DHR recommendations are fully reflected in the new Children and Young People’s Plan that is being developed and for the SLG to support the GCP in this piece of work. | Gloucestershire Children’s Partnership | SLG |
| 1C | For Gloucestershire County Council to work with localities to review the Early Help ‘offer’ to ensure it includes sufficient advice, guidance and information for professionals, carers and community groups in respect of relationship issues/abuse | Gloucestershire County Council |
| 1D | In circumstances of relationship harm (criminal abuse or assault) among young people the Police should take a robust enforcement approach. That would normally mean seeking the arrest of the perpetrator | Police |
| 1E | For Gloucestershire Healthy Living and Learning (GHLL) to continue to update their work on PSHE including the on-line PinK Curriculum and to support school staff with training. | Gloucestershire Healthy Living and Learning (GHLL) |
| 1F | GHLL/Schools safeguarding network to reflect on how young people can be encouraged to alert staff to concerns they have about their peers | GHLL | Schools safeguarding network |
| 1G | Cheltenham Partnerships to work with GDASS and other partners to facilitate a conference for practitioners to reiterate the importance of preventative work on healthy relationships for young people | Cheltenham Partnerships | GDASS |
| 2 | The Home Office work with the national data agencies to capture national information on the incident and trend relating to domestic abuse in under 18’s. It is recommended that this is be facilitated by National Oversight Group | Home Office | national data agencies | National Oversight Group |
| 2A | Further embed restorative practice across the wider partnership in order to work more inclusively with families - even when families don’t engage | wider partnership |
| 2B | Cheltenham Partnerships to support the development of a local partnership model that provides oversight over the early help graduated pathway. | Cheltenham Partnerships |
| 3 | The Home Office to review the national definition of domestic abuse to reflect on younger victims and provide clarity for professionals. | Home Office |
| 3A | Carry out a review of the local Futures in Mind plan* in the light of this DHR and consider how well young people access emotional health and wellbeing support and services in a timely manner. | GSCB |
| 4 | PSHE should be a statutory requirement in education and can play an important part in keeping young people safe. This should be an inspection standard for scrutiny by Ofsted. | Department of Education | Ofsted |
| 4A | GSCB to ensure that risks in adolescents are appropriately identified and managed by considering training for professionals in respect of management of risk in adolescence and monitoring the effectiveness of work being undertaken by CSC/YST to review the safeguarding system for adolescents | GSCB |
| 4B | Undertake dedicated public campaigns aimed toward all ages supported by all agencies around the elements of coercive control and that it is an offence in its own right. | Cheltenham Strategic Leadership Group |
| 4C | The GCSB to ensure that the Young Person’s DASH has been adopted across relevant agencies. | GCSB |
| 4D | Specific policy guidance should be developed around the use of split conferences. This should include clear direction for CP Conference Chairs in relation to conferences for child victims where the perpetrator may be present. This needs to take into account that while a child may agree for a perpetrator to attend this may be coercion and/or control to stop the victim being honest and open during the conference | GSCB |
| 4E | Raise awareness that social care cases are not allocated to student social workers and all professionals need to engage with the allocated social worker. The allocated social worker must ensure that they have proper oversight over the case i.e. engaging with the family. | Children’s Social Care |
| 5 | There should be a national campaign by the Home Office in partnership with others, to educate the public, including young people around coercive control. | Home Office |
| 5A | Children’s Social Care and the Youth Support Service will implement the BASE practice model* (developed through DfE Innovations Programme) and evaluate its effectiveness in managing adolescent risk. | Children’s Social Care | Youth Support Service |
| 5B | When working with young people, agencies are able to identify who the child has the strongest rapport with and use that professional to work with the young person and to support them though the system supported by the multi-agency team and legal advice if necessary | GSCB |
| 6A | Work with Safer Gloucestershire to explore options for increasing perpetrators programmes for under 21’s in the county. | Safer Gloucestershire |
| 6B | Review current resources for professionals and ensure development of guidance documents to support professionals in identifying and responding to domestic abuse. | GSCB |
| 6C | Continued development of www.glostakeastand.com to ensure section specifically for professionals so they can access relevant information on domestic abuse. | Safer Gloucestershire | GDASV Commissioning Group |
| 6D | To ensure that the analysis of need overseen by Safer Glos and the GDASV Commissioning Group includes research into the prevalence of domestic abuse affecting young people to shape future commissioning arrangements of support for young people and their families | Safer Glos | GDASV Commissioning Group |
| 6E | To scope options to develop an advice guide for parents on abuse in teenage relationships. | Safer Gloucestershire | GDASV Commissioning Group |
| 6F | Explore engagement opportunities with community groups and sports clubs to increase awareness of domestic abuse and encourage a zero tolerance stance. | Safer Gloucestershire | GDASV Commissioning Group |
| Recommendations extracted from the published report. Source: Home Office DHR Library. View full report ↗ | ||