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

Wigan review

CSP: Wigan Published: June 2023 Extracted: 23 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 report identifies systemic failures in inter-agency information sharing and risk assessment, leading to an underestimation of the domestic abuse risk faced by the victim. Key concerns include missed opportunities to engage with independent witnesses, insufficient follow-up on domestic abuse history, and a lack of holistic information gathering across agencies.

Extracted recommendations

23 recommendations pulled from the report

#	Recommendation	Addressed to
1	That Wigan Building Stronger Communities Partnership and West Lancashire Community Safety Partnership use the findings from this DHR in their domestic abuse multi-agency training programmes and specifically highlight the importance of: Lesson 1 Scrutinising original referral documents Lesson 2 Seeking additional sources of information Lesson 3 Sharing full information from referral documents Lesson 5 That bite marks on victims can be a sign of sexual violence Lesson 6 Poor information gather leads to poor decisions and does not support victims Lesson 7 That agencies may hold tangential information of value to other agencies engaged in domestic abuse identification and assessment	Wigan Building Stronger Communities Partnership \| West Lancashire Community Safety Partnership
1	Clarity to be provided for PPIU specialist staff in relation to what level of checks are required to be completed during an Enhanced Risk Assessment.	Greater Manchester Police
1	Draft communication to GP Practices across Wigan Borough to share the following learning: a. Relevance of previous history b. Enquiring about domestic situation c. Recording identity of partner/father at new patient registration	Wigan CCG
1	To ensure that all relevant staff have refresher training within three years of attending initial training on domestic abuse included on their individual training plans.	Wigan and Leigh Homes
1	An audit of the routine enquiry for domestic abuse by the Health Visiting Service in the Wigan Borough should be undertaken.	Bridgewater Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
1	Training session to be offered to the practices involved in this DHR re domestic abuse and violence to ensure adherence to NICE guidance ph50.	West Lancashire CCG
1	Although staff receive regular updates to their mandatory training at appropriate levels to their roles, it wold appear that domestic violence training / awareness may need to be covered separately	West Lancashire Health Centre
1	All appropriate correspondence to be saved appropriately on the IT System Liquid Logic. This relates to any information received by the department and any correspondence sent by the department in respect to a family.	Wigan Children’s Services
1	To ensure opportunities are made to routinely ask pregnant women about domestic abuse.	Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust
2	That Wigan Building Stronger Communities Partnership and West Lancashire Community Safety Partnership review their current advice to family and friends on what to do if they receive disclosures of domestic abuse to determine whether the advice:  Is still appropriate  And has it penetrated the community	Wigan Building Stronger Communities Partnership \| West Lancashire Community Safety Partnership
2	Consideration to be given to reviewing the electronic Enhanced Risk Assessment within the PPI document to make it fit for purpose.	Greater Manchester Police
2	Staff will be reminded of the risks to adults and children associated with ‘toxic trio’ via i) the Safeguarding Children Newsletter What’s Hot in Safeguarding Children.	Bridgewater Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
2	Audit of training needs around domestic abuse and adherence to NICE guidance ph50 in GP practices across the area.	West Lancashire CCG
2	Access to the Medical interoperability gateway (MIG) will improve patient safety as we would be able to access patient’s GP records relating to safeguarding concerns rather than relying on GPs to send us alerts when they remember, it would also mean we could access data on patients presenting from out of area.	West Lancashire Health Centre
2	All information to be recorded appropriately within contact records. This to include outcomes and specify clear actions requested of other agencies along with dates for these to be completed. Agencies requested to complete an action to be informed both verbally and in writing. This to be recorded and evidenced within the contact record outcomes.	Wigan Children’s Services
2	To raise awareness of domestic abuse, recognition and response	Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust
3	That Wigan Building Stronger Communities Partnership consider whether healthy relationships programmes have a place in reducing domestic violence and if so to determine how such programmes are best delivered in Wigan.	Wigan Building Stronger Communities Partnership
3	Enquiries to be made to developing and introducing a flagging system within the PPI OPUS system to enable PPIU triage staff to identify those standard risk PPIs awaiting assessment which have recordable reports of crime attached in order that the can be processed prior to those that do not.	Greater Manchester Police
3	Ensure the practices involved in this DHR have, and adhere to, a DNA policy for children and vulnerable adults, as well as up to date safeguarding children and adults policies.	West Lancashire CCG
3	Regain access to the Alchemy server.	West Lancashire Health Centre
3	Families to be provided with appropriate information in respect to available support services, when the department are taking no further action. This information to be clearly recorded on the IT System Liquid Logic.	Wigan Children’s Services
3	Audit of routine enquiry by WWL Maternity Services	Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust
4	All SIOs involved in leading a homicide investigation to be reminded to consider the appropriate use of a contact officer to signpost the defendant’s family to support agencies available to them.	Greater Manchester Police
Recommendations extracted from the published report. Source: Home Office DHR Library. View full report ↗