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

Plymouth review

CSP: Plymouth Published: June 2023 Year of death: 2017 Extracted: 7 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 concerns regarding inter-agency communication and information sharing, particularly between education, social care, and health services. It highlighted a need for improved understanding of domestic abuse, perpetrator behaviours, and mental health service pathways among professionals and the public, alongside better risk assessment for complex cases involving mental health and substance abuse.

Extracted recommendations

7 recommendations pulled from the report

#	Recommendation	Addressed to
1	Safer Plymouth should review its communications strategy to ensure that there is increased awareness amongst staff and the general public in relation to the mental health services that are available in the City.	Plymouth Community Safety Partnership (Safer Plymouth) \| Partner Agencies
2	Safer Plymouth should identify and implement appropriate pathways to allow access to perpetrator programmes.	Safer Plymouth
3	Health and adult care services in Plymouth need to review their communications strategies in order to ensure that there is increased awareness amongst staff and the general public in relation to the mental health services that are available in the City.	Health and adult care services in Plymouth
4	Housing providers in the City need to ensure that all staff are appropriately trained and that they feel confident in managing disclosures. Domestic Abuse Housing Alliance (DAHA) best practice and accreditation would enable appropriate services to work towards a ‘Whole Housing Approach’.	Housing providers in the City
5	Additional training in domestic abuse is required across GP practices to ensure that staff are aware of the impact of domestic abuse and have an understanding of behaviours shown by perpetrators of domestic abuse.	GP practices
6	The prescribing of benzodiazepines should be closely monitored. Records maintained by primary services must ensure that they contain clear and unambiguous information to prevent patients from circumventing the system.	Primary services
7a	The school failed to consider the child and the family from a holistic perspective and they should have acted in accordance with their own policy and the South West Child Protection Procedures. This is poor practice and should not have occurred; however those involved would benefit from refresher training.	The school
Recommendations extracted from the published report. Source: Home Office DHR Library. View full report ↗