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

South Worcestershire review

CSP: South Worcestershire Published: August 2023 Year of death: 2018 Extracted: 13 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 that the victim's mental health and substance misuse issues often obscured the recognition of domestic abuse, leading to missed opportunities for intervention, multi-agency collaboration, and appropriate risk assessment. There was a failure to fully utilise the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme and address coercive control.

Extracted recommendations

13 recommendations pulled from the report

#	Recommendation	Addressed to
14.10	Modifications to DASH risk assessments made by Domestic Abuse Risk Officers (DARO’s) should be referred back to the Officers responsible for the original assessment to explain why the change was made and to ensure that this is a safe decision. Frontline officers should be made aware of the mechanisms for escalating concerns to the MARAC if this is warranted in their professional judgement.	Police
14.11	Training on the impact of domestic abuse, substance misuse and mental health should be provided for frontline Officers to raise awareness of these complex issues.	Police
14.13	Share learning regarding the importance of recording a service user's partner’s name in sessions for future identification and support purposes.	Cranstoun Worcestershire
14.14	Share learning regarding the importance of having a clear re-engagement plan for service users who are NFA (No Fixed Abode) or rough sleeping, as per Service Engagement Policy. Identify any training requirements for staff on this issue.	Cranstoun Worcestershire
14.15	Ensure that all staff are aware of the importance of sharing and corroborating information provided by service users where there is an indication of domestic abuse.	Cranstoun Worcestershire
14.16	Surgeries should consider adding an alert to patient records when a trusted agency reports the potential risk of abuse/violence to either staff or other service users.	Clinical Commissioning Group
14.17	The GP practice to consider reviewing their protocol in respect of relatives phoning on behalf of patients concerning the potential risk of coercion and control.	Clinical Commissioning Group
14.18	All staff who have face-to-face contact with patients and service users should undertake learning activities connected to domestic abuse training.	Clinical Commissioning Group
14.6a	The constituent partner Agencies of the South Worcestershire Community Safety Partnership should review the advice given to: a) Agencies when responding to domestic abuse concerns where there are known risks of mental illness and substance misuse. b) The public through online communication and links placed on Agency websites and elsewhere.	South Worcestershire Community Safety Partnership
14.6b	The South Worcestershire Community Safety Partnership should review its use of social media and print media and seek to identify opportunities of raising the level of public awareness about domestic abuse.	South Worcestershire Community Safety Partnership
14.7	The impact of the current training regarding the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme should be audited to ensure that the learning is embedded in practice.	South Worcestershire Community Safety Partnership
14.8	The South Worcestershire Community Safety Partnership should review the information available about the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme and ensure that guidance for professionals and leaflets to raise awareness generally are available.	South Worcestershire Community Safety Partnership
14.9	All Agencies and commissioners of services should review existing Re-Engagement Policies with the aim of identifying and reaching out to service users who have found it hard to engage for whatever reason.	All Agencies \| Commissioners of Services
Recommendations extracted from the published report. Source: Home Office DHR Library. View full report ↗