South Worcestershire review

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.

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.

The impact of the current training regarding the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme should be audited to ensure that the learning is embedded in practice.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Share learning regarding the importance of recording a service user's partner’s name in sessions for future identification and support purposes.

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.

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.

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.

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.

All staff who have face-to-face contact with patients and service users should undertake learning activities connected to domestic abuse training.