Bromley review

Officers should be reminded to review the investigation as a whole, ensuring sufficient enquiries are undertaken to identify any existing or potential witnesses.

Supervisors must ensure that they provide intrusive, timely and effective supervision, detailing clear action plans and direction to investigating officers. These actions and directions must be documented and checked for completion.

Investigating Officers are reminded that any DA Risk Assessment assessed as medium or high must lead to completion of a Part 2/Secondary risk assessment.

Victim Support management in the Southeast Division audit against internal policies shown below, a sample of domestic abuse referrals randomly from the Case Management System (CMS) for the borough of Bromley for the period January – March 2014: • Victim Support’s DV Service Delivery Operating Instructions (DVSDOI) • Victim Support’s Safeguarding adult and children policies • Victim Support’s Data Compliance policy.

The local domestic abuse partnership must review its membership, structure and processes to ensure the delivery of a coordinated response to domestic abuse and report directly to the Community Safety Partnership and local Children and Adult Safeguarding Boards.

All partnership agencies should provide all staff with domestic abuse training appropriate to their level of responsibility (e.g. all staff should receive basic awareness training, and staff at level 3 or above should receive advanced training to include risk assessment, safeguarding and referral pathways.) Providing this training is the responsibility of individual agencies that will nominate a lead officer and maintain records of their training programme and levels of delivery.

All agencies work with the CSP and the Children and Adult Safeguarding Boards to identify a domestic abuse champion within their agency, each department, or each team (according to size) to attend advanced training and take responsibility for disseminating updates, sharing best practice, and maintaining awareness of domestic abuse within their agency.

Local agencies must review or introduce core competencies, training plans, and policies and procedures in relation to domestic abuse, and provide these to the Community Safety Partnership (CSP) and local Children and Adult Safeguarding Boards.

That the local CCG and Public Health Bromley consider implementing the IRIS programme to support GP’s in identifying and responding to domestic abuse.

All Health agencies to implement and use the NICE guidance to support the delivery of recommendations within this review as they relate to Health.

The Bromley Safeguarding Children’s Board (BSCB) should work closely with schools, colleges and youth services to ensure both young people and the professionals working with them are aware of the realities and dynamics of domestic abuse and where support is available.

Children’s Services & the BSCB should review ‘The Child’s Journey In Bromley ’ to ensure referral routes to early intervention services & children’s social care services are clear for all partners and that ‘escalation’ is also clear when referrals are not sufficiently addressed.

Children’s Services & the BSCB should consider how to improve the success of necessary interventions when families are resistant to those interventions.

Children’s Services to lead on a multi-agency SCIE review, using this case as an example, to improve practice in relation to vulnerable young people who may come into contact with oppressive and abusive individuals.

All agencies should work with the CSP to accurately map the prevalence of domestic abuse in the borough, and the provision of services to feed into an updated strategy and commissioning plan.

The CSP and safeguarding boards should work with partner agencies to organise public awareness campaigns to raise residents’ understanding of domestic abuse and publicise services: including what friends or family members can do if they are concerned about someone they know.

The Home Office to consider further developing, in partnership with the Department of Health, a minimum standard of reporting and response in all health settings, i.e. beyond the NICE guidance to ensure better support for victims of domestic violence.

That Her Majesty’s Courts Service and partners reconsider the issue of a Specialist Domestic Violence Court in Bromley (which may include other relevant boroughs who utilise this court) to ensure a more effective delivery of justice in domestic violence cases.

The MPS and Probation Services (NPS and CRC) review how closer work between the police CSUs and Probation could strengthen the management of domestic abuse cases.

Police lists of Previous Convictions (MG16) should always note where a violent offence is an offence of domestic abuse or where any offence is committed in a domestic abuse context.

Probation should request from Police a full intelligence picture on all domestic abuse perpetrators.

That the MPS review their use of the ‘Recency-Frequency-Gravity-Risk’ model to ensure that it addresses the harm, opportunity and threat posed by high impact offenders of domestic abuse

That the MPS (with ACPO) consider the viability of a National Flagging System for serial perpetrators and repeat victims of domestic abuse to ensure the most dangerous perpetrators are identified and response are made commensurate to that risk.

That Her Majesty’s Prison Service recognises the importance of programmes for violent abusers, including those on short sentences, and reviews their capacity to deliver such programmes to take the opportunity to change perpetrators behaviours before release.

That the identification (flagging) of domestic abuse perpetrators be introduced in all criminal justice agencies to ensure that the characteristics of such abuse are addressed within reports, sentencing and joint responses.

That this review, when finalised, be forwarded to the CSP at Bexley for them to consider the learning opportunities possible from the evidence of the perpetrator’s possible needs when a child within that borough.