Manchester review

That Manchester Community Safety Partnership seeks assurance in respect of the extent to which ‘standard’ risk domestic abuse incidents are referred into the Victim Support arrangements established following cessation of the STRIVE programme.

That the Manchester Community Safety Partnership requests NHS Manchester Clinical Commissioning Group to request GP practices to ensure that HARK templates are activated within their EMIS systems to support their prompt questions about domestic violence and abuse when consulting patients about anxiety and depression. NHS Manchester Clinical Commissioning Group will also request the IRIS service undertake an audit of GP practices to ensure that the HARK template is activated and seek assurance from IRIS that this has been completed.

That when the learning from this DHR is disseminated, Manchester Community Safety Partnership will provide training to professionals to identify patterns of behaviour and avoid treating reports of domestic abuse as ‘isolated incidents’.

That Manchester Community Safety Partnership obtains assurance that Housing Providers have robust policies, supported by appropriate training to enable staff to recognise and respond effectively to domestic abuse.

That when the learning from this DHR is disseminated, Manchester Community Safety Partnerships draws attention to the risk that unconscious bias could lead to a victim of domestic abuse not being believed.

That when the learning from this DHR is disseminated, Manchester Community Safety Partnership takes the opportunity to raise professional awareness of the possibility that a history of limited engagement with services may mask indications of coercion and/or control.

That when the learning from this DHR is disseminated, Manchester Community Safety Partnership takes the opportunity to draw attention to the various forms that familial domestic abuse can take including daughters as perpetrators and mothers as their victims and also draw attention to the need to consider the risks that a perpetrator of domestic abuse may present in both intimate partner and familial relationships.

That Manchester Community Safety Partnership request Manchester City Council to make use of the new post of GP & Pharmacy Quality and Governance Team Leader to drive improvement in communication between CGL and pharmacies in respect of patients who collect opiate substitute prescriptions and improvement in record keeping by pharmacies.

That Manchester Community Safety Partnership requests that all Community Safety Partnership partners and Manchester Health and Care Commissioning consider how people might be encouraged by all service providers to register with a GP and take into account good practice in this area such as that involving housing providers encouraging tenants to register with a GP.

That Manchester Community Safety Partnership writes to the Home Office to suggest that follow up interviews with perpetrators should take place outside the DHR process at a time when perpetrators may be better placed to make a more valuable contribution to the aims of DHRs.