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
East Sussex review
CSP: East SussexPublished: September 2024Year of death: 2020Extracted: 6 recs
Statutory domestic homicide review under section 9 of the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004. Source: Home Office DHR Library.
The review identified concerns regarding agencies' assessment of the perpetrator's mental health and alcohol misuse, insufficient professional curiosity about domestic abuse with the victim, and inadequate information sharing, particularly at the point of separation. Barriers to the victim disclosing abuse and a lack of a consistent "Whole Family" approach were also noted.
Home Office classifications
42 tags
Source-supplied classifications used by the Home Office to catalogue this review.
Victim - serious or life limiting illness
Victim - had been a victim of an abuser before
Children - under 18 shared parental responsibility (victim and perpetrator)
Children - under 18 shared parental responsibility (between victims)
Children - under 18 shared parental responsibility (between perpetrators)
Children - living with victim (including adult children)
Children - present at homicide (including adult children)
Children - subject to child protection or domestic abuse prior to homicide
Children - removed into care
Child - primary address same as victim
Perpetrator - case heard in court
Perpetrator - issued life sentence
Perpetrator - was a carer
Perpetrator - carer assessed
Perpetrator - alcohol misuse
Perpetrator - mental ill health
Perpetrator - anxiety
Perpetrator - depression
Perpetrator - suicidal thoughts
Perpetrator - suicide attempts
Perpetrator - known to agencies as a domestic abuse perpetrator
Perpetrator - known to social services as a domestic abuse perpetrator
Perpetrator - known to health services as a domestic abuse perpetrator
Perpetrator - supervised by mental health services
Aggravating factors - separation
Aggravating factors - coercive or controlling behaviour
Aggravating factors - psychological or emotional abuse
DHR process - family contributed to dhr
DHR process - family consulted about terms of reference
DHR process - family supported by expert specialist advocate
DHR process - social services recommendations
DHR process - health services recommendations
DHR process - idva or other domestic abuse support service recommendations
DHR process - community safety partnership recommendations
DHR process - technology systems recommendation themes
DHR process - identification of risk recommendation themes
DHR process - training recommendation themes
DHR process - policy recommendation themes
DHR process - multi agency working recommendation themes
DHR process - record keeping recommendation themes
DHR process - awareness raising recommendation themes
DHR process - other recommendation themes
Extracted recommendations
6 recommendations pulled from the report · 1 matched to organisations in the index
Addressed to
Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
SPFT to address how practitioners respond to threats of risk of harm to family members made by an inpatient of mental health service and consider whether a policy needs producing or whether an existing policy needs amending.
East Sussex Safer Communities Board should produce guidance regarding best practice ‘use of language’ in recording and assessment and ensure that all partner agencies incorporate it into their staff training.
East Sussex Safer Communities Board to ensure that health practitioners are aware of the NICE quality standard regarding clinical indicators of domestic abuse.
East Sussex Safer Communities Board to raise awareness across all partner agencies of Dr Jane Monckton Smith’s eight-stage domestic homicide pattern model and ensure that they are aware of the benefits of incorporating it into practice.
East Sussex Safer Communities Board to review existing training programmes and ensure that practitioners embed a ‘Whole Family’ approach into their practice, that includes: • How practitioners respond to threats of risk of harm to family members, and • Identification of carers’ stresses and any resulting risk to others.