Source · IOPC Learning Case

Recommendations - Sussex Police, September 2024

Sussex Police Ref: 2023/187365 Recommended 11 Sep 2024 Response due 6 Nov 2024

Domestic abuse

Case background

Text published by the IOPC.

We identified organisational learning as a result of a death or serious injury (DSI) investigation where a woman entered into a relationship with a man who was known by Sussex Police to be a serial domestic abuse suspect.

See alsothis recommendationfrom the same case to the Home Office.

Recommendations and responses

3 indexed

Recommendation 1

Link to recommendation · Accepted

Addressed to: Sussex Police

Linked bodies: Sussex Police

IOPC recommendation

The IOPC recommends that Sussex Police should amend their training, guidance and practices around policing and safeguarding victims of domestic abuse to reflect the increased risk to those experiencing domestic abuse when a suspect is known to be a serial perpetrator of domestic abuse.

Officers attending domestic abuse incidents should ensure any information about a domestic abuse suspect being a serial perpetrator of domestic abuse should be recorded on all safeguarding documents, and also factor into an officer’s assessment of the risk posed to those experiencing domestic abuse.

This recommendation has arisen as a result of a death or serious injury (DSI) investigation where a woman entered into a relationship with a man who was known by Sussex Police to be a serial domestic abuse suspect. For most of the occasions where Sussex Police officers came into contact with the woman, officers graded the risk posed to her as medium despite the man being classed as a high-risk serial perpetrator of domestic abuse. Approximately three months after entering into a relationship with the man, the woman was found deceased and the man was subsequently convicted of her murder.

Response published by the IOPC

Accepted

Action taken/to be taken:

- A SPOC police officer has been allocated to review Sussex guidance, practice and policy against this recommendation to identify gaps and/or improvements that can be made.
- Work has commenced to review the content of the call handler domestic abuse trigger set questions to establish if there is a mechanism for recognising SDAS at the earliest opportunity.
- The safeguarding template has been reviewed and there is no reference/prompt to consider SDAS. To address this, work is being undertaken to explore adding a Y/N tick box on the Niche Safeguarding Template and Supervisory Review Template. The tick box will ask if the suspect is an SDAS, with a follow up question - ‘If yes, has there been three domestic abuse reports in the last six months? If so, this must be reviewed by an SIU DS as per policy’. A link to the policy will be embedded for reference.
- Guidance and policy documents will be updated once all changes are in place to reflect practice.
- Once all changes are in place, a devised comms plan will deliver signposting, raise awareness on the changes, and will direct the action that action staff need to take.

Work has commenced on these actions, and they will be delivered within six months.

SPOC - Single Point of Contact

SDAS - Serial Domestic Abuse Suspect

Check the original case on the IOPC website

Recommendation 2

Link to recommendation · Accepted

Addressed to: Sussex Police

Linked bodies: Sussex Police

IOPC recommendation

The IOPC recommends that Sussex Police should amend training, guidance and practices around policing and safeguarding victims of domestic abuse to reflect the risk to a domestic abuse victim will likely be increased if the victim has any additional vulnerabilities outside of being a victim of domestic abuse.

Officers attending domestic abuse incidents should ensure any information about a victim of domestic abuse having additional vulnerabilities, outside of being a victim of domestic abuse, should be recorded on all safeguarding documents, and also factor into an officer’s risk assessments and safeguarding decisions.

Additional vulnerabilities can include, but are not limited to, physical and mental health conditions, addiction issues, homelessness and immigration status. This recommendation has arisen as a result of a death or serious injury (DSI) investigation where a woman entered into a relationship with a man who was known by Sussex Police to be a serial domestic abuse suspect. The woman had ongoing addiction issues, and she had become homeless while in a relationship with the man. Approximately three months after entering into a relationship with the man, the woman was found deceased and the man has subsequently been convicted of her murder.

Response published by the IOPC

Accepted

Action taken/to be taken:

- Although this is covered in our current domestic abuse policy, a SPOC police officer has been allocated to review Sussex guidance, practice and policy against this recommendation to identify gaps and/or improvements that can be made.
- Work has commenced to review the content of the call handler domestic abuse trigger set questions to establish if there is a mechanism for recognising and considering all encompassing vulnerabilities.
- The force is in the process of moving to the new DARA Risk Assessment. The DARA includes questions that identify all encompassing vulnerabilities.
- Guidance documents will be updated once all changes are in place to reflect practice.
- Once all changes are in place, a devised comms plan will deliver signposting, raise awareness on the changes, and will direct the action that staff need to take.
- L&PD to undertake a review of all domestic abuse training content to ensure it covers additional vulnerabilities as a risk factor for domestic abuse.

Work has commenced on these actions, and they will be delivered within six months.

DARA - Domestic Abuse Risk Assessment

SPOC - Single Point of Contact

Check the original case on the IOPC website

Recommendation 3

Link to recommendation · Accepted

Addressed to: Sussex Police

Linked bodies: Sussex Police

IOPC recommendation

The IOPC recommends that Sussex Police should amend their policies, training and practices around policing and safeguarding victims of domestic abuse to reflect the escalating risk if there are multiple domestic abuse incidents in a short period.

Should officers attend domestic incidents relating to a victim three times within a six-month period, they should consider this to be an increased risk to the person experiencing domestic abuse, and they should inform the local authority and domestic abuse services of this development.

This recommendation has arisen as a result of a death or serious injury (DSI) investigation where a woman entered into a relationship with a man who was known to be a serial domestic abuse suspect. Approximately three months after entering into a relationship with the man, the man had murdered the woman. During their three-month relationship, Sussex Police officers came into contact with the woman and man a number of times and the man was arrested twice.

Response published by the IOPC

Accepted

Action taken/to be taken:

- Work is underway to add a Y/N tick box to confirm if the suspect is an SDAS, with a follow up question ‘If yes, has there been three domestic abuse reports in the last six months? If so, this must be reviewed by a DS as per policy’. A link to the policy will be embedded for reference. This will be in the Niche Safeguarding template and Supervisory review template. Once this is implemented, an audit will be completed to ensure adherence.
- The MASH/domestic abuse case worker process has been reviewed and improvements identified that can be made regarding SDAS management/victim safeguarding relating to multiple incidents in a short period. The current process is that SCARFs/SIGNS are triaged by the MASH. As part of this triage process, they will review the Niche history. If there are three domestic abuse incidents within six months (including non- crime domestics), a SCARF/SIGNS is sent to the appointed local domestic abuse service provider. In addition, the domestic abuse caseworkers are notified, and they review to determine escalation and to consider if it is appropriate for a MARAC referral. The domestic abuse service provider will also review, and they are able to independently refer to MARAC if they feel it is appropriate. This provides an additional layer of scrutiny and independent thinking. If there have been more than three incidents of domestic abuse where there are children at the address, MASH will share this information with children’s services to review regarding their thresholds. Action: Amend the current MASH process, guidance and policy so that these are reviewed by a DS.
- Guidance documents will be updated once all changes are in place to reflect process and practice.
- Once all changes are in place, a devised comms plan will deliver signposting, raise awareness on the changes, and will direct the action that staff need to take.
- L&PD will be updated regarding the changes to processes and policies to review all domestic abuse training materials/inputs.

Work has commenced on these actions, and they will be delivered within six months.

MARAC - Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conference

MASH - Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub

SDAS - Serial Domestic Abuse Suspect

Check the original case on the IOPC website