Children Experiencing Domestic Violence – Interagency Work and Risk Assessment

1. Children Experiencing Domestic Violence – Interagency Work and Risk Assessment Nicky Stanley Professor of Social Work University of Central Lancashire

2. Fragmented service picture • Barriers for families seeking support • Information needed to inform assessments limited • Children’s needs can fall into gaps between services • Inconsistencies in practice between agencies can jeopardise safety

3. Opportunities for Increasing Collaboration Identified by Research Review • Children’s social care to increase communication with specialist domestic violence organisations and police beyond the confines of referrals and formal meetings • Child’s stay in a refuge identified as an opportunity for linking children and families with key services • CAMHS – work with children experiencing dv, little evidence of collaboration with other services in UK • Family Justice Centres – range of services for victims offered from one site, established in Berkshire, Croydon, Derby and Newham

4. Increasing awareness and sensitivity across services • Screening/routine questioning used in midwifery and health visiting – extend to adult mental health and substance misuse services? • Screening most likely to be implemented when supported by training and referral pathways • Early CAF studies suggest that staff in education may need training to boost confidence and knowledge re domestic violence • Interagency training – develop understanding of perspectives of other agencies in addition to raising awareness of domestic violence and its impact on children. ‘ we need to be having joint training …to know each other's parts, what we do, because I still don't know what other agencies do properly, I know they do something but I don't know what.’ (Domestic violence specialist police officer, Stanley et al 2010)

5. Interagency Training ‘ we need to be having joint training …to know each other's parts, what we do, because I still don't know what other agencies do properly, I know they do something but I don't know what.’ (Domestic violence specialist police officer, Stanley et al 2010)

6. Filtering and Assessing Notifications Stanley et al (2010) - 30 of 57 LSCBs responding identified innovative interagency practice in relation to notifications • 3 models: • Interagency Screening • Police Risk Assessment Informs Notification Routing • Early Intervention

7. Interagency Screening • Co-location schemes • Integrated teams • Interagency meetings/panels • Allow maximum amount of information to inform assessment of risk • Means by which agencies develop insight into each others’ perspectives and approaches • Such initiatives tend to be pulled back when services under pressure

8. Police risk assessment to route referrals • Reduces volume of notifications • Police risk assessment tools - adult-focused checklist tho’ questions relating to children added • Police communication with children at DV incidents limited (Stanley et al 2010)

9. Interagency Approaches to Early Intervention • Police give victims information re dv services and make referrals with their consent • DV services automatically informed of all incidents by the police and letters sent from service to victims • Police refer mothers and children directly to specialist children’s support service (Part 2008)

10. Barnardo’s Domestic Violence Risk Identification Matrix • Scale 1 (Moderate) - targeted support by single practitioner. • Scale 2 (Moderate to Serious - ) integrated support by more than one agency, co-ordinated by lead professional. • Scale 3 (Serious) - consider initial assessment • Scale 4 (Severe): consider whether Section 47 enquiry and core assessment required.   (London Safeguarding Children Board 2008)

11. The Greenbook Initiative • US Juvenile and Family Court Judges - Guidance on Domestic Violence and Child Maltreatment Cases (1999) • Implementation programme -2000 to 2005 in 6 sites in 5 US states • Led by the judiciary, focused on the child welfare system, specialist domestic violence services and courts.

12. Implementing the Greenbook • Staff representation from staff at multiple levels from full range of organisations at interagency forums and meetings • Survivor representation on forums • Screening and assessment protocols • Multiagency teams, groups and responses – reviewed, filtered and routed cases • Co-located and specialist staff located in range of agencies • Training focused on understanding the dynamics of interagency work

13. Factors Facilitating Collaboration (Banks et al 2008) • ‘Institutional empathy’– understanding of the context shaping how another agency works • Effective and neutral leaders – broad vision of what system change would look like and understood different perspectives • Reaching out to the community • Specialist/co-located posts helped shift agency practice • Multi-agency teams/meetings reduced mother-blaming & co-ordinated interventions