Transcript Children’s and Families Experiencing Domestic Violence

Children and Families
Experiencing Domestic Violence:
Police and Children’s Services
Responses
Nicky Stanley, Pam Miller, Helen
Richardson-Foster and Gill Thomson
University of Central Lancashire
Notifications of Domestic Violence
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2002 - Children’s exposure to domestic
violence incorporated into ‘significant harm’
criteria in England & Wales
Guidance emphasising need for interagency
communication and coordination
Explosion in police notifications to
children’s social services
Fragmented service response to children
and families experiencing domestic
violence
About the Research 2007-09
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Stage 1: Capturing children’s, survivors’
and perpetrators’ views
Stage 2: Tracking professional practice
in 2 sites – police and children’s
services
 251 Notifications tracked
 Interviews with 56 practitioners
Stage 3: Postal survey of LSCBs 2007-08
More information and explanations for
young people
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Young people felt excluded or ignored when police
intervened in domestic violence incidents and
wanted more information and explanations:
When my dad came round and he started kicking
off, the police come round and they arrested
him, they took a statement of my mum and
that's it, they don't …they didn't say to us what
happened if he was going to be released the
next day or - we didn't find out anything.
(Dawn, Young People’s Focus Group 4)
Being listened to and believed
She [police officer] was really helpful, she spoke to
me rather than just my mum, she was the one that
gave us the number for the NSPCC. She was just
good at listening to us and that. (Nicola, Young
People’s Focus Group 1)
And I told them what was happening to me and it
was such a nightmare. And I could tell, they were
just looking at me and thinking you are lying.
(Pearl, Survivor)
They listened to me, they listened to me and they
took into the fact of what had occurred in the
background in the past and what have you. (Craig,
Perpetrator)
Feeling safe
Children and survivors wanted to feel safe, wanted
perpetrator to be removed from home immediately
and to know what would happen next:
When they come straight away, they could
like take him away straight away, instead of
waiting around and everything and listening
to sides, just … they should be taken away
because a mum or child wouldn't call 999
just to get a dad taken away for no reason.
(Louis, Young People’s Focus Group 5)
Support with Contact Arrangements
“most of the reasons that the arguments were caused
was that mum didn’t like talking to my dad, and she
had no other way of contacting him … and that if the
social were there they could have sorted it out.”
(Dawn, Young People’s Group 4)
…all his dad were interested in was questioning [our
son] whether I had a boyfriend, where we were living,
where was the refuge. …and these people that
volunteer…they haven’t got the ability to say “hang
on a minute mate, you shouldn’t be asking that”. I
know of places that are run by social services that
mums and dads go to visit their children, and social
workers are covering over. And I wanted something
like that. (Sarah, Survivor)
The wake up call for perpetrators
Perpetrators experienced police intervention
as a wake-up call and highlighted the
potential for police to signpost perpetrators
to relevant services:
….they brought me in and they
cautioned me and this ….made me realise
that before that I had blinkers on….They
shook me up, what I was doing with my son.
(Patrick, Perpetrator)
Characteristics of 251 DV Incidents
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87% of incidents took place at home
Just over 50% involved ex-partners
Children present in just under 80% of
incidents
Nearly a third of children involved under 3
61% of children witnessed the incident
directly
Police Data Findings: Access to
children/child contact
Incidents occurred in context of child contact visits or when
perpetrator was seeking access to the house/ children:
Father was watching his three year old child and needed
to go somewhere. He contacted mother (ex-partner) to
come and collect child. When she said she couldn’t
make it back quickly, father threatened to ‘box your
face’ if he had to take the child to her. Father has made
threats in past, but never acted upon them, so mother
ignored threat. When father brought child to mother in
public shopping area, he punched her in the face three
times, knocking her down. When she tried to fight back,
father punched her again and then left. #37
Police Engagement with Children
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Little evidence of police engaging with children
Half officers interviewed expressed some
reluctance about talking directly to children
No information provided for children
…. it's not something that's done as often as you
would probably think. (Frontline Officer 8)
…. if you can avoid bringing the children in that’s what
you look to do because it’s a drain on our numbers and
our people. (Frontline Officer 1)
I would probably have to say that they don’t [talk to
children], probably because they wouldn’t know how
to …. (Supervising Officer 2)
Children’s Services: Notification
pathways
No Further Action
Letters/ Phone Calls/Visits
Family Support
Safeguarding
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Children’s Services Data : Characteristics of
notified cases
Most families had little/no prior contact
with Children’s Services
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40% of families in sample had no prior contact
26% had minimal prior contact (previous referral
or notifications closed no further action)
19 cases – already open - notification
triggered a substantial service for only 5%
(n=9) of sample
Children’s Services Data: factors
determining pathways
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Unless case already open, chances of notified
family receiving an intervention low, unless
children under 12 months.
Notifications that conveyed the severity of an
incident by reporting injuries might trigger a
service if the family was already known
Over half the families where an adult was injured
did not receive a service.
All those cases where children were injured
received a service
Children’s Services Data: Letters
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No differences between NFA group and
Letters only group re renotification – over
half families in both groups renotified
I think it’s a bit discriminatory if we say that the
mum’s duty is to protect the children… (Initial
Assessment Manager 2)
…it's alerting people, if you don’t want social
services involved in your family…then they need
to address it, and, to some extent, I think it is a
good idea. (Initial Assessment Social Worker 2)
Children’s Services Data: Patterns of
intervention
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Interventions characterised by ‘stop-start’ pattern families with repeat notifications receiving
repeated assessments
Intervention often withdrawn when families
informed social workers that they had separated
Those cases which received substantial
intervention and where children remained living at
home with both parents 18 months after the sample
notification were likely to be those where father as
well as mother had engaged with services
Children’s Services Data Findings:
Working with perpetrators
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Not all social workers saw this as their role:
As a general rule, I personally don't ever get
involved with the perpetrator… (Initial Assessment
Worker 2)
I've heard it said we don't work with perpetrators
in social work and I struggle with that really, you
know, and I don't think you can ever say we don't
work with perpetrators …if they're part of the
family unit and if that risk can be managed and if
that person is open to change. (Child Protection
Manager 2)
Innovative practice Survey 2007-08
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30 of 57 LSCBs identified innovative practice in
relation to notifications
4 models:
 Interagency Screening
 Early Intervention
 Police Risk Assessment Informs Notification
Routing
 Risk Assessment Tool
Conclusions 1
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Notifications bring domestic violence to forefront
for Children’s Services, but few additional
resources to meet this new demand
Most notifications: no service, repeat notifications
serve to push families towards Children’s Services
threshold
Letters alone: ineffective as a means of managing
demand
Safeguarding rather than family support
interventions
Stop-start interventions: over-emphasis on whether
couple have separated – need for long-term, lowlevel support and monitoring for some families
Conclusions 2
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Police engaging with children would offer
reassurance in crisis and give more information
to convey to Children’s Services
Models where police and Children’s Services
staff filter notifications jointly offer option of
accessing most information to feed into risk
assessments
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Need for more early intervention services
identified – high quality supervised access to be
available on a voluntary basis
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Positive outcomes for families associated with
engaging with perpetrators
Key Recommendations
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Police to provide children with information
specifically designed for them
Children’s Services to review value of letters - do
they act to promote families’ engagement?
Children’s Services to address social workers’ skills
in working with perpetrators of domestic violence
Specialist dv and universal services to contribute to
early interventions – supervised access services?
Develop services for perpetrators & therapeutic
services for children
Accessing the report
Summary report available on NSPCC
website, full report from 13 Jan 2010:
http://www.nspcc.org.uk/Inform/
research/Findings/children_experiencing_domestic
_violence_wda68549.html
For further information contact:
Nicky Stanley: [email protected]