Slough works with whole family to tackle domestic abuse

• Investment in staff training to identify types of domestic abuse.
• Partnership work provides independent domestic abuse advocacy.

ACTION

Slough Children's Services Trust has developed a whole-family approach to supporting women, men and children affected by domestic abuse.

The trust aims to identify the problem as early as possible and to implement measures that will make a long-term difference to families.

It has been able to transform the way it tackles domestic abuse after a £1.4m grant was awarded in 2017 by the Department for Education's Children's Social Care Innovation programme.

Joanna Szuryn, the trust's domestic abuse co-ordinator, describes its approach as "holistic" and one that uses a systemic model of working with families.

"We work with all family members including the dads. We can really tackle the source of the problem and the large proportion of domestic abuse we know from research is perpetrated by men.

"We know that unless we engage men successfully, domestic abuse is likely to go on," she says.

Last year the trust introduced a daily multi-agency triage meeting involving Szuryn, a consultant social work manager, a healthcare and a police representative.

Information is shared about standard risk referrals in order to decide whether a threshold has been met for a referral into children's social care or if support should be offered in the community, explains Szuryn.

"The meeting gives us the confidence that all referrals featuring domestic abuse in which children and minors have been involved are looked at and nobody slips through the net," she adds.

Szuryn says the trust is an active member of a multi-agency risk assessment conference held by the council as well as another local multi-agency meeting dedicated to domestic abuse.

She says the trust supports families affected by domestic abuse in a number of ways but its Inspiring Families programme exemplifies its whole-family approach.

Launched in 2016 through the DfE funding, the group programme works with families that have already separated as well as those still together but considering a separation.

Men and women work in parallel groups over a 10-week period to discuss and reflect upon issues associated with domestic abuse such as the impact on children and their own interpretation of boundaries.

At the end of the programme, an assessment report is provided to the key workers supporting the families that have taken part.

"It covers parents' behaviour, including any disguised compliance, coercion and control and the level of the current risk as well as the likelihood of future risk," explains Szuryn.

The programme also assesses the potential for change and reduction of risk within the family, she adds.

Children of families taking part in the programme are supported by their own key workers who visit them at home.

"They do direct work with children just to make sure that we capture the children's experience and deal with any changes that might be occurring as a result of the programme," says Szuryn.

Further support is offered to children affected by domestic abuse through a community programme delivered by an external agency as well as pastoral support in schools, she adds.

Feedback received from a female participant highlights how the Inspiring Families programme helps people identify different types of domestic abuse.

"I thought only physical abuse was domestic abuse but I have learned about coercive control, emotional and financial abuse," the participant reports.

Szuryn says the trust has invested heavily in training to help staff identify and classify different types of domestic abuse.

"We also have a customised tool that we use to help us identify coercive control because it is insidious and unless we address it things could become really dangerous for children and adults," she adds.

One of the trust's partner agencies, Hestia, has been providing independent domestic violence advocacy for families in Slough since it was commissioned last year.

Szuryn says the charity also provides crisis intervention helping individuals in abusive relationships to stay in a refuge or move to a place of safety.

IMPACT

Ten cohorts have successfully completed the Inspiring Families programme since 2016 comprising 67 families - 134 adults and 142 children.

Szuryn says of 61 families evaluated by the trust, only six have been re-referred for domestic abuse within six months of completing the programme.

"Families report positive changes as a result of the programme. Children typically tell us that there are fewer or no more arguments between parents and that they talk more," says Szuryn.

"Children also report that the family spend more time together and that they are no longer scared of their fathers," she adds.

Women who have completed the programme say they feel safer and have more freedom to make decisions as well as an increased sense of empowerment.

Meanwhile, men report an increased understanding of domestic abuse and their own behaviour and its impact on their children.