Appendix D - domestic abuse response

Domestic Abuse is included in National Guidance Section 4 and Domestic Abuse is defined by Scottish Government as:

‘Any form of physical, verbal, sexual, psychological or financial abuse which might amount to criminal conduct and which takes place within the context of a relationship. The relationship will be between partners (married, cohabiting, civil partnership or otherwise) or ex-partners. The abuse can be committed in the home or elsewhere including online’.

Safe and Together is recognised within National Guidance for Child Protection 2021 as the Systematic response to Domestic Abuse and has been adopted within Renfrewshire Council as a good practice model of response.

Safe and Together defines Domestic Abuse Informed Practice as a Perpetrator Pattern, Child Centred, Survivor Strength based approach to working with Domestic Abuse.

Domestic abuse considerations in safety planning:

Effective safety planning will depend on practitioner-applied awareness of

• The child’s trauma from abuse, and from seeing and hearing abuse
• physical, emotional, educational, developmental, social, behavioural impact on child
• the non-abusing parent’s need for a safe space to talk and a safe way of receiving information (away from perpetrator)
• the perpetrator’s pattern of coercive control
• multiple impact on income, housing, relationships, health
• how support for non-abusing parents will also support children
• when a non-abusing parent’s ability to parent has been compromised
• protective factors in the child’s world relevant to safety plans
• the children’s needs for advocates that they trust
• potentially heightened risk following separation
• multi-agency approaches that keep women’s and children’s needs at the centre

This resource was updated in 2019 following the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018 which enabled behaviours that constitute coercive control to be included in a new Section 1 Domestic Abuse offence. The Dash risk checklist is used by Idvas and other frontline professionals in the United Kingdom to identify risks when domestic abuse, ‘honour’- based violence and/or stalking are disclosed.

There are 24 questions within the Scottish Dash risk checklist that have been developed in line with extensive research of domestic abuse.

The aim of the Scottish Dash risk checklist is to provide a consistent and simple tool for practitioners who work with adult victims of current domestic abuse to identify those who are at high risk of harm and whose cases should be referred to Marac. The guidance provided within this resource for Scotland includes advice on talking to victims about the results of the checklist, and about asking questions about different types of abuse and risk factors. The guidance also provides a list of resources, including local resources in Scotland.

You can access the dash risk form and find out more information about it on the SafeLives website.