CSPRP Review - Domestic abuse in multi-agency child safeguarding

The Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel's (the Panel) observatory analysis of cases in 2020 points to domestic abuse as a factor in over 40% of cases. This predominantly (74%) involved the father as a perpetrator and the mother as a victim, although other patterns including the mother as the perpetrator and both parents as perpetrators were recognised. No cases to date have featured child to parent abuse or teenage relationship abuse.

A significant theme in the 2019-20 analysis was the lack of understanding about what the child's daily life is like and we want this work to keep a focus on the child's experience of living with domestic violence and how this impacts on their safety, health and overall development. The recently enacted Domestic Abuse Act 2021 recognises children who witness domestic abuse in the home as victims in their own right and places a duty on Local Authorities to provide lifesaving support to these children such as therapy, advocacy and counselling in safe accommodation. The Home Office are also producing a domestic abuse strategy in response to the Act which will be published in the Autumn.

The Panel recognises that there is already substantive research, policy and practice to help tackle domestic abuse and that during the pandemic there has been a further spotlight on the hidden harms as a result of children living in homes where there is domestic abuse. However, early discussions with Government Departments and other stakeholders, suggest a possible gap in recent research in relation to child victims of domestic abuse; and recent studies and reports suggest that services for these children are inconsistent and there is no national picture of what works or what interventions were successful and as such we are inviting bids to carry out three phases of work in this field.