Case details

Maria, 24, lives with her 15 month old daughter, Sophia, and Sophia’s biological father, Graham (34). Maria came to live in London from Greece at the age of 18. Maria’s teenage years were difficult as her father was emotionally and physically abusive towards her and her mother. Maria took a business studies course and was involved in the University Diving club. She met Graham at the club and they have been together ever since.

When she was 20 equipment failure during one of the dives caused Maria to sustain a spinal cord injury. Maria was rehabilitated from hospital. With professional support she was able to regain much of her independence although she suffers from chronic pain as a result of the injury, and anxiety and depression related to this. She uses a wheelchair and was allocated an accessible ground floor flat owned by a local housing association. Maria was advised that giving birth could further disable her but she was determined to have her baby.

Graham moved into Maria’s flat when she told him that she was pregnant. Shortly after this she cancelled her contract with the domiciliary care agency. She said that Graham was able to do everything that she and the baby would need. Graham took time off work to be present at every ante-natal class. He works full time at a race track. He sometimes has to work late and he doesn’t always know until he gets there how long the shift will be.

There has been a referral to adult services from children’s services. Children’s services have been alerted to concerns raised by health staff about Sophia’s lack of development, low weight and being frozen in her emotional responses. Maria is reported to seem tired, wary and dishevelled and potentially in need of social care support to be an effective parent. The housing association had had complaints from neighbours about the family’s dogs’ waste covering the shared ‘play’ area and that they seemed dangerous. Graham is reported to be offended at the idea that they are not coping as he now manages the household as well as working.

Assessment

In this section are two downloadable PDFs – one is a partly completed assessment form related to this case study, and another is an example of what a completed form could look like.

Suggested exercise

Use the partly completed assessment form:

• What actions would you discuss with Maria to ensure her immediate and longer term safety?
• What precautions would you need to take to avoid putting her at higher risk of harm?
• What is your analysis of the situation? Is coercive control occurring? What is the evidence of this?
• What is your conclusion?

DASH- RIC

The purpose of the DASH risk checklist is to give a consistent and simple tool for practitioners who work with adult victims of domestic abuse in order to help them identify those who are at high risk of harm and whose cases should be referred to a MARAC meeting in order to manage their risk. If you are concerned about risk to a child or children, Safe Lives recommend that you should make a referral to ensure that a full assessment of their safety and welfare is made.

There are two downloads on this page.

One shows a blank DASH risk checklist, with quick start guidance from Safe Lives. The key point is to remember that your professional judgement is key in making a decision about risk; a tool can help, but the score it comes out with is not definitive.

This is especially relevant when working with people with care and support needs, for whom some of the questions may not be relevant.

The other shows an example of a completed DASH relating to this case study, for you to critique and appraise.

Suggested exercise:

• Read the case details and full assessment document for this case study.
• Using the information contained, fill out a blank DASH risk assessment tool.
• Discuss how you found it; did you have all the required information? Would you be able to get all the required information in practice? Would you make a referral to MARAC?

Topics

This section picks out three main topics from the case study featured. For Maria’s case study, the topics include:

• Working with survivors with physical disabilities
• Multi-agency working, adult safeguarding and child protection
• Support to EU migrants

A selection of references, tools and further reading for each topic is below.

Tools

• Tool 1: Checklist – Developing safety plans with adults with care and support needs experiencing domestic abuse

Professionals advising adults with care and support needs (referred to here as ‘adults’) and managing safety plans should follow the checklist of actions.

• Tool 2: Social work capabilities in working with disabled women survivors

This tool is based on the recommendations drawn from disabled women’s suggestions for improvement in practice in Hague et al’s paper ‘Making the Links’ (2014: 26).

We have mapped the women’s seven suggestions to the domains of the Professional Capabilities Framework, and added our own suggestions on domains 6 and 9.

• Tool 3: The four planets model

Based on Marianne Hester’s Three Planets model; with the addition of a fourth ‘planet’, Adult Social Care.

Consider all the different agencies who might be involved in a case like Maria’s.

• Tool 4: Family model for assessment

You can use this tool to help you consider the whole family in an assessment or review.

 

Tool 1: Checklist - Developing safety plans with adults with care and support needs experiencing domestic abuse

 Professionals advising adults with care and support needs (referred to here as ‘adults’) and managing safety plans should:

• Establish how the survivor can be contacted safely and seek their permission to pass this information onto all professionals in contact with them
• Establish the location of the perpetrator, if separated from the adult
• Establish if the perpetrator is the adult’s carer.
• Obtain the survivor’s views about the level of risk
• Determine methods to facilitate any existing child contact arrangements safely
• Ensure that the survivor has the means to summon help in an emergency
• Identify where a survivor might go if they have to leave quickly and what they will take with them
• Encourage victims to report all incidents to the police or other organisations that will record the incident and maintain accurate and detailed records
• With their permission, refer the survivor to organisations that provide specialist support and advice
• Refer the case and details of the safety plan to a Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conference (MARAC) in cases identified as high risk
• Encourage the victim to seek professional advice about legal and financial matters and child contact
• Inform survivors of criminal or civil law provisions which may be applicable, e.g., restraining or non-molestation orders
• Make survivors aware of the potential pitfalls of social media use, e.g. identifying current location through status updates/geo-location systems on smartphones which automatically update to publicly display current location
• Consider that victims with insecure immigration status, from minority ethnic communities, victims with disabilities or from socially isolated communities may fear contact with the police
• Where appropriate and safe to do so, involve the survivors’ friends, family or neighbours in the safety planning process where appropriate and safe to do so
• With permission, involve others professionals in the plan such as support workers, GPs, drug and alcohol services, mental health workers, schools etc.
• Encourage the survivor to keep a diary (where you have established it is safe to do so).
• Assess whether the adult has the mental capacity to make informed choices about how to protect themselves.
• Consider coercive control and the new law. Consider if there is evidence of this – i.e. isolation, control, intimidation, financial abuse.
• If you are aware that the adult is accessing other support services, consider who is offering specialised support for domestic abuse.
• Be aware of safety and confidentiality particularly around sensitive documentation for the survivor.
• Where the perpetrator is a caregiver, discuss how the survivor could continue to maintain their independence if they were to cease contact with the perpetrator.

 

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Tool 2: Social work capabilities in working with disabled women survivors

This tool is based on the recommendations drawn from disabled women’s suggestions for improvement in practice in Hague et al’s paper ‘Making the Links’ (2014: 26).

We have mapped the women’s seven suggestions to the domains of the Professional Capabilities Framework, and added our own suggestions on domains 6 and 9.

 

Domain 1        Take advice from, and consult with, disabled women.

Domain 2        Take disabled women seriously and avoid being patronising.

Domain 3        Develop accessible services.

Domain 4        Do not threaten disabled women with institutionalisation if no refuge space is available. Develop good accessible alternative accommodation, both temporary and permanent, plus support to use it.

Domain 5        Be informed about disabled women’s needs.

Domain 6        Critically reflect on power relationships and intersectionality.

Domain 7        Provide accessible well-publicised domestic violence services (including refuge accommodation) that disabled women know about.

Domain 8        Develop disability equality schemes and reviews with input from disabled women.

Domain 9        Contribute to the learning of others who are working with disabled women survivors.

 

Hague, G et al (2008) Making The Links; disabled women and domestic violence. Bristol: Women’s Aid.

 

 

 

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Tool 3: The four planets model

Below is an illustration of Marianne Hester’s Three Planets model; with the addition of a fourth ‘planet’, Adult Social Care.

Consider all the different agencies who might be involved in a case like Maria’s.

What different perspectives and priorities do they bring?

You can use this tool when working with someone with care and support needs to discuss with them the agencies that can most usefully contribute.

Remember to use the principles of safe enquiry, and remember the limits of confidentiality and your responsibilities relating to child protection.

 

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Tool 4: Family model for assessment

You can use this tool to help you consider the whole family in an assessment or review.

 

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References