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Children and young people EXPERIENCING DOMESTIC ABUSE: Guidance Note for Planners
8 Prevention
The National Strategy highlights that:
The development of preventive work is a key aspect of addressing domestic abuse and violence against women, and it is important that providers of service (along with other organisations and individuals in Scotland) focus not only upon responding to the needs of women/children who seek support, but in preventing violence against women or children (Scottish Executive: 2000: 39).
Preventing Domestic Abuse: a National Strategy (2003) also highlights the important role of prevention strategies in work to address domestic abuse and states that it has as its ultimate goal 'to take all practicable measures towards the elimination of domestic abuse'. Primary prevention 'is largely focused on attitudinal and cultural changes' and aimed at 'Preventing violence before it happens and targets the whole population, but particularly children and young people'.
'Although providing services to those who experience abuse is essential, tackling the root causes is the only way to eradicate it'. (Scottish Executive: 2003).
The document outlines key elements of what a preventive strategy might look like. With regard to prevention, local authorities are responsible for:
- Identifying within the service plans of relevant departments the specific measures that will be taken to address this issue (prevention).
- Ensuring staff are trained, particularly key staff providing direct services to women and children, e.g. social workers, housing workers but also staff providing other services, e.g. teachers, home helps, nursery aids, community workers.
- Ensuring [prevention] services are adequately and appropriately resourced.
Other key public agencies such as NHS Boards and Trusts, Communities Scotland and the Police have a responsibility in relation to preventing domestic abuse to:
- Identify the positive contributions they can make to the implementation of this Prevention Strategy.
- Work effectively with other key partners to implement prevention measures.
- Ensure that they include targets relating to violence against women in their action plans and develop databases to enable monitoring progress and changes in demand for services.
The preventive strategy highlights the important role of schools in relation to preventing domestic abuse:
- 'Education...represents the principal mechanism by which society is able to influence future generations' (Scottish Executive: 2003: 9).
- If the mainstream learning experience of young people is to take proper account both of the educational objective of promoting respect for self and others, and of the national priority to address domestic abuse, it is important that there should be a coherent and sustained programme of values education which should: '... at appropriate stages, deal specifically with domestic abuse through the use of appropriate materials'.
- The national priorities for education also seek to promote 'equality' and 'inclusion', an objective which is clearly incompatible with violence:
- 'Raising achievement and attainment also implies action to ensure that the readiness of individual children to learn is not inhibited by adverse personal circumstances such as experience of domestic abuse'.
- Schools have, of course, the responsibility of ensuring that national priorities are translated into powerful educational experiences at the point of contact with young people.
Prevention work with young people in schools and youth groups is not just about changing attitudes and influencing behaviour....In raising the issues, it also produces the need for support to be provided to young people who may have been abused themselves or witnessed the abuse of their mother.'
Planners are asked to take account of these in the planning process.
The Dismantling Domestic Abuse Study (2002) revealed that 32% of 254 pupils in one school in Scotland disclosed anonymously that they were currently experiencing domestic abuse. In phase two 94% of pupils recorded that they wanted to be taught about domestic abuse in school (forthcoming, Children and Society Journal).
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