The Scottish Government

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ANNEX A
SUMMARY OF GOOD PRACTICE FINDINGS

Co-ordination

1. The four largest forces - Grampian, Lothian and Borders, Strathclyde and Tayside - had domestic abuse policy officers based in their force headquarters. Their role was to co-ordinate the force response to strategic matters, deliver internal and external training, and prepare and update protocols. In other forces these responsibilities lay with the head of department, generally the detective chief inspector in the family protection unit or equivalent, though in practice they fell to the detective inspector or detective sergeant within the domestic abuse unit. We believe that clear guidance and leadership in support of a structured and focused approach is an essential basis for any specialised unit, and that every force should have an identified policy lead. We commend the use of policy units or a nominated officer responsible for the domestic abuse portfolio, even if this is not the individual's only role.

2. At the focus groups held during our fieldwork, a number of DAOs and their supervisors told us that this was the first time they had been brought together as a group for a considerable length of time. By contrast, in some forces, including Lothian and Borders Police and Grampian Police, the domestic abuse policy officer regularly brought the force DAOs together for meetings, training and support, using these opportunities to update them on relevant force and national issues. We acknowledge this to be good practice and particularly helpful for those DAOs who are not part of or attached to a larger team or unit. We would also encourage forces to include DAO supervisors in these meetings.

3. In Lothian and Borders Police, the quarterly meeting of its Public Protection Forum enhanced force-wide co-ordination. Here, divisional detective chief inspectors with responsibility for family protection units met with the force co-ordinators for domestic abuse, child protection, sexual offences, vulnerable adults and management of offenders, to share good practice and improve consistency across the force.

Marketing

4. At the time of our fieldwork the family protection policy unit of Strathclyde Police was about to begin an internal awareness-raising campaign featuring posters to remind officers to use the correct closure codes and submit the correct paperwork. At the same time, an interview with the force's strategic lead for this portfolio was placed on the force's intranet and made available through electronic briefings. Such an approach readily shows officers where strategic responsibility and ownership lie, and we particularly commend the appointment of a member of the senior management team as champion.

5. We were also impressed to find that Central Scotland Police was linking the launch of its Getting it right pilot with the start of the national 16 days of action to end violence against women. A public statement of commitment was visible on entering the force headquarters building, where banners and posters on the subject of domestic abuse were also displayed. We encourage all forces to consider using publicity materials in their domestic abuse media strategies.

Monitoring

6. Several forces had reviewed their handling of domestic abuse incidents in its entirety. Thus they had covered not just the role of the DAO but also the interface between the different components of police response, i.e. call centre, front-line officer, first-line manager and DAO. In some areas these reviews had included activity analysis and compliance studies.

7. We identified good practice in Q and U Divisions of Strathclyde Police, both of which had set up a domestic abuse forum that monitored performance across all divisional departments. Elsewhere, Grampian Police produced a bi-annual domestic abuse report. Its purpose was to detect any emerging pattern of domestic abuse and inform readers about domestic abuse interventions and measures.

Role of the domestic abuse officer ( DAO)

Job description

8. In some forces, the role requirement had been comprehensively reviewed. Good practice dictates that the role be reviewed and the job description updated on a regular basis.

Case management

9. Central Scotland Police's effective approach to case management involved all incidents being discussed and actions allocated in a departmental meeting. Domestic abuse was a standing item at the daily tasking and co-ordinating meetings. DAOs shared responsibility for domestic abuse with community, response or intelligence officers who were responsible for crime prevention advice, preparing intelligence briefings and ensuring a robust co-ordinated response to any future recurrences.

10. As a part of their intelligence-led approach to domestic abuse, we were also impressed by forces that used analysts to interpret the scale of the problem and produce profiles of high-risk offenders.

Support for victims

11. The Barnardo's project in Tayside and the domestic abuse unit in Central Scotland are both based on models whereby specialist advocates work alongside the police to provide longer-term support to victims. Evidence suggests that such an approach has a positive impact on rates of arrest, prosecution and conviction, and can influence court outcomes (Whetstone 2001 ¹⁰). Specialist advocate post-holders also offer a level of continuity that police personnel cannot.

Investigative role

12. Typically the primary role of the DAO did not include investigating domestic abuse incidents, although in one force the DAO did investigate high-risk and repeat incidents. In two forces, the DAO was a detective officer and had received detective training at the SPC. The Home Office Police and Crime Standards Directorate has determined that dedicated domestic violence units in England and Wales with an investigative capacity result in a higher percentage of offenders being brought to justice than if the investigation is carried out by non-specialist officers. We do believe that greater use could be made of trained detectives in investigations of serious domestic abuse incidents and, in particular, for high-risk repeat cases even where the level of one-off or most recent violence would not normally merit this.

Perpetrator management

13. At the time of our inspection, DAOs typically instigated a limited number of actions to target perpetrators, including the use of intelligence/briefing packs and flagging on incident recording and management systems to highlight bail conditions. We found good practice in areas where the NIM process was used to monitor local trends in domestic abuse offending and to manage prolific offenders, and where analysts assisted the DAO in researching perpetrators and identifying risk.

14. In Strathclyde Police's K Division, DAOs initiated and, with the assistance of uniform colleagues regularly carried out, pro-active bail checks on identified high-risk offenders to check that they were complying with bail conditions. The Home Office's Domestic Violence Enforcement campaigns have highlighted the success of such initiatives in managing prolific offenders. We consider this to be good practice and would encourage all forces to work proactively to ensure that bail conditions are monitored.

15. In some areas, including Aberdeen, DAOs routinely carried out cell visits to people accused of domestic abuse, providing them with information on court proceedings and handing out domestic abuse leaflets prior to any court proceedings. We also found examples of good practice in East Lothian and the Scottish Borders, to name just two areas, where violent domestic abuse offenders were referred to local multi-agency risk panels. In Edinburgh, DAOs worked closely with the court-mandated perpetrator programme, known as the Domestic Violence Probation Project ( DVPP), attending risk management case conferences and notifying the DVPP when perpetrators came to the attention of police.

Occupational health and safety

16. We found DAOs to suffer from a variety of organisational stresses in addition to that of being exposed to other people's trauma. Not all forces had the recommended services in place for dealing with these circumstances. Given the risk of vicarious as well as organisational stress, it is essential that all forces have in place support and monitoring systems for DAOs. We have previously pointed to the good practice of Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary in developing a mandatory psychological support policy for certain categories of post ¹¹, and suggest that all forces consider this option for DAOs and other staff.

Co-location with other agencies

17. In those units where police DAOs and Social Services were co-located, e.g. Fife, we found excellent communication between the two functions. Both typically had access to IT systems and information was readily available and shared. However, in some instances this co-location had the unintended consequence of distancing the DAO from his or her police colleagues. We would encourage DAOs to maintain regular contact with front-line officers and vice versa, for instance through attending briefings. We support joint-agency working in co-located offices. Even so, we suggest that forces make certain that they have full ownership of the data contained within their own systems and that they have read-only access to the IT systems of external agencies, unless there are clear and auditable protocols for greater access.

Multi-agency working

18. Given the multi-faceted nature of domestic abuse, no single agency or intervention can provide a complete solution. The issue is complex and requires a comprehensive service response involving agencies and services beyond the justice system. Apart from the police and the procurator fiscal service, other agencies including Women's Aid, the wider voluntary sector, local authority departments (housing, education, social services) and the health service have a role to play. Partnership working between different organisations is often time-consuming and difficult, but the benefits to be gained from such work should not be underestimated. Investing time and effort is essential and may, in the long term, reduce the immense economic cost of dealing with such crime and its consequences.

19. In Scotland each local authority area has a multi-agency domestic abuse or violence against women forum, though their exact nature and productivity varies from area to area. The police service was routinely represented on these fora, though their level of representation varied from assistant chief constable ( ACC) to constable. We would emphasise the importance of having police representatives with the authority to make decisions on these fora.

20. Across Scotland a number of projects are underway, such as the Domestic Abuse Court in Glasgow and the North Lanarkshire multi-agency risk assessment conferencing ( MARAC), which aim to produce a more co-ordinated multi-agency response to domestic abuse. We encourage all forces to engage actively in, and contribute to, developing such initiatives.

Civilianisation

21. It is important that forces consider the extent to which the DAO role requires the exercise of police powers and consequently the potential for civilianising these posts. This relates back in particular to many of the administrative aspects of the role as well as some of the elements of victim support.

22. Although the role of the DAO is primarily seen as co-ordinating the follow-up response to domestic incidents, it actually extends further into collating information, conducting police and external agency checks, and ensuring compliance with force procedures. There may be benefit in employing police support staff for these aspects of the role in addition to working alongside the DAO on home visits and providing advice to victims. For example, anecdotally it is understood that female victims tend to prefer longer-term support than short-term crisis intervention. Due to the sizeable volume of incidents that DAOs deal with it is unlikely that they will be able to provide this longer-term support. In one force, Central Scotland Police, the role of the DAO had been inherited by qualified police support staff, working alongside a detective constable and supported by an administrative officer. We were impressed by the effectiveness of this unit.

23. Tayside Police, along with Barnardo's Scotland, has been operating the Tayside Domestic Abuse Initiative since 2000. The Scottish Government's Violence Against Women Fund and Tayside Police jointly fund this initiative. Barnardo's workers with the skill and expertise in responding to domestic abuse assist the force's DAOs, providing the victim with a confidante more able than a police officer to provide long-term support. This is a good example of partnership working to support victims.

External agencies

24. In general, all the external agencies contacted for this review spoke positively about the police response to domestic incidents. This is a very marked change in the decade since Hitting Home. Women's Aid representatives considered the introduction of the ACPOS/ COPFS joint protocol a positive step for the police service, and in instances where officers had implemented it correctly they had achieved excellent results. Nevertheless, the same agency also reported some instances where clients had received poor service from police officers.

25. We found examples of good practice in some forces where DAOs, senior managers and the force domestic abuse co-ordinator regularly met with representatives from Women's Aid organisations to discuss matters arising and generally attempt to maintain a good level of communication. Some areas had also established remote reporting with Women's Aid organisations. This is also good practice - many victims of abuse and hate crimes find it hard to make their first disclosure to the police.

26. We also interviewed representatives from COPFS. Their general opinion was that the police approach to domestic abuse was good, and they noted the close working relationship at policy level between COPFS and ACPOS. They went on to highlight the following areas for improvement:

• the submission of standard prosecution reports ( SPRs) containing insufficient evidence;
• SPRs routinely not being flagged as domestic incidents;
• SPRs routinely not including full background information on previous incidents;
• relevant information from risk assessments not being included in SPRs;
• victims' opinions not always being sought by officers; and
• their inability to access the police reference numbers given in reports, so that previous police incidents could be missed unless details were provided.

27. Victim Information and Advice ( VIA) is part of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service ( COPFS) and offers a dedicated service to certain victims, witnesses and bereaved nearest relatives. VIA offers these individuals information on the progress of their case, the range of practical and emotional support available, and the criminal justice system in general. In our fieldwork it was apparent that not all DAOs regularly communicated with VIA on cases. Similarly, VIA observed that DAOs did not always use VIA officers to their fullest effect. VIA has a direct line of communication with procurators fiscal and so is in a position to pass on information that has perhaps not been included in SPRs prior to any court appearance. We would urge all forces to ensure that their DAOs regularly communicate with VIA officers and that processes are in place to ensure that any outstanding matters are resolved.

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