North Wales Police Domestic Abuse Action Plan - September 2014 Background: Her Majesty s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) undertook a national inspection of the police s response to domestic abuse in 2014. The report - Everyone s Business: Improving the Response to Domestic Abuse - highlighted a series of both national and local recommendations for each force to progress and publish as part of a Domestic Abuse Action Plan. North Wales Police and Domestic Abuse Domestic abuse is a priority for North Wales Police at all levels which was fully acknowledged by HMIC. We have a dedicated number of specialist domestic abuse officers across the force who work tirelessly with partners from public and third sector agencies to support victims of domestic abuse and to safeguard those affected individuals. North Wales Police have a longstanding and effective working relationship with our partners in the public and third sector to enable those experiencing domestic abuse to seek the help and support which is right for them. Collectively, we seek to empower those who are experiencing domestic abuse and, with the support which is available, enable them to have the confidence to break free from the abuse cycle they are in. Our Vision: A Safer North Wales
The North Wales Police and Crime Commissioner s 2014-15 objectives are to prevent crime, deliver an effective response, reduce harm and the risk of harm and build effective partnerships. In seeking to deliver on these objectives, the Police and Crime Commissioner for North Wales, Winston Roddick CB QC, has made a direct plea to victims of domestic abuse to: "Come forward and you will be taken seriously and treated sensitively". Feeling safe, secure and unthreatened by crime, criminals, and intimidation from whatever source are of greatest importance to us all and the Police and Crime Commissioner recognises this within the 2014-15 Police and Crime Plan. With particular reference to the objectives of reducing harm and the risk of harm, crime types that are included within this category include domestic abuse. To deliver this objective, the Police and Crime Commissioner expects: The Chief Constable to provide effective responses to incidents of domestic abuse, and I will work with the Chief Constable and partners to ensure appropriate support services for victims of domestic abuse are provided across North Wales". The Police and Crime Commissioner has recognised the direct and indirect impact that Domestic Abuse can have, not only of the victim and their immediate family but he the wider societal implications. As such, he has developed his intentions for the commissioning of victims services to provide victims of crime with appropriate support services as well as actively supporting the continuance of a voluntary perpetrator scheme within North Wales. HMICs assessment of North Wales Police: HMIC found that although domestic abuse is a clear priority for North Wales Police, and that this is recognised by staff at all levels, there were some areas where they felt the force could make improvements. These areas fall under the four below categories:
Identifying Victims Keeping Victims Safe Management of Risk Operational Effectiveness for Keeping People Safe North Wales Police have captured the recommendations on an action plan and have consistently worked to address each recommendation. Our progress is reported on as below and scrutiny of the Forces progress against the action plan has been ongoing within the Senior Executive Board who receive regular updates. The lead for Public Protection in North Wales is. Identifying Victims Recommendation Response Target Scrutiny Strategic Lead Rating 1. The force should implement an appropriate system that The force control room are piloting software which allows a number In place Ongoing as part of pilot Head of Operational Support Service Amber will assist in identifying of different data sets to repeat and vulnerable be cross referenced at Chief victims at point of initial the point of a call to Superintendent contact. now identify repeat Jeremy Vaughan and vulnerable victims
at point of call into control room 2. The force should consider implementing an electronic prompt, to assist call handlers in eliciting relevant information at initial contact regarding victims vulnerability or repeated calls. 3. The provision of a specific domestic abuse policy for the force Update 24/03/2016 FCC are still developing the Customer Relations Engine (CRE). This is due for completion and to go live on 17/04/2016. The force control room has in place a standard operating procedure which has been refined with input from specialist domestic abuse officers. Update 24/03/2016 FCC have completed Threat, Harm, Risk Identification Vulnerability Engagement (THRIVE) training with all staff. The trainer for this is completing work based assessments with staff to ensure the training is being used correctly. *Domestic Abuse Policy has been prepared and will be circulated for In place *Ratified and was published on the 20/04/15 Embedded practice subject to ongoing line management review. Dip sample by Strategic Public (SPPU) Once the policy is ratified existing force practice is that it will Head of Operational Support Service Chief Superintendent Jeremy Vaughan
would provide more clarity of the definitions, processes and procedure to be undertaken in response to domestic abuse incidents. consultation *Existing domestic abuse guidance document is under review *Ratified and was published on 20/04/15 be reviewed on an annual basis for relevance or sooner should it be required Keeping Victims Safe Recommendation Response Target Scrutiny Strategic lead Rating 4. The force to review its domestic abuse training. The force should identify those staff involved in dealing with domestic abuse and ensure they receive appropriate training. *All front line officers are to complete the National training on public protection * 90% completion rate as of 20/04/2015 * weekly completion updates provided to SPPU via training admin * All officers have been trained on Domestic Violence Protection Notices (DVPN)/Domestic Violence Protection Orders (DVPO) * Completed *SPPU scrutiny on those not successful in court. Legal QA application * Police probationer training less/on plans have been reviewed by SPPU against national *Completed review *SPPU annually or
guidance. Specialist officers involved in delivering key parts of training but training delivery ongoing whenever legislation /process changes * Bespoke training was delivered to all specialist Domestic Abuse Officers on Honour Based Violence, Forced Marriage and Female Genital Mutilation * Jan15 *External providers Karma Nirvana 5. The force to review the use of two titles for the domestic abuse coordinator (DAC) and domestic violence * Woman s aid training provided to DAO s has been postponed pending the publication of the new training framework by the Welsh Government. All DAO s have received training on HBV, FGM and FM in January 2015. A new training plan has been completed and is scheduled for implementation in October 2015. All staff holding a domestic abuse role within the public protection units are known as Domestic Completed Completed Training Department. Embedded as part of ongoing supervisor responsibility
officer (DVO), and provide clarity for the roles. Abuse Officers (DAO). The role, responsibilities, working practices and shifts have all been subject to review which has been communicated to staff across the force Management of Risk Recommendation Response Target Scrutiny Strategic lead Rating 6. The force to review the allocation of investigations against levels of threat, risk and harm to a victim. *Both by Public (PPU) and Force Control Room (FCR) Head of Crime Service and Head of Local Policing Service * All officers now have bilingual information signposting cards which are given to all victims at the point of response officers attending the scene (known as Z card). Chief Superintendent Wayne Jones *DAO role reviewed and amended to proactively work to minimise risk to medium risk cases ongoing supervision Chief Superintendent Neill Anderson *Command and control log cannot be closed until the risk assessment score is on there * In Place * Both by PPU and FCR * Any high risk cases identified following *FCR
completion of DASH risk assessment are brought immediately to the attention of the Patrol Inspector for appropriate intrusive assessment *Based on demand, DAO now work late shifts on Friday and Saturday evenings so act as a force tactical advisor for domestic abuse cases supervision 7. The force to review responsibility and ownership for safety plans and reviews of risk. *Direction from ACC that investigations to be allocated based on a Threat, Risk and Harm assessment rather than current policy of being based on classification of the offence. *7 day PPU Sgt (DS) cover * all referrals to PPU reviewed by PPU DS * external funding has increased Independent Domestic Violence Advisors (IDVA) to recommended levels so *Implemented on 22/06/2015. supervision. * Embedded as part of supervision current practice *IDVA service providers and within Multi Agency Risk Assessment Conferences
they can deal with all high and very high risk cases * Realigning role for DAO to proactively work with medium risk *Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) being piloted in Wrexham (MARAC) * Embedded as part of supervision *MASH project board 8. The force to improve supervision of DASH forms and domestic abuse investigation files to provide consistency and accountability. All cases of domestic related investigations must be reviewed by a supervisor with DASH forms and files signed to that effect. * PPU DS now have thematic areas of responsibility and not geographical areas of responsibility *7 day PPU Sgt cover * all referrals to PPU reviewed by PPU DS * Command and control log cannot be closed until the risk assessment score is completed * Domestic Abuse, Stalking and Honour Based Violence (DASH 2009) Risk Identification, * In Place In place supervision * Embedded as part of supervision current practice * Both by Public and Force control room current practice
Assessment and Management Model memoires recirculated to front line staff Operational Effectiveness for Keeping People Safe Recommendation Response Target Scrutiny Strategic lead Rating 9. The force to review the current Multi- Agency Risk Assessment Conferences (MARAC) and local domestic violence forum meeting structures. * threshold and process for referral to MARAC standardised *Domestic abuse DS and SPPU *Domestic abuse DS and SPPU *Standardised response to those cases which are considered for MARAC but no taken with suitable feedback to referrer *Scrutiny and understanding around repeat MARAC cases and minimum expectations around repeat cases and ongoing *On going *THREAD meeting and SPPU *Strategic steering group and PCC office *peer reviews to be done within the strategic steering group *Seek views of CAADA re proposed changed to process *MARAC process to *Full approval of CAADA re changes *CAADA *THREAD meeting
focus equally on victim and suspect in order to safeguard victim *Repeat victims and offenders to be identified and discussed within the PPU THREAD meeting (Threat Harm Risk Exception Assessment Discussion) *THREAD meeting which is chaired by Det Supt *CAADA and PCC 10. The force to review the identification process for perpetrators using threat, harm and risk to inform assessments. * Increase in IDVA numbers *THREAD meeting in place fortnightly reviewing repeat victims /offenders *DVPN/DVPO process firmly embedded as business as usual *MARAC now giving equal focus to suspects as part of safeguarding strategy *THREAD meeting which is chaired by Det Supt *SPPU *SPPU, MARAC steering group and PCC *Data around the top 100 perpetrators shared with Local Policing Service. *DAO now working *PPU DI * Embedded as part of ongoing supervisor
shifts based on demand in D.A. tactical advisor capacity responsibility