Review highlights importance of recognising cumulative harm and children as victims of domestic abuse
A Domestic Abuse Related Death Review (DARDR) into the death of Elouise (pseudonym) has today been published by the Norfolk Community Safety Partnership (NCSP) to share the multi-agency lessons and recommendations identified from this tragedy.
Elouise was in her late teens when she was murdered by her father. Elouise and her family suffered through years of coercive control, mental and physical abuse that culminated in Elouise’s death.
Mark Stokes, Chair of the Norfolk Community Safety Partnership said: “As a partnership we extend our deepest sympathies to Elouise’s family and friends. This review describes in detail the extreme and prolonged abuse that this family were subjected to over many years - Elouise’s family believe that she would have wanted her story to help others in the future and we thank them for their candour and ongoing involvement in the review.”
“Every review undertaken by our partnership champions the voice of the victim and in this case, the voice of the child. The independent review process ensures that Norfolk partners and residents understand the circumstances that led to Elouise’s death and as a partnership, we will continue to strengthen early identification, risk management, trauma-informed care, and multi-agency collaboration, with a clear focus on protecting children and supporting the whole family in domestic abuse contexts.”
“This review has been undertaken in an open and constructive manner with all the agencies, both voluntary and statutory, engaging positively. This has ensured that we have been able to consider the circumstances of this murder in a meaningful way and address the issues that it has raised. We will continue to raise awareness of how to access help and support for all forms of domestic abuse and encourage reporting – everyone has the right to feel safe in their own home and live a life free from abuse.”
The review recommendations focus on embedding a think family approach; recognising children as victims of domestic abuse; recognising cumulative harm and the risk of escalation; maintaining trauma informed professional curiosity; improvements in the identification, prevention, and support for individuals and families experiencing domestic abuse; sharing relevant risk information appropriately across agencies and escalating concerns; and ensuring safety planning during service transitions from childhood to adulthood.
The partnership responded to these learning points by developing an action plan to deliver on all the recommendations detailed in the report and these will continue to be progressed and reviewed by the NCSP.
Some of the actions that have been implemented since Elouise’s death include further training and awareness on recognising children as victims of domestic abuse, along with improved triage matrices to identify intrafamilial harm where risk has previously been assessed as high; gender inequality briefings for partners; strengthened domestic abuse policies for housing providers; the expansion of the domestic abuse champions network across the county; training on housing options for those transitioning to adulthood; and strengthening of “did not attend” policies to identify risk.
The next steps include developing a case study to share Elouise’s story across all agencies, which will include a briefing tool to continue to embed the learning and recommendations.
The full DARDR into the death of Elouise can be found here
*A Domestic Abuse Related Death Review (DARDR), formerly known as a Domestic Homicide Review, is a locally conducted, multi-agency review of the circumstances in which the death of a person aged 16 or over has, or appears to have, resulted from violence, abuse or neglect by a relative, partner or member of the same household. DARDRs were established on a statutory basis by the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004.
A DARDR panel consists of key members of staff from statutory, non-statutory, third sector and charitable agencies who provide support for victims of domestic abuse. Working together in this way will ensure the voice of the victim is addressed through the lessons learnt and recommendations of this DARDR.
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