Domestic abuse must be tackled like smoking, report says

Frontline staff told to target behaviour of child abusers for long-term results

AUTHORITIES must undergo a “sea-change” in attitude towards child abuse, inspectors have warned, after finding that victims are often being “incorrectly held responsible”.

Child victims are often ignored because some police officers see their circumstances as a “lifestyle choice”, say the authors of a report entitled Prevent, Protect and Repair. It urges social workers, police, health professionals, youth offending teams and probation services to focus more on stopping the perpetrators’ behaviour as you would tackle a smoker or drinker.

The report, written by inspectors from Ofsted, the Care Quality Commission, HM Inspectorate of Constabulary, Fire and Rescue Services and HM Inspectorate of Probation, details the response of agencies that deal with the children who live with domestic abuse.

They examined authorities in Bradford, Hampshire, Hounslow, Lincolnshire, Salford and Wiltshire and the topics covered included psychological, sexual, financial and emotional abuse as well as physical violence.

“We found instances of language being used that incorrectly held victims responsible for the risk of domestic abuse,” inspectors said. “For example, we saw reports … stating that victims had learned to ‘make better relationship choices’.

“We also found instances of inappropriate practice, including a police log that had been updated to state that a safe-guarding visit would not be completed because both parties were ‘as bad as one another’.”

One of the reports that the group of inspectors examined appeared to explain that police failed to investigate one case properly because children being exploited were deemed to have made “lifestyle choices”.

The report said patterns of domestic abuse often began with small instances of coercive or controlling acts.

Early intervention should stop it developing further, inspectors said, and professions should focus on trying to make the perpetrator change their behaviour.

While taking children into care was necessary in some cases, it could lead to missed opportunities to prevent or end abuse.

Inspectors said authorities should tackle domestic abuse in a similar way to smoking, alcohol abuse, road safety awareness and weight loss.

Eleanor Schooling, Ofsted national director for social care, said that “sheer scale” of domestic abuse means that “it can be all too easy for police, health professionals and social workers to focus on short-term responses to incidents”.

She said that the best teams were able to see the bigger picture, adding: “I want to see a new approach to tackling domestic abuse – one which focuses more on prevention and repairing long-term damage to child victims.”