Q Exchange
Domestic Violence Abuse Support and Engagement (DVA)
- Proposal
- 2024
Meet the team
Also:
- Shauneen Quinn, Gateway Service Manager (Social Worker_
- Noelle Burns, Senior Social Work Practitioner
- Donna Murphy, Assistant Director Family Support and Safeguarding
What is the challenge your project is going to address and how does it connect to the theme of 'How can we improve across system boundaries?
Following the outcome of the RQIA Children Protection Governance Review, 2017/18 analysis of referrals to the Children’s Gateway Service during Covid-19 Government restrictions in 2020/21, an increasing prevalence of referrals due to Domestic Violence and Abuse (DVA) was identified.
SHSCT secured funding for a DVA Senior Social Work Practitioner and a DVA Support & Engagement Workers to strengthen the Gateway Services’ response to families affected by domestic violence and abuse.
- Domestic abuse crosses all programmes of care.
- Victims of abuse present to acute hospitals, Mental Health Involvement, Children and Young People’s Services and Adult Safeguarding
What does your project aim to achieve?
The DoH Domestic & Sexual Abuse Strategy 2023 – 2030 strategy for Northern Ireland is based on 4 key areas Partnership, Prevention, Support and Justice. The development of the Southern Trust Domestic Abuse Service seeks to create partnerships, promote prevention and provide support through individual and needs based interventions.
We provide early engagement and support to families where there are concerns about DVA. Engagement will be with the parent who is the victim of DVA, adult person of concern and children to address any concerns identified, and increase safety for the victim and children.
Since commencement the team they have directly engaged with 270 families providing interventions which include the development of safe plans and safe networks with the victim of domestic abuse. The team provide domestic abuse awareness including the cycle of abuse, healthy relationships and legislation. With additional funding we aim to expand current services whilst ensuring victims receive a timely intervention.
How will the project be delivered?
This project will be delivered by employing 1 x Additional Part Time Domestic Abuse Support and Engagement Worker will be recruited over a period of 2 Years to
· Facilitate multi-disciplinary and agency liaison/information sharing;
· Facilitate/enable family members to access appropriate support services;
· Complete safety work with parent who is victim of DVA;
· Complete age appropriate safety work with the child/young person;
· Explore with the family potential trusted individuals who can support them, including someone the child/young person can talk to if they have any worries;
· Complete education work with the parent, who has been victim of DVA, about impact of DVA on them as an individual and as a parent;
· Complete education work with the parent/partner who is the adult person of concern about the impact of DVA on adult victims and children.
Review of impact of service user feedback.
This will be part funded by Children and Young Person’s Directorate SHSCT.
How is your project going to share learning?
We aim to deliver updates to the Q Community through updates on the online platform.
Following Ray Jones Review/Children’s Services this information will be shared as part of the Department of Health as part of the introducing skills mix to children and young people’s services.
We are committed to engage with our victims of domestic violence and support and internal/external agencies to ensure that we are continually improving our service to support the needs of these families.
An important part of the intervention is to connect victims to other services internally and externally. The Team have developed good relationship with colleagues with PSNI, Women’s AID and Crime Prevention and the Northern Ireland Housing Executive which promotes partnership working and enhances communication to safeguard and promote the best interest for children.
The SHSCT have plans to share the outcomes of this project Regionally via Director Forums.
How you can contribute
- By being part of the Q community and sharing our project idea, we hope that we are able to gainnew learning that can not only help us with our current project, but also throughout our entire
- service. We hope that this learning can be achieve through constructive feedback and ideaimprovements from other Q members.
- We also hope that by sharing our project idea with the community, that it can inspire and producedevelopment and improvement among other individuals and services, with the overarching aim toimprove the wider healthcare system and care outcomes of the people using our services.
- We also envisage that the development of a bespoke therapeutic programme to reduce anxietylevels and improve well-being in young people can be made accessible for other servicesthroughout the community in-line with our aim that this is a scalable project.
Plan timeline
| 9 Jul 2023 | Commencement of Domestic Abuse Service CYPS |
|---|---|
| 14 Dec 2023 | Additional Support and Engagement Worker commenced post |
| 8 Jan 2024 | Commenced Review of Service to date Review of data collection |
| 20 Mar 2024 | Submission of Q Exchange Application |
| 24 Mar 2024 | Commence recruitment process for additional support and engagement worker |
| 24 Mar 2024 | Develop service user feedback forms |
| 28 Mar 2024 | Objectives identified for future development |
| 21 Apr 2024 | Engage with Service Users both current and previously known |
| 6 May 2024 | Connect with internal/external services to develop therapeutic program for children |
| 28 Jun 2024 | Connect with partner agencies , identify challenges development of multi-lingual literature |
| 7 Jul 2024 | Year review of service to include data analysis, case tracking |
| 22 Jul 2024 | Year review of service user feedback , identify objectives |
| 16 Sep 2024 | Commence training for all staff for advanced interventions with service |
| 24 Sep 2024 | New role and induction commenced |
| 9 Dec 2024 | Final evaluation progress report, illustrating evidence outcomes of intervention |
Comments
Paul Murtagh 20 Mar 2024
This service is very much needed. It is a fantastic initiative. I wish you the best of luck with the funding application.
Dermot Slevin 19 Mar 2024
As a Chair of Child Protection Case I have found this this development very positive indeed
Firstly having a team dedicated to Early Intervention in cases of Domestic abuse allows more structured and focused intervention.
Secondly over half the cases that I Chair have either Domestic Violence as the main or contributing factor when placing children on the Child Protection Register.
This team has already gained expertise in the area of Domestic Violence within relationships and the process of early intervention as a means of averting future episodes of this very destructive behavior. It would be almost criminal to let this program collapse for lack of resources
Dermot Slevin
Donna Murphy 19 Mar 2024
Thank you for your comment Dermot, the Gateway Service are seeking to scale up the service across the Southern area. This will provide timely early intervention to children and families, through a trauma informed approach, in seeking to support recovery from domestically abusive relationships and to support safety, stability and well-being at the earliest point of contact. It is anticipated that the use of trauma informed early intervention will reduce risk and the need for statutory intervention in the future.
Leanne Spratt 19 Mar 2024
This is a much needed project to support victims of domestic abuse, both children and adults. Southern Trust have a high volume of DA referrals and it is essential that these children and parents receive the early intervention they require at the right time to safeguard the most vulnerable. This project has the potential to protect children and their carers by implementing educative work and safety plans while enabling and empowering them to be safe in their home environment.
I believe that service users will greatly benefit from this essential intervention and if the project was successful children will be protected and supported.
Noelle Burns 19 Mar 2024
Thank you Leanne, given the high volume of DA referrals it is also recognised that there may be a requirement to address child on parent abuse. This will require the development of specific resources working alongside other agencies to reduce the risk of children and young people going on to perpetrate domestic abuse in their relationships as well as reduce the risk of young people engaging in unhealthy relationship as they may perceive abuse to be normal.
Noelle Burns 13 Mar 2024
The person of concern would be invited to attend a trust facility office following the initial engagement with the victim and their children. Engagement will focus on the impact of DA on their children, with the aim of raising awareness and understanding of the impact of their behaviour on their children’s wellbeing and safety. Current research indicates that our work needs to re-focus on placing responsibility on the person of concern, therefore continuing to develop our skills in engaging with the person of concern is an important focus for our project.
Conor McArdle 13 Mar 2024
Domestic violence has a profound impact on families, particularly on children during their early developmental stages. Therefore, it is crucial to have a project that can coordinate the sharing of information and facilitate early intervention to support families affected by domestic violence.
Conor McArdle
Manager Sure Start South Armagh
Noelle Burns 13 Mar 2024
Thank you for your interest in the project, given the impact of DA, early engagement with children and families is necessary to ensure safety alongside information sharing and connecting families to support agencies.
David Douglas 13 Mar 2024
The scale up of this project will provide the opportunity for engagement with children and young people in trauma informed recovery work from the impact of domestic abuse (following completion of safety work with the child/young person) without the need for transfer within statutory children's services pathway of intervention i.e. family intervention service. Responsive and accessible early intervention services will reduce re - referrals to statutory children's social services.
Safety, stability and improved emotional health and well-being will enable children and young people to thrive into adulthood and reduce their need for health and social care services during their lifetime.
The ongoing evaluation/development of this service and identified improvements/learning will be of benefit to other H&SC service areas including older people/adult mental health/adult safeguarding who have involvement with those affected by domestic abuse e.g. skill mix of team, safety work, partnership working with community partners.
Shauneen Quinn 13 Mar 2024
Thank you David, during the first 6 months of the project we have provided intervention to 185 families. These referrals have been re-directed from the Southern Trust Gateway Teams and a proportion have been diverted from our Family Intervention Service. Over the last number of years we have experienced long waiting lists due to staffing deficits within our social work teams and we are confident that with an additional support and engagement worker we would ensure that families do not have to wait for supports to increase safety following an incident of domestic abuse.
Anna McGovern 13 Mar 2024
This is an important project. DVA in families can have a significant impact on the emotional health and wellbeing of young people. Any project that is able to connect with these vulnerable young people and identify their needs in a timely way is to be welcomed. I like the idea of the bespoke therapeutic programme and wonder about the proposed links with CAMHS services once this is established.
Noelle Burns 13 Mar 2024
We would welcome advice and guidance from CAMHS in the development of a therapeutic programme and we would wish to work collaboratively in order to meet children and young people’s specific needs.
Isobel Mc Namee Nesbitt 13 Mar 2024
This is an excellent initiative and will be very much welcomed in the Southern Trust. The opportunity to complete education work with the parent/partner who is the adult person of concern about the impact of DVA on adult victims and children is essential. I would be interested to know what this would entail and how / where it would be delivered.
Noelle Burns 13 Mar 2024
The person of concern would be invited to attend a trust facility office following the initial engagement with the victim and their children. Engagement will focus on the impact of DA on their children, with the aim of raising awareness and understanding of the impact of their behaviour on their children’s wellbeing and safety. Current research indicates that our work needs to re-focus on placing responsibility on the person of concern, therefore continuing to develop our skills in engaging with the person of concern is an important focus for our project.
Margaret Bunting 13 Mar 2024
This sounds like a great project and very much needed in the Southern Trust. I would be interested in what the bespoke therapeutic programme entails?
Noelle Burns 13 Mar 2024
Bespoke therapeutic programme is an area that requires specialist training and development. We hope, if successful, to utilise additional funding to develop this aspect of our intervention.
Donna Murphy 12 Mar 2024
This is an innovative project which I hope will support victims of abuse, both children and adults. I am keen to hear more about the project's reach across the Southern Trust area, particularly as the Sothern area have one of the highest number of reported incident of domestic violence to PSNI. If the project were successful in this application this would enhance support to children and families.
Shauneen Quinn 13 Mar 2024
The project sits within the GATEWAY Service covering the whole of the Southern Trust area, responding to PSNI and other agency referrals agency relating to domestic abuse. We currently have funding secured for two domestic violence engagement and support workers and hope that with an additional worker we can expand and broaden the remit of our service.
The Southern Trust covers a large geographical area and an additional worker would ensure that families are not placed on waiting lists and therefore receive a timely response and intervention following an incident of domestic abuse.
Mairead Donnelly 12 Mar 2024
This is a much needed development for victims of DV. I would like to know little bit more about the detail of the educative work that will be carried out with the parent who is the victim of DV. Is this based on any particular model?
Thank you
Noelle Burns 13 Mar 2024
The intervention with the victim of Domestic Abuse, includes a bespoke safe plan, identifying and linking in with a safety network, raising awareness and understanding of elements of Domestic Abuse, cycle of abuse, unhealthy relationships, DASH form/referral to MARAC, raising awareness of impact of Domestic abuse on children. We also signpost to external agencies who can provide support with legal and financial matters.
Jacqueline Morton 1 Mar 2024
This is a very emotive topic. Can you share how you have or plan to engage and involve families and young people in this project?
Shauneen Quinn 13 Mar 2024
Thank you Jacqueline, It is important to engage with parents and children following domestic abuse incidents in a timely supportive manner to enable them to implement a safe plan and safe network to increase safety. Tt is also essential that we acknowledge the victims role in protecting both themselves and their children and place responsibility for harm on the person of concern.
Going forward we plan to develop questionnaires to gain feedback on our intervention to explore the impact and effectiveness. This will also assist with identifying and reflection upon areas of development.
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