Domestic Violence Mini-site
Children and Education
Contents
What can the education system do to tackle domestic violence?
Are Child deaths due to domestic violence routinely investigated?
Why isn’t there a presumption of no contact in domestic violence cases?
What role doe CAFCASS play in supporting children affected by domestic violence?
How does domestic Violence affect children?
Domestic Violence-either witnessing it or being the subject of it-is not only traumatic in itself but is also likely to adversely impact on a child's or young person's behaviour and performance at school. Some of the ways domestic violence affects a child are:
Anti-social or disturbed behaviour
Bullying or being bullied
Personality changes-for example, becoming withdrawn or introverted
Loss of concentration
Running away from home
Turning to drink or drugs to escape unpleasant home situations
Reluctance to form or develop friendships with school mates
Interrupted schooling and broken friendships-for example, as a result of moving away from the home area with a parent escaping from an abusive partner.
What can the education system do to tackle domestic violence?
Tackling domestic violence is not only right in itself, it yields practical benefits for the individual's education, health and life chances, and for the people who work with children and young people. The education system can help-and in many cases already is helping-by:
encouraging professionals who work with children and young people on a day to day basis-for example teachers; Education Welfare Officeres; Sure Start Workers; Connexions Personal Advisers; Learning mentors-to be alert for the signs of domestic violence and abuse, and make effective referrals to relevant protective agencies where appropriate. Training and professional development are important in this respect.
raising awareness of domestic violence as a serious issue-for example through personal, Social and Health Education lessons.
Engaging in work to support families and parents-for example, 'extended schools' which provide a range of community services from the school premises.
What is DfES doing to tackle domestic violence?
Tackling domestic violence relates to a number of policy areas across DfES:
The Children's Green paper Every Child Matters http://www.dfes.gov.uk/everychildmatters.
The Government's announcement (on 6 September 2002) that from April 2003 all those agencies responsible for delivering services to children and young people in every top tier/local authority area should agree a co-ordinated strategy for preventive services for children and young popel aged 0-19.
Mental health and emotional intelligence-both from an adult and child's perspective
Wider actions to tackle social exclusion, such as reducing re-offending and tackling substance misuse.
Are child deaths due to domestic violence investigated?
The Government’s child protection guidance, 'Working Together to Safeguard Children' (1999), states that when a child dies and abuse or neglect are known or suspected to be a factor in the death, the Area Child Protection Committee (ACPC) should always conduct a review into the involvement with the child and family of agencies and professionals. Additionally, ACPCs should always consider whether a review should be conducted if there are concerns about inter-agency working to protect children in a case where a child has sustained a potentially life-threatening injury or serious and permanent impairment of health and development, or has been subjected to particularly serious sexual abuse.
The purpose of case reviews carried out under 'Working Together to Safeguard Children' (known widely as ‘Part 8 reviews’) is to:
establish whether there are lessons to be learned from the case about the way in which local professionals and agencies work together to safeguard children
identify clearly what those lessons are, how they will be acted upon, and what is expected to change as a result; and, as a consequence,
improve inter-agency working and better safeguard children
The Domestic Violence, crimes and Victims Bill includes a measure relating to homocides reviews in domestic violence.
Why isn’t there a presumption of no contact in domestic violence cases?
Each case is decided on its own merits with the courts adhering to the principle laid down in the Children Act 1989 that the child’s welfare is paramount. A presumption of no contact (the New Zealand model) would fetter the courts discretion.
Guidance produced by the Children Act Sub-Committee, and endorsed by the Government, in March 2001, sets out how the courts and practitioners should deal with contact applications where there are allegations of domestic violence. The Guidelines are being monitored through surveys and via research. At the end of the monitoring period (2004) the Government will review whether changes to legislation are required.
What role does CAFCASS play in supporting children affected by domestic violence?
In contact cases where the courts have concerns over safety issues a CAFCASS Family Court Reporter will prepare a report for the court. During their investigations the Family Court Reporter will interview the child where he/she is of sufficient age and understanding to ascertain their views.
What are Children’s Trusts, and what’s happening with them?
Children’s Trusts are intended to improve services for children by tackling a range of issues faced by local authorities. The proposed benefits are:
sharing information between services in order to identify children with multiple risks ensuring that children do not receive multiple or duplicate assessments from different agencies
focusing spending to provide intensive support in a more coherent way
co-ordinating plans, partnerships and strategies across agencies
developing a strategic needs analysis of the overall needs of children within an area
workforce planning, especially as new services create new demands on different parts of the workforce
identifying a single person in overall charge of improving services for which the Trust is responsible
organising their services around the needs of children, rather than for the convenience of providers
Sitting at local authority level, the Trusts will bring together health, social care and education functions (the last two of which already being delivered by local authorities). The Government requires all local authorities to have a Local Preventive Strategy in place across all its services in their geographic area, and 20 Children’s Trust pilots will be a vehicle for delivering these plans. The exact means of doing this has yet to be finalised, and may differ between Trusts. It could be through pooling budgets, joint commissioning, or a full integration of children’s services. Pilots will run initially for three years, with some practical support from central Government to help them.
Where the current legal framework is insufficient to meet the objectives of joint service provision, we will want to use the pilots to identify where legislation should change. Pilots will be given initial funding of £60,000 per year to assist with releasing key staff for planning purposes, establishing structures and joint training. Trusts that are particularly large or complex will be able to bid for additional funds of up to £40,000.
Local partners whose bids to form a Children’s Trust have been approved are due to have worked up their development plans by the end of June, at which point they are expected to provide Government with an update on their progress. Approved pilots will work towards going live from July to the end of 2003.
Further information on Children’s Trusts can be found at: www.doh.gov.uk/childrenstrusts/guidejan03.pdf
Last update: Friday, October 13, 2006