Case studies

In 2019, Barking and Dagenham set up the ‘Barking and Dagenham Domestic Abuse Commission’ (BDDAC) to examine the attitudes in the local community around domestic abuse, review the council’s service provision in response to domestic abuse and create a blueprint for other local authorities to follow.

Since 2016, HFH have provided the council’s domestic abuse and homelessness services, recognising the interconnectedness of domestic abuse and homelessness. Providing a safe and secure place to live free of the perpetrator is often a vital first step to providing support to victims and survivors escaping domestic abuse.

Lambeth were particularly keen to test that the assumptions underpinning their strategic response were correct and to understand what learning could be taken to prepare for subsequent lockdowns and easing of restrictions.

The Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner (OPCC) and My Cheshire Without Abuse (My CWA) wanted to improve domestic abuse services across Cheshire with an emphasis on challenging perpetrators.

In 2017 Manchester set out to shift the culture and practice of children’s social care to become more domestic abuse informed and enable practitioners to have greater confidence in challenging the perpetrator and holding them to account.

This protocol is backed up by the development of a multi-agency case conference (MACC) approach to supporting victims of modern slavery identified through homelessness services. Last year, the approach was supplemented through the creation of a dedicated navigator post, based in The Passage, to support victims.

The Cleveland region has formed a robust response to modern slavery through the creation of its Anti-Slavery network in 2018, which has seen key partners collaborate on actions to prevent, identify, and ultimately end human trafficking and modern slavery.

The councils in the Humberside area have developed an emergency housing protocol to provide accommodation for victims of modern slavery in the period before they enter the National Referral Mechanism (NRM).

The Lambeth Made Safer VAWG Strategy 2021-27 has been developed by experts by experience, residents and those working with victims and survivors of all forms of VAWG.

Birmingham City Council (BCC) found itself at the centre of a national controversy when protesters sought to demonstrate outside primary schools in opposition to the inclusion of LGBT+ content in lessons, following the announcement by DfE that Relationships Education would be compulsory from September 2020.