Conference reveals safeguarding concerns for child victims of coercive control
- Editor's Pick
Joseph Mullane
- 1
- 8 minutes read
On Monday the 3rd of October Nagalro hosted an online conference on “Collateral damage – children as tools for abuse and as witnesses of coercive control” which revealed the problems with safeguarding procedures, and how these can improve.
The talk involved experts in the impact of domestic abuse on families and explained how those in the sector can improve safeguarding towards children who are victims of domestic abuse.
Below is a list of the speakers and the main talking points from their presentations.
Domestic Abuse Commissioner for England and Wales – Nicole Jacobs
Since her appointment to the role of Domestic Abuse Commissioner for England and Wales in September 2019, Jacobs has begun energetically putting her 20-plus years of experience in domestic abuse policy and intervention to work, into driving improvements to transform our responses to domestic abuse in England and Wales.
Her talk focused on the prevalence of domestic abuse, the inadequate national and local response to the scale and complexity of the problem, the lack of training for professionals, and the lack of specialist support for children in courts.
She highlighted the fact that 2.3 million adults are affected by domestic abuse by the year ending March 2020 and one in 10 adults lived with domestic abuse as children.
Despite Jacobs praising the Domestic Abuse Act in 2021 for recognising children as victims of domestic abuse in their own right, she claims more support is needed.
Understanding coercive control and its impact on children – Dr Emma Katz PhD
Dr Emma Katz’s talk stated that coercive control is a form of domestic abuse where perpetrators use a pattern of threats, humiliation and intimation to control and dominate their partner and children, depriving them of independence and isolating them from support.
In her talk Katz focused on how conceptualising the issue of “children as collateral damage” is not as accurate or effective as framing the issue as them being “direct victims and survivors”.
Katz pointed to studies which showed children who experienced coercive control felt isolated from the outside world.
In addition to this, she pointed to findings which showed coercive control perpetrators don’t tend to respect their partner’s decision to end the relationship, making it difficult for a parent seeking separation to help the child.
Katz showed real-life examples of how mothers were able to escape their controlling partners and “build new family lives based on reciprocal care and mutual respect”.
Policing domestic abuse – Angela Whitaker
Angela Whitaker joined West Midlands Police as a constable in 1991 and for the last four years of her service she was in charge of the Domestic Abuse Investigation teams within WMP and was the regional lead for both Domestic Abuse and Honour Based Abuse.
After retirement, Whitaker became the National Domestic Abuse Coordinator working for the National Policing Lead AC Rolfe.
The role includes liaising with all UK police forces, strategic partners and charities regarding the policing response to domestic abuse.
Whitaker demonstrated the extent of police records on domestic abuse crimes.
She showed how the number of police recorded domestic abuse-related crimes in England and Wales rose 6% in the year ending March 2021 to 845,734.
Whitaker showed the challenges that have been faced by the police, such as:
- Hard to reach groups – Older people, adults with care/
- support needs, men, LGBTQ, refugees, people with
- mental illness and children
- Impact of drugs, alcohol, mental health
- Distrust of the police and other agencies
- Reluctance for any criminal justice outcome
- Threat of the removal of children/hurting children
- Refuge space, homelessness
- First responders are not experts in domestic abuse
- Huge demand on police forces/agencies
- Policing will not solve domestic abuse alone
Protecting or harming children through the family courts? – Professor Rosemary Hunter
Professor Hunter has undertaken major research projects on litigants in person in family courts. She is the academic member of the Family Justice Council and chairs the Council’s Domestic Abuse Working Group.
In 2019 she was appointed by the Ministry of Justice to an expert panel examining how family courts protect children and adult victims of domestic abuse in child arrangements cases.
Professor Hunter’s talk focused on how to assess the risk of harm to children in private law cases.
Hunter referred to the Harm Panel report which showed there was a systematic minimisation of abuse and court orders perpetuated harm to children and protective parents.
She claimed family courts emphasise a pro-contact culture where children are encouraged to build a relationship with non-residential parents and opposition to this is treated with suspicion, even if a parent has concerns abuse is taking place.
She also claimed that children’s voices are not being heard in the legal system and no weight is given to children’s views.
Hunter stated because the whole court process is adversarial, victims of abuse face a high threshold of proof to remove contact of abusive parents.
Developing your practice and improving your systems – Anna Mitchell
Mitchell has completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Public Services Leadership and led several initiatives in Edinburgh to improve systemic responses, not only to adult and child victims but to domestic abuse perpetrators.
In her current role, she is representing the Safe & Together Institute in the UK and is supporting the development and implementation of the Model across Great Britain.
She argued domestic violence is a parenting choice and advocated the “Safe and Together Model” which aims “To create, nurture and sustain a global network of domestic violence-informed child welfare professionals, communities and systems”.
She encourages professional to deploy the “Safe and Together’s” virtual academy which aims to improve child welfare and domestic violence services.
Pathfinder courts: A new approach to private law disputes – Spencer Hird and Gentian Dyer
Spencer Hird has worked for Cafcass since 2004 and has been employed as an Assistant Director for the South West region for the last 3 years and is responsible for the delivery of Cafcass public and private law services across the region.
Gentian Dyer has been a social worker for 19 years and worked for Cafcass since 2017. She is a Service Manager in private law and early intervention.
They both referred to the Harm Panel report and its findings and claimed:
“The report reinforces what children and mothers have been saying for years; that the court process is re-traumatising and that contact arrangements ordered by the courts in domestic abuse cases, often leave them feeling unsafe.
We heard that children feel that their views are not taken into account, especially when they say that they do not want to see a parent who has abused them or their mother.”
They advocated the “Pathfinder Emotional Readiness Tool” which is used to assess the next step for children who have suffered abuse in court cases to make the process easier for families.
They claim the new process in court cases has been received well by families and their new approaches have helped reduce delays in the court process as the process only requires one social worker.
They also reported that children felt like their voices were heard as children were allowed to express themselves including one quote from a child who stated:
“My worker made me feel less anxious as I know what is going on.”
Join Nagalro as an associate member
Nagalro is the professional association for children’s guardians, family court advisers and independent social workers, but we also welcome family lawyers as associate members to share ideas and collaborate with our work.
Associate members receive preferential rates for training and conferences and free copies of our quarterly journal Seen and Heard. These can be used towards your continuous professional development requirements. If you are practising in children law, associate membership of Nagalro can give you access to important research and new approaches to child protection and social work practice which will enhance your abilities to find the right expert resources, challenge care plans and know the right questions to ask from experts.
To apply for membership visit: https://www.nagalro.com/associate_membership_application.aspx
Nagalro, PO Box 264, Esher, Surrey KT10 0WA
Tel 01372 818504
1 Comment
It is refreshing to observe the issues that are being highlighted regarding children in family court and domestic abuse. Many children are ordered into contact with the abusive parent against the childs’ wishes. When children speak of abuse they have experienced or witnessed, they are being silenced and ignored. This is extremely harmful to children.
Frequently, where domestic abuse is alleged, survivors are disbelieved by the court. There seems to be a lack of understanding of the dynamics of domestic abuse, as well as an unwillingness by judges to acknowledge abuse. With official figures stating the high frequency that domestic abuse occurs, family court outcomes do not reflect these figures. This is putting survivors and child survivors at great risk. Frequently, domestic abuse survivors are faced with a counter-allegation of “parental alienation” which often takes precedence over the actual abuse and causes abuse to be ignored. “Parental alienation” is extremely rare, and is more often than not used as an abusers’ tactic to cover up their abuse and ‘point the finger’ at the safe parent. Many judges fall for this trick. As a result, children who speak up about abuse are ignored and forced into contact with the abuser.
All children deserve the right to be safe and protected from abuse, including coercion and control. For those vulnerable victims and child victims going through family court, these much needed vital changes cannot come soon enough.