The Feature Interview
Spotlight on Domestic Abuse This year, much has been written about the continual impact of domestic abuse upon victims and their families. The Domestic Abuse Bill 2019 highlighted the issues and made clear that a new statutory definition was required to enable health, social care, and criminal justice professionals to fully protect victims and their families. With this in mind, we speak to social work trainer Bal Kaur Howard about why it’s so important for social workers to understand the impact of domestic abuse, and how they can use practical tools to improve their practice.
In your view, what is the priority for enabling social workers to fully protect victims of domestic abuse? Currently, when social workers undertake their social work degree, domestic abuse training isn’t a mandatory module. This is surprising because social work teams will spend a considerable amount of time working with incidents that are directly or indirectly affected by domestic abuse. As we wait for the Domestic Abuse Bill 2019 to be finalised, I’m hoping that it will become a mandatory part of their qualifications as domestic abuse will have a statutory footing. Training is so important. Not just to allow practitioners to deal with the impact of physical abuse, but also to help them understand the signs and indicators of coercive control and economic abuse which is clearly defined. I also think it’s imperative that the statutory definition of domestic abuse is confirmed. At the moment, local authorities, police, healthcare professionals,
and other agencies all work to individual definitions which makes it much harder to bring them together. Much has been written about the Bill having a specific definition of what constitutes abuse, so the sooner it is enshrined in law, the better.
The proposed statutory definition of Domestic Abuse Behaviour by a person (A) towards another person (B) is ‘domestic abuse’ if – (a) A and B are each aged 16 or over and are personally connected (b) The behaviour is abusive
Behaviour is ‘abusive’ if it consists of any of the following (a) Physical or sexual abuse (b) Violent or threatening behaviour (c) Controlling or coercive behaviour (d) Economic abuse (e) Psychological, emotional, or other abuse
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Economic Abuse Economic abuse is defined as: any behaviour that has a substantial and adverse effect on B’s ability to – a) acquire, use or maintain money or other property, or b) obtain goods or services 'Property’ would cover items such as a mobile phone or car and ‘goods and services’ would cover, for example, utilities such as heating, or items such as food or clothing.
In your experience, what are the primary reasons for victims staying in abusive relationships and how can social workers offer support to help break this cycle of abuse? There are many reasons why a victim may struggle to leave. They may be in love with the perpetrator (as they aren’t abusive all of the time), breaking up the family unit and they may not have realised that they are in an unhealthy relationship or where to go for help. It may be that they are scared to leave but primarily the main underlying factor will always be
