Devon Domestic Abuse Local Partnership Board Terms of Reference

1. Purpose and role

The Devon Local Domestic Abuse Partnership Board is a partnership group working to improving outcomes for victims of domestic abuse, including their children, through a strategic approach to identifying and addressing gaps in support founded on continuous learning.

Within this broad strategic approach, the Board will support Devon County Council in meeting its duty Part 4 of the Domestic Abuse Act 2021.  In this role the members of the Board will work together to support, advise and work in partnership with Devon County Council to ensure victims of domestic abuse have access to adequate and appropriate support within relevant safe accommodation services. The Board will establish an equitable partnership that reflects the needs of those impacted by domestic abuse in the local area and works to ensure victims of domestic abuse have access to appropriate and specialist support within relevant safe accommodation services.

2. Frequency

The Board will normally meet on a quarterly basis. During the initial process of needs assessment and strategy development required under Part 4 of the Domestic Abuse Act 2021, the Board will meet on a monthly basis.

3. Membership

The Board is made up of a number of responsible bodies and agencies that by law, must be represented. The full representation and membership is listed in Annex B.

The Board is chaired by Michelle Thornberry (NHS Devon CCG).

Vice Chair of the Board is Kate Stephens (Devon County Council).

Members of the Board are responsible for ensuring they report back and feed into the Board on behalf of their represented group / body.

4. Roles and responsibilities

In respect of the duty to provide accommodation-based domestic abuse support under Part 4 of the Domestic Abuse Act 2021, the Board will:

• Provide advice and data to support Devon County Council to undertake and regularly update a robust local needs assessment to identify and understand the needs of domestic abuse victims within their area (including those that present from out of area).
• Provide expert advice and data to support the development and regular review of a local strategy, agreeing the appropriate steps needed to meet the needs identified.
• Support Devon County Council to effectively engage with domestic abuse victims and expert services in understanding the range and complexity of needs.
• Support Devon County Council to make commissioning and decommissioning decisions (where appropriate). This can include when and how commissioning is undertaken to ensure the best and most appropriate services are made available for victims.
• Ensure that strategy and service delivery for accommodation-based domestic abuse support considers and complements other related areas of need and support including but not limited to housing, health, early years and childhood support, social services and police and crime services
• Advise and support in dealing with issues raised and identified from engagement through formal and informal routes.
• Escalate issues to the relevant representative/body.
• Adopt and follow an ethical framework for seeking, listening and responding to the voices of victims of domestic abuse and their children (see Annex A).

In respect of wider work to improve outcomes for victims of domestic abuse, including their children, the Board will act as a forum to consider needs and opportunities brought forward by Board members and identify possible responses by agencies, partnerships or dedicated working groups.

5. Agendas

Members will be able to put forward suggested agenda items for consideration. The secretariat will circulate final agendas at least five working days ahead of meetings.

Standing agenda items will include:

• Celebrating Success
• Hearing and responding to the voice of lived experience

6. Absence

Where members are unable to attend a meeting, they are responsible for informing the Board ahead of the meeting and, as far as possible, should ensure a representative is present on behalf of the organisation/body.

7. Avoiding conflicts of interest

Where the discussion of commissioning and decommissioning decisions by the Board might give rise to the risk or appearance of conflicts of interest for any members, the Chair will ask any members affected to withdraw from the meeting during that discussion.

8. Reporting

In respect of the duty to provide accommodation-based domestic abuse support under Part 4 of the Domestic Abuse Act 2021:

• the board will support Devon County Council in reporting back to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities on delivering the duty in line with statutory guidance and the standardised reporting form.

These Terms of Reference were adopted by the Board on 20 December 2021.

Annex A: Ethical framework for engagement with holders of lived experience of domestic abuse

Purpose of the Framework

To describe why and how the Devon Domestic Local Partnership Board and its members hear, understand and respond to people who have experienced or are experiencing domestic violence and abuse.

Introduction

As a partnership we are committed to making visible and learning from people’s ‘lived experience’ of domestic violence and abuse in order to improve the individual, service and system impact of our work.

The safety and care of people sharing their stories is our primary concern and this Framework sets out how we engage, listen to and respond to people who share their stories with us.

We also recognise that as Board members, we will hear experiences that are hard to hear and respond to. We need to help each other in this work so we can continue to listen and hear and take action.

• The ethical framework is a living document which affects how we think and how we practice (setting the culture change)
• We acknowledge (to those with lived experience and with each other) that we haven’t got it right and we need to keep listening and learning
• This is a journey, and we get better at doing the work
• We need to develop the framework (our standards) and bring in layers of accountability (e.g. a ‘you said, we did’ type model) in response to hearing voices of lived experience – showing what we have done with what have heard – our Terms of Engagement

Outcomes/Conditions we seek to create in the Board

• We work as a ‘human, learning, system’. Our cornerstone is to hear and understand how and where our services help and where they don’t. When we engage in joint sense making of ‘what matters’ we are better able to contribute to constructive ‘problem solving’. Listening can and should help constantly orientate in the direction of creating value and impact
• We build a collaborative, reflective, learning culture. Listening can help to suspend the ‘roles’ / professional lens which limits what is explored and what is heard
• Transparency and accountability are fundamental parts of working with each other and with the people requiring the support, the services and organisations we work in and the ‘sum’ of all of this, recognising that the health of the system is paramount.

Draft Ethical Framework

The key aspects of our Framework are –

• Emotional, physical and psychological safety
• Agenda set / negotiated and terms of engagement agreed by people with Lived Experience
• Protecting the person from emotional harm
• Non-Exploitative

Emotional, physical and psychological safety

• We acknowledge the effects of Lived Experience on professionals – e.g. shame attached to child protection or limited housing options for people escaping domestic abuse
• We acknowledge that hearing and telling stories can be triggering and pose threats to people’s emotional and physical safety and well being
• We recognise each stage of recovery when they share their story and the support they need to keep safe and well
• We recognise the emotional effects on listener and audience and we support one another to maintain resilience to continue to listen

Agenda set / negotiated and terms of engagement agreed by people with Lived Experience

• The person with lived experience understands the purpose of sharing their experience AND feels in control of the process their narrative and the have the right to withdraw at any point. Their story remains their story!
• We will acknowledge the diversity and uniqueness of people sharing their stories and why they are sharing their story and what they want to happen.
• We are clear about what we heard, what learning we’ve derived and what will happen next. We will feed this back to the person who shared their story if and how they want

Protecting the person from emotional harm

• We will work with people to help them prepare to tell their story
• We will work sensitively and flexibly, recognising that people sharing their stories will have good days/bad days and we will use different methods of sharing experiences (e.g. written narrative/video/voice)
• We will ensure people are supported before, during and after their sharing

Non-Exploitative

• We will value the time people take to share their story by paying for the person’s time
• The duty of care and well-being is all our responsibility

Annex A:Representation and Membership

This list of representation and membership is current at 20.12.2021.

Victims of domestic abuse: The voice of victims and the children of victims will be heard through thematic focus groups with themes identified by a working group of the Board. Thematic engagement will be co-produced with specialist support providers and group participants and will be carried out within the ethical framework agreed by the Board.

Children of domestic abuse victims: As for victims above