Tragically, people sometimes die as a result of domestic violence. When this happens, the law says that professionals involved in the case must review what happened so that we can identify what needs to be changed and reduce the risk of it happening again in the future.

The Home Office has published guidance on domestic homicide reviews including when we need to set up a review and how to do it. Domestic Homicide Reviews (DHRs) were established on a statutory basis under section 9 of the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004 and came into force on 13 April 2011.

Community Safety Partnerships (CSPs) are responsible for undertaking DHRs where the death of a person aged 16 or over has, or appears to have, resulted from violence, abuse or neglect by –

• a relative
• a household member
• someone he or she has been in an intimate relationship with

The DHR guidance was updated in December 2016. The main changes include that DHRs should now be completed for suicides (where there is known coercive control), the purposes have been expanded to ensure DHRs highlight areas of best practice and contribute to building an increased understanding of the nature of domestic abuse and violence.

The new guidance stresses that DHRs need to be written ‘through the eyes of the victim’, taking a holistic approach to the review and being ‘professionally curious.  The scope of the reviews has been expanded to include (where appropriate) consideration of the support offered and received by the perpetrator, the use of police sanctions, the situation in relation to social housing, disclosures at work and immigration status.

The victim’s family should be considered as ‘key stakeholders’, with increased opportunities to be involved in the process, including contributing to the scope of the review, receiving regular updates, receiving copies of draft and final reports and offered the opportunity to choose a pseudonym. To assist the family member/s in the process, signposting to advocacy services should be offered. Children involved in the case should be provided with specialist help and where appropriate be offered the opportunity to contribute

If a domestic homicide takes place in Rotherham, the police will make sure that the right people in the council are told as quickly as possible. After this initial notification, a decision will be made about whether we need to have a domestic homicide review.

The Safer Rotherham Partnership will carry out a domestic homicide review (DHR) when someone aged 16 or over dies because of violence, abuse or neglect by a relative, household member or someone they have been in an intimate relationship with.

A Domestic Homicide Review (DHR)  is a multi-agency review of the circumstances in which the death of a person aged 16 or over has, or appears to have, resulted from violence, abuse or neglect by a person to whom they were related or with whom they were, or had been, in an intimate personal relationship, or a member of the same household as themselves.

There is a statutory requirement for local areas to conduct a DHR following a domestic homicide that meets the criteria.

A review panel, led by an independent chair and consisting of representatives from statutory and voluntary agencies is commissioned to undertake the DHR. The panel reviews each agency’s involvement in the case and makes recommendations to improve responses in the future. The panel also consider information from the victim’s  family friends and work colleagues.

DHRs are not enquiries into how someone died or who is to blame or whether they form part of a disciplinary process. They do not replace, but are in addition to, an inquest and any other form of enquiry into a homicide.

DHRs provide a rich source of information on the nature of domestic homicide, the context in which it occurs and, most importantly, in the lessons that can be learned from the tragic event. This analysis sets out what we know about domestic homicide and draws out common themes and trends and identifies learning that emerged across the sample of DHRs.

The purpose of this analysis is to promote key learning and trends from the sample of DHRs with the aim of informing and shaping future policy development and operational practice both locally and nationally.

A DHR is a reflection on the learning identified and to consider how this can be used to deliver improvements to practice safeguarding victims and prevent domestic homicide. 

Once a DHR has been completed it is submitted to the Home Office for review. Following this the local authority will publish the review report.

Domestic Homicide Reviews

The Home Office has published statutory guidance on how to complete DHRs.

Visit the GOV.UK website for more information

The Home Office has also published a report on common themes identified as lessons to be learned from DHRs.

Visit the GOV.UK website for find out more about the key findings

Rotherham Executive Reports

2011

Adult Z

2013

Jean and Sarah

MA1

2016

Neil

2019

Lukas