Ceredigion County Council website

"Domestic Homicide Review(s)" – (DHR’s) undertaken in Ceredigion

A Domestic violence and abuse incident which results in the death of the victim is often not a first attack, and is likely to have been preceded by psychological and emotional abuse. Many people and Agencies may have known of these attacks and this can sometimes make serious injury and homicide in domestic violence and abuse cases preventable with early intervention.

In order to do so, Local Agencies must have adequate policies and procedures in place to instruct staff on how to intervene in domestic violence and abuse cases, and there should also be an emphasis on the need for specialist support for victim and their children as well as services for families, friends, and others who may be affected by the homicide.

Domestic Homicide Reviews (DHR’s) were established on a statutory basis under section 9 of the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act, 2004. This provision came into force on April 13th, 2011.

The purpose of a DHR is to:

• Establish what lessons are to be learned from the domestic homicide regarding the way in which local professionals and organisations work individually and together to safeguard victims
• Identify clearly what those lessons are both within and between agencies, how and within what timescales they will be acted on, and what is expected to change as a result
• Apply these lessons to service responses including changes to policies and procedures as appropriate
• Prevent domestic violence and abuse homicide and improve service responses for all domestic violence and abuse victims and their children through improved intra and inter-agency working

The Review will also assess whether agencies have sufficient and robust procedures and protocols in place, which were understood and adhered to by their staff.

All completed DHR’s will be quality assured by the Home Office by an expert panel made up of statutory and voluntary agencies. Once approved the DHR must be published on the Local Authority Community Safety Web site.

Full multi-agency statutory guidance for the conduct of DHR’s may be found within the Home Office document entitled “Multi-agency statutory guidance for the conduct of Domestic Homicide Reviews Revised – applicable to all notifications made from and including 1 August 2013”.