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Herefordshire MARAC Operating Protocol
Protocol date: May 2015
Version 3.0 May 2015 RESTRICTED 1 1. Introduction:
The purpose of this MARAC Operating Protocol is to establish accountability, responsibilities and reporting structures for the Herefordshire MARAC for all agencies involved. This protocol will also outline the process for cases subject to the Herefordshire MARAC.
MARAC is a Multi Agency Risk Assessment Conference. In a single meeting, a MARAC combines up to date risk information with a timely assessment of a victim’s needs. The MARAC identifies and links the provision of appropriate services for victims and their children in domestic abuse cases.
The responsibility to take appropriate actions rests with individual agencies; it is not transferred to the MARAC. The role of the MARAC is to facilitate, monitor and evaluate effective information sharing to enable appropriate actions to be taken to increase victim, children and public safety.
Agencies do not have to wait until a case has been discussed at MARAC before taking action. It may be relevant for a victim to receive help prior to the meeting and information regarding this brought to MARAC.
Agencies will appoint a designated Point of Contact (PoC), who should be a manager or person who has authority within their agency, to commit resources and ensure the completion of actions.
The Herefordshire MARAC Operating Protocol works in conjunction with other safeguarding public protection and information sharing protocols in operation.
Version 3.0 May 2015 RESTRICTED 2 2. Partner Agencies:
Herefordshire MARAC Partners Bromford Housing Association Drug Advisory Service for Herefordshire (DASH) Festival Housing 2gether NHS Foundation Trust for Herefordshire Kemble Housing Group Herefordshire Council Herefordshire Clinical Commissioning Group Herefordshire Housing Herefordshire Supported Housing for Young People (SHYPP) Herefordshire Youth Offending Team Hereford & Worcester Fire and Rescue Service Stonewater Stonham St Paul’s Hostel Victim Support West Mercia Police West Mercia Probation Trust West Mercia Women’s Aid West Mercia Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Centre (WRASASC) Wye Valley NHS Trust
The Role of an agency MARAC Representative
Agencies bring current, relevant information regarding victim, perpetrator or children to the MARAC
The MARAC representative will nominate a deputy to attend in their absence.
Agencies will share information and nominate relevant actions to address the risk of harm.
The MARAC agency representative will complete an induction process with the MARAC Co-ordinator.
Version 3.0 May 2015 RESTRICTED 3 3. Governance and Performance Management:
Objectives -
Herefordshire MARAC is an important innovation in the community and criminal justice system in response to domestic abuse. The multiple and unique needs of victims and their children are recognised in the multi-agency approach to domestic abuse.
These objectives will be delivered through scheduled monthly meetings, attended by all key agencies. Individually referred cases will be discussed and an agreed set of actions allocated with a time frame for completion.
Herefordshire Domestic Abuse Delivery Group is responsible for performance managing the effectiveness of MARAC and implementing appropriate strategic plans. An Operational Group, constituted by and accountable to the Herefordshire Domestic Abuse Delivery group will be responsible for the delivery of the following:
Monitor and evaluate the data from MARAC Ensure that effective partnerships are maintained with other public protection bodies and other MARAC areas Monitor and regularly assess the overall performance of the Herefordshire MARAC and ensure that they operate within the 10 principles of an effective MARAC as set out by Safe Lives (formerly CAADA Coordinated Action Against Domestic Abuse) Address operational issues that help in maintaining an effective MARAC Oversee efforts to raise awareness with local agencies about the Herefordshire MARAC Communicate to the public, to stakeholders and to the government about the successes of the Herefordshire MARAC Assist in the review of any homicide where Domestic Abuse has featured Ensure that MARAC operates in line with legal responsibilities and keeps up to date with changes to legislation and national guidance
4. The Process of the MARAC:
Identification of MARAC Cases -
Each attending agency identifies domestic abuse as per the MARAC Criteria outlined below.
Visible High Risk -
The DASH risk identification checklist is being used. 14 ticks in the yes box will meet the MARAC referral criteria.
Professional Judgement -
If an agency has serious concerns about a victim’s situation they should refer to MARAC. There will be occasions where the particular context of a case gives rise to serious concerns even if the victim has been unable to disclose the information that might highlight their risk more clearly. This could reflect one event or extreme levels of fear, cultural barriers to disclosure, immigration issues Version 3.0 May 2015 RESTRICTED 4 or language barriers particularly in cases of ‘honour’- based violence. This judgment should be based on the professionals experience and/or the victims’ perception of risk even if they do not meet the above stated criteria. Any member of any agency should refer if they assess that in their professional judgment there is potentially serious risk of harm.
Escalation -
Police call outs to the victim as a result of domestic violence in the past twelve months. This criterion can be used to identify cases where there is a clear escalation and related increase in risk to any party. Escalation will be used as an identifier alongside professional judgement, rather than refer solely on a predetermined number of calls.
Repeat Cases -
Repeat referrals return to MARAC when any one of the following types of behaviour has taken place within 12 months of the last referral to MARAC - 1) Violence or threats of violence to the victim 2) Where there is a pattern of stalking or harassment 3) Rape or sexual abuse is disclosed 4) Psychological, physical, sexual, financial or emotional abuse
All agencies should be identifying Repeat cases through their flagging and tagging process within their organisational systems and referring them through the MARAC process.
MARAC Referral
Agencies should refer cases to MARAC using the Multi Agency Referral form circulated to all agencies (Appendix A) via the agency representative. This form contains all the required details and will be emailed by secure email or faxed to the MARAC Coordinator.
Referrals will be accepted up to fourteen days prior to the MARAC meeting to facilitate a timely agenda submission
Emergency cases will be included where appropriate. (see Emergency MARAC)
MARAC cases that are referred to another areas MARAC, will be forwarded with a MARAC to MARAC Referral, together with documented MARAC minutes
A central list of MARAC venues, dates and referral deadlines, are distributed at the beginning of the year to attendees.
Any routine enquiry in relation to any MARAC case should be routed through the agency representative to the MARAC Coordinator who can then assess the enquiry and take the appropriate action
Cases referred from other MARACs will be risk assessed as a priority and accordingly will be referred to MARAC as appropriate.
Version 3.0 May 2015 RESTRICTED 5 MARAC Agenda
The MARAC agenda is circulated 8 working days prior to the MARAC meeting enabling agencies to research and obtain their information for the MARAC
Actions before the MARAC
The MARAC does not take away responsibility for immediate actions in relation to the safety of high-risk victims from agencies, particularly with regard to statutory duties. The responsibility to take appropriate actions rests with individual agencies; it is not transferred to the MARAC
The MARAC Coordinator informs the IDVA within 48hrs of new referrals with the relevant contact details
All efforts are made by the IDVA to contact the victim in advance of the meeting
Specific target hardening actions are offered to MARAC cases as appropriate
All agencies have protocols and procedures in place to identify children at risk or vulnerable adults and outline this in their referral
All agencies will have a system in place to identify MARAC cases
All agencies are expected to share relevant and proportionate information regarding victim, children and perpetrator in accordance with the Information Sharing Protocol.
Victim contact before the MARAC
The referring agency has the responsibility of notifying the victim that a MARAC is being convened. In the event of the referring agency assessing that it is unsafe or inappropriate to inform the victim then an Information Sharing without Consent Form will be completed. (Appendix B)
All efforts prior to the meeting will be made by the IDVA to provide the victim with information relating to the MARAC, discuss safety planning and to bring the views of the victim to the meeting where consent has been obtained
MARAC meeting
The Herefordshire MARAC will be held monthly
The Chair of the meeting will be the Detective Inspector of ‘Protecting Vulnerable People’, and, in their absence, an Officer of equal rank with Public Protection experience.
Version 3.0 May 2015 RESTRICTED 6 The role of the Chair is to structure the meeting and ensure that agency representatives understand their agreed actions. They will also review any actions outstanding from the previous meetings.
Designated Officers from all agencies will attend the MARAC or a nominated representative in their absence. The nominated representative will be empowered to commit the resources of their agency.
The referring agency must attend the meeting to present the victim’s case.
In the event of the referring agency being unable to attend the MARAC they will be actioned to re-refer the case to the next MARAC.
Information shared by agencies will be current, relevant, and proportionate to the need, on a confidential basis. Any information recorded or known about a particular person may be relevant.
Each meeting will begin with the members present signing the Confidentiality Agreement read out by the Chair of the meeting.
A short review will then take place of the actions of the previous meeting, to ensure all have been completed. Any outstanding actions highlighted must be completed within a week of this meeting and the MARAC Coordinator updated with the result or reason for the action not being completed.
Each case brought to MARAC will be discussed in an order as outlined in the agenda.
No case should last longer than 15 minutes. During this time each agency will produce any information they have regarding a particular case.
The MARAC Coordinator will present any reports verbally from absent agencies.
Once information from a variety of agencies for each case has been shared, an action plan is agreed.
All relevant information and actions will be recorded during the meeting
Actions will only be circulated to relevant agencies.
Actions identified at MARAC will be completed within 2 weeks or within a specified time frame by agencies. Failure to complete actions within deadlines must be notified to the MARAC Coordinator.
The MARAC Coordinator must be notified of all completed MARAC actions.
There will be an action raised for a specific agency to inform and update the victim following MARAC.
Minutes and Administration
The minutes of the meeting will be recorded and downloaded for safe storage. Version 3.0 May 2015 RESTRICTED 7 MARAC Coordinator will inform all agencies of expired MARAC cases by virtue of the fact they have not been heard in the preceding 12 months.
MARAC Coordinators will take responsibility for referring any case to other MARAC areas when the need arises. They will also receive cases from other MARAC areas and arrange for risk assessment as a priority.
Information Shared at MARAC
All agencies involved in MARAC have signed the Herefordshire MARAC Information Sharing Protocol. It will be reviewed at 12 month intervals.
Details of the Data Controllers for each signatory agency are outlined on the Herefordshire Information Sharing Protocol.
The Chair will read out the confidentiality statement at the beginning of each meeting (Appendix C).
All attendees of MARAC will sign a confidentiality declaration at each meeting.
Action Planning
Action plans will be developed at MARAC to increase the safety of the victim, children, vulnerable parties, agency staff, and the perpetrator. All actions will be developed in a SMART format.
The responsibility to take appropriate actions rests with individual agencies; it is not transferred to the MARAC
Emergency MARACs
An emergency MARAC meeting is an exceptional event. It is only called when a victim/survivor is assessed as being at a “Very High Risk of Harm or Homicide”, and the risk of harm is so imminent that statutory agencies have a duty of care to act at once, rather than wait for the next MARAC. Immediate safeguarding action should not be delayed.
The process for calling an Emergency MARAC is as follows –
a) Agencies submit an emergency MARAC referral to the MARAC Coordinator.
a) The MARAC Coordinator contacts other relevant statutory agencies and convenes the emergency meeting as soon as possible.
b) The referring agency must attend the meeting, with the relevant information relating to the risk.
c) Urgent actions should be agreed and executed immediately to safeguard the victim.
Version 3.0 May 2015 RESTRICTED 8 5. Equality:
Herefordshire MARAC is committed to accessibility to all sections of its community
Specialist agencies or representatives will participate in the MARAC where appropriate
In order to monitor equality the MARAC Coordinator will collate information on the profile of the local population in conjunction with Safe Lives
6. Evaluation:
All data involving MARAC is collated by the MARAC Coordinator. This information is assessed by the Domestic Abuse Delivery Group and sent to Safe Lives for national data collection.
7. Complaints:
The Herefordshire Domestic Abuse Delivery Group will process any organisational complaints concerning MARAC
Complaints against individuals will be dealt with by the employee’s agency
8. Breaches:
Any breaches of this protocol may increase the risk to a victim, and their children and may also reduce agencies ability to protect them.
9. Withdrawal:
Any agency who wishes to withdraw from this protocol is required to write to the Domestic Abuse Delivery Group. The writer must have the required authority from their agency and must outline their specific reasons for the withdrawal. The Domestic Abuse Delivery Group will reply to the agency highlighting the importance of MARAC for all agencies and the method of rejoining in the future.
10. Review:
Herefordshire Domestic Abuse Delivery Group will review this protocol annually.
Version 3.0 May 2015 RESTRICTED 9 11. MARAC Signatories:
By signing this Agreement, all signatories accept responsibility for its execution and agree to ensure that staff are trained so that requests for information and the process of sharing itself is sufficient to meet the purposes of this Agreement.
Signatories must also ensure that they comply with all relevant legislation.
Name
Signature
Organisation
Position
Date
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APPENDIX A
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Secure email to local MARAC Co-ordinator [email protected]
MULTI AGENCY MARAC REFERRAL FORM
MARAC does not absolve professionals from undertaking their duties to reduce the risk to victims or sharing information with statutory and support networks. There are local responsibilities to support Domestic Abuse victims and perpetrators and appropriate referrals to these services can and should be made prior to the MARAC meetings.
Referring agency: Referrers name(s): Telephone/email: Date: Victim name: Victim DOB: Address: Telephone number: Is this number safe to call? Y N Please provide any relevant information regarding contact:
Diversity Data (if known): B&ME Disabled LGBT Perpetrator(s) Perpetrator(s) name: DOB: Relationship Perpetrator(s) address: to victim:
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Children (please add extra rows if necessary) Name DOB Relationship Relationship Address to victim to perpetrator (if different to victim)
RISK ASSESSMENT FACTORS
Professional Y Visible high risk (14 ticks or Y Potential Y Judgement: N more on CAADA - DASH RIC) N Escalation: N
REASON FOR REFERRAL/ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Reason for Referral:
Is the victim aware of MARAC referral? Y N Has consent been given? Verbal Signed
Ask the victim to sign below or indicate if verbal consent has been obtained.
Please explain that regardless of consent being refused, if there are life threatening or child protection issues this information may be shared.
It has been explained to me that this information will be shared with partner agencies. I understand that relevant and essential information whether medical or otherwise concerning myself or my children may be shared with partner agencies including ChS, Police, Probation, Health and Housing for the purpose of MARAC and to help secure my safety and that of my family.
Date:......
Signature:......
If No Consent given, consider sharing information under Data Protection Act, Human Rights, Common Law and in the interests of public safety Data Protection supersedes the Caldecott guidelines where there is high risk of harm. Has Information Without Consent Form been completed? Y N
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CRITERIA FOR REFERRING A CASE TO MARAC
1. Professional Judgement
If a professional has serious concerns about a victim’s situation, they should refer the case to MARAC. There will be occasions where the particular context of a case gives rise to serious concerns even if the victim has been unable to disclose the information that might highlight their risk more clearly. This could reflect extreme levels of fear, cultural barriers to disclosure, immigration issues or language barriers, particularly in cases of ‘honour-based’ violence. The judgement would be based on the professional’s experience and/or the victim’s perception of their risk even if they do not meet criteria 2 and/or 3 below.
2. ‘Visible High Risk’
The number of ‘ticks’ on the CAADA-DASH Risk Identification Checklist. If you have ticked 14 or more ‘yes’ boxes the case would normally meet the MARAC referral criteria.
3. Potential Escalation
The number of police callouts to the victim as a result of domestic violence in the past 12 months. This criterion can be used to identify cases where there is not a positive identification of a majority of the risk factors on the list, but where abuse appears to be escalating and where it is appropriate to assess the situation more fully by sharing information at MARAC.
CRITERIA FOR REFERRING A ‘REPEAT’ MARAC CASE
A repeat MARAC case is one which has been previously referred to a MARAC and at some point in the 12 months from the date of the last referral a further incident is identified. Any agency may identify this further incident (regardless of whether it has been reported to the police). A further incident includes any of the following types of behaviour, which, if reported to the police, would constitute criminal behaviour:
violence or threats of violence to the victim (including threats against property); or a pattern of stalking or harassment; or rape or sexual abuse.
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APPENDIX B
Information Sharing without Consent Form Victim name and DOB
Victim address
Children DOB Address School (if known)
Who is at Risk? Who are they at risk What are the What are the Risk Identified (e.g Children,Family, from? (e.g. partner, concerns around this immediate risks to through Risk Client, Other) ex-partner, family, risk? this victim? Assessment self)
Risk Identification Checklist (if it has been possible / number of ticks out of 24 to complete a CAADA-DASH RIC, attach it here)
Details of incident / information causing concern (include source of information)
Legal Authority to Share Protocol relevant Y / N If yes, please detail Or Legal grounds (If yes, please tick one or more grounds below) Y / N
Prevention and detection of crime
Prevention / detection or crime and/or apprehension or prosecution of offenders (DPA, sch 29)
To protect vital interests of the data subject; serious harm or matter of life or death (DPS, sch 2 & 3)
For the administration of justice (usually bringing perpetrators to justice (DPA, sch 2 & 3)
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For the exercise of functions conferred on any person by or under any enactment (police / Social Services) (DPA, sch 2 & 3)
In accordance with a court order
Overriding public interest (common law)
Child protection – disclosure to social services or police for the exercise of functions under the children act, where the public interest in safeguarding the child’s welfare overrides the need to keep the information confidential (DPA, sch 2 & 3)
Right to life (Human Rights Act, art. 2 & 3)
Right to be free from torture, of inhuman or degrading treatment (HUMAN RIGHTS ACT, ART. 2 & 3)
Balancing Considerations (please tick) Pressing need Risk of not disclosing
Respective risks to those affected Interest of other agency / person in receiving it.
Public interest of disclosure Human rights
Duty of confidentiality Other
Comments
Internal consultations
(Names / Dates / Advice / Decisions)
External consultations
(Home Office, Information Sharing Helpline)
Client Notification Client notified Y / N Date notified
If not, why not?
Review
Date for review of situation (review to include feedback from the agencies informed as to their response)
Name of person responsible for ensuring the situation is reviewed by this date
Record the following information-sharing in Case File: Date information shared Agency & named person informed
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Method of contact
Legal authority for each agency
Signature of caseworker Date (as signed by caseworker)
Signature of manager Date (as signed by manager)
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APPENDIX C
Confidentiality Statement.
Information discussed by the agency representative, within the ambit of this meeting is strictly confidential and must not be disclosed to third parties who have not signed up to the information sharing protocols without the agreement of the partners of the meeting.
All agencies should ensure that the minutes are retained in a confidential and appropriately restricted manner. These minutes will aim to reflect that all individuals who are discussed at these meetings should be treated fairly, with respect and without improper discrimination. All work undertaken at the meetings will be informed by a commitment to equal opportunities and effective practice issues in relation to race, gender, sexuality and disability.
The purpose of the meeting is as follows:
To share information to increase the safety, health and well being of victims – adults and their children. To determine whether the perpetrator poses a significant risk to any particular individual or to the general community. To construct jointly and implement a risk management plan that provides professional support to all those at risk and that reduces the risk of harm. To reduce repeat victimisation. To improve agency accountability. To improve support for staff involved in high risk DV cases.
The responsibility to take appropriate actions rests with individual agencies; it is not transferred to the MARAC. The role of the MARAC is to facilitate monitor and evaluate effective information sharing to enable appropriate actions to be taken to increase public safety.
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