Episode one - Bath and North East Somerset Council’s approach to domestic abuse

Dr. Jess Wild from Research in Practice discusses Bath and North East Somerset Council’s approach to domestic abuse with Becky Wills, who works as part of the local authority’s intervention team. Becky shares the council’s approach to working with families where someone is causing harm or domestic abuse is an issue of concern.

Talking points

• Systemic and trauma informed approaches. 
• Systemic approach to practice. 
• The role of the case file audits.  
• Unpicking the tendency to be incident-led and response centred on that incident, rather than looking at the whole picture. 
• Acknowledging the unspoken nature of domestic abuse.
• Interrogating the language used in relation to domestic abuse in social care practice and building shared meanings with families. 
• Lack of work with, or engagement of, men who are harming in families.  
• Building an argument for more engagement of people who cause harm, and moving away from a short term response such as just asking perpetrators to leave the home.  
• Intersectionality and the links with social GGRRAAACCEEESSS. 
• Thinking about Johnson’s typologies as a platform to think about things differently.  

Challenges and opportunities

• Working in often over stretched, underfunded services makes it hard to be thoughtful about practice.
• The need to improve social work education in relation to domestic abuse.  
• Difficulties with the dissemination of new learning and practice models.