Domestic abuse screening tool doesn't work, minister says

According to Safeguarding Minister Jess Phillips, the main screening device used to determine which domestic assault victims need urgent assistance

doesn't work. Since 2009, police, social care, and healthcare professionals throughout the United Kingdom have largely relied on the Dash questionnaire to assess risk. However, academics and others working in the field are concerned that the checklist does not properly identify victims at a higher risk of further injury. Phillips told the BBC's File on 4 that she was reviewing the entire scheme for victims, but that it wouldn't

change overnight.

The Dash (Domestic, Abuse, Stalking, Harassment, and Honour-Based Violence) survey is a collection of 27 questions asked to victims, to 24 of whom they answer yes, no, or don't know Has the recent event resulted in injury? and is the abuse getting worse?The resulting score often determines what happens next. If a victim is listed as high risk, they are referred to specialist, immediate assistance. According to the Office for National Statistics, there were 108 domestic homicides in England and Wales in the year from March 2024 to March 2022. Now, families of women who were not being classified as high risk are considering legal action against the organizations they suspect failed their loved ones.

Jess Phillips, a remitting that violence against women and girls, acknowledged that the Dash questionnaire had obvious flaws, but

before I can replace it with something that does [work], we must make the absolute best of the system that we have.

She continued to dislike[d] the prospect that a perfect form could be created because

risk is variable. It could be. different 20 minutes later

. Practitioners must also be conditioned to know that risk can change, according to her.

Any risk assessment system is only as good as the individual who is using it.

People were killed even when it was deemed to be in danger,Phillips said,The grading scheme won't immediately shield you. It's the systems that flow from those risk assessments that matter much more than the score.

These aren't just numbers, they're preventable tragedies, and it leaves families devastated,

lawyer Matthew Jury, whose firm has been approached by relatives, told the BBC:

When risks are inadequately assessed and victims are left exposed, families are devastated.

The Home Office is now reviewing how all departments handle domestic violence, including risk assessments, as part of the government's larger initiative to combat violence against women and girls, which is set to be unveiled in the fall. Multiple academic studies, some dating back almost a decade, have investigated how Dash is doing and have discovered that it is unable to accurately identify high-risk victims. According to a report by the London School of Economics, who looked at Greater Manchester Police data in recent cases, nearly nine out of ten repeat cases of assault had been classified as high or moderate risk by officers using Dash.

Academics from Manchester and Seville University analyzed anonymous police force data in 2022 and discovered 96% of victims who were retrospectively classified as high risk or medium risk by Dash.

There's growing agreement that Dash does not do that job at all,

Dr. Heather Strang, professor of the University of Cambridge's Jerry Lee Center for Experimental Criminology, told the BBC. It wasn't meant to do that, she said,

it has been the most common instrument used by police to risk assess and predict future behavior over the past several years. Tori Olphin, a former police officer and computer scientist who worked with Thames Valley Police, wanted to analyze their Dash results and find a new method that used a much larger database of police data, but

It's possible to do more. "This is a group of people we're making decisions about who are extremely vulnerable, who may go on to experience life-changing, life-altering, or life-ending consequences as a result of their domestic violence.

AtBBC Action Line, you will find information about organisations that provide assistance to victims of domestic violence.

Khaola and her niece Raneem were killed by Ranem's ex-partner in 2018.

Raneem was unsuccessful because her risk was downgraded to a tick-box exercise. That's how simple it is,

she told the BBC. The questionnaire was not appropriate for purpose because it placed the burden on young victims, who, she said, don't really know they are in a harmful relationship. According to the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC), about 20% of all police reported crimes related to domestic violence, accounting for over 400,000 recorded incidents each year. Following its concern that Dash wasn't giving consistent reports on risk when used by officers, the College of Policing determined in 2022 that forces should use Dara, which was developed by the College Of Polication, in 2021. However, 20 out of 39 police forces around the United Kingdom who responded to freedom of information requests received by the BBC said they were still using Dash. The NPCC informed the BBC that risk assessment products were not meant to be used in isolation.

We also want and encourage officers to use their own personal curiosity, education, and expertise to bring criminals to justice and ensure the proper protection of victims,

the department said in a tweet. The BBC discovered that charities in the sector are also worried about Dash, which many are required to use as part of their employment to provide domestic harassment support to behalf of public entities.

We've always believed that it falls short of being competent, particularly with the demographics we represent,

said Djanomi Robinson, operations manager of Sistah Space, a charity that works with black African and Caribbean heritage women impacted by domestic and sexual violence.

There are a lot of subtleties that are ignored, as well as cultural ones that are skipped.

We've had several instances where service users of ours fell short and they don't appear to be highly ranked in their risk assessment, but experts can tell them that their situation is extremely serious,

she said. Ellen Miller, the charity that initiated Dash and now promotes its use, told the BBC that the questionnaire's

beautyof the questionnaire wasits simplicity, universality, and accessibility. Dash's apparent inability to correctly identify high-risk situations were due to

a mixture of the tool not being updated to reflect everything we know now,

she said, as well as how it is used. "The government has retained SafeLives to conduct an initial investigation into the full domestic abuse risk process across departments.