Decision details
Funding agreement for Domestic Homicide Reviews (DHRs) in Gloucestershire
Decision Maker: Director of Planning & Building Control - Tracey Birkinshaw
Decision status: Recommendations Approved
Is Key decision?: No
Is subject to call in?: No
Decision:
To enter into a funding agreement for Domestic
Homicide Reviews (DHRs) in Gloucestershire for the year
2024/25
Reasons for the decision:
Domestic Homicide Reviews (DHRs) were
established on a statutory basis under the Domestic Violence Crime
and Victims Act 2004, with the provision coming into force in April
2011.
The Home Office Statutory DHR guidance (2016) places responsibility
for establishing a DHR with the local Community Safety Partnership
(CSP). Within Gloucestershire, each District has its own CSP, in
Cheltenham this forms part of the Cheltenham Community Partnership.
A local decision has been made across the relevant councils and
partner bodies that the County-Wide CSP ‘Safer
Gloucestershire’ will work in partnership with districts to
support the statutory function for establishing a DHR.
As part of the development of the local DHR process, the six
District CSPs, alongside the Office for Police and Crime
Commissioner (OPCC) and NHS Integrated Care Board (ICB) have agreed
to jointly fund DHRs in Gloucestershire. This agreement
acknowledges that the learning from local DHRs is countywide and
should not just consider the district in which the death took
place.
Costs associated with DHRs are linked primarily with the
independent chair, admin and advocacy services for families.
Funding for advocacy services is detailed in a separate funding
agreement.
The benefits of this approach are that the costs of carrying out
DHRs do not fall solely on the responsible district and are instead
shared out across the eight partners. The agreement specifies that
the OPCC will fund 50% of the independent chair costs up to a
maximum of £5000. The remaining 50% of chairing costs will be
shared equally between the District CSPs signed up to this
agreement and the ICB.
In addition, the district can access support and guidance being
provided by the Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence Strategic
Coordinator and the OPCC.
Alternative options considered:
The council could choose not to enter into the
county-wide agreement. In this case, it alone would be responsible
for the costs associated with running a DHR. The typical cost for
running one DHR will exceed £5k. For the year 2024/25, we
have been asked to contribute £3.2k to cover the costs of
running seven DHRs.
Finance Comments: Although there is no specific budget for DHRs, there is a budget on COR003 R4401 that is available to cover the costs of DHR contributions. The costs for this initiative need to be carefully monitored and reviewed year on year. In the past we covered full cost of the DHR Committee Chair, which amounted to £6k per DHR review. Although this is now shared amongst other partners, we are also picking up other partners’ costs. This might not always be financially advantageous to us, however the non-quantifiable value-added benefits, such as support from the co-ordinator needs to be considered. In 2022/23, when this partnership took effect, we incurred £3.4k cost, and in 2023/24 this was £3.3k, all of which was a shared cost.
Declarations: None.
Other reasons / organisations consulted
Advice has been sought from One Legal about
the funding agreement.
More information about Domestic Homicide Reviews, including the
five published reviews are available on the council’s
website:
https://www.cheltenham.gov.uk/info/62/community_safety_and_crime/1391/domestic_homicide_reviews
Contact: Richard Gibson, Head of Communities, Wellbeing and Partnerships Email: [email protected].
Publication date: 10/05/2024
Date of decision: 02/05/2024