Supporting Children and Young People Living with Domestic Abuse: a practical guidance document for professionals in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough
The guidance was commissioned by Cambridgeshire County Council to help shape local guidelines and best practice in providing support for children/young people who are living with conflict, abuse, and violence at home.
This guidance draws on three key sources:
- Focus groups with young people and professionals/ practitioners supporting children and young people based in Cambridgeshire;
- Best practice identified across AVA’s in-house resources and
- Rapid literature review on needs of children/young people experiencing domestic abuse at home.
This guidance focuses on highlighting approaches on how to practically work with children and young people who are still living with the domestic abuse perpetrator and consists of eight key sections.
- Section 1: Outlines information on aims and structure and provides information on data collection
- Section 2: Provides information on policy context and outlines relevant statistics
- Section 3: Provides information on how children/young people experiencing abuse at home might present
- Section 4: Provides guidance on how to communicate with the child/young person to encourage disclosure
- Section 5: Provides guidance on appropriate responses once disclosure has been made
- Section 6: Provides guidance on risk assessment and safety planning
- Section 7: Provides guidance on how to support the non-abusive parent
- Section 8: Provides information on multi-agency work, signposting and referrals.
Keeping children/young people safe is everyone’s responsibility. All organisations and professionals working with children/young people are in a vital position when it comes to identifying those who may be experiencing domestic violence/abuse and providing support, whether immediate or long term.
