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Domestic Abuse Champions© For housing practitioners
Level – Intermediate
(DAHA can offer an additional half-day foundation course that can upskill or refresh Champions if requested)
This course is for:
- New or established Champion networks based in housing provider settings
- Practitioners who have already attended training on domestic abuse awareness training
- Members and non-members
By the end of this course, you will be able to:
- Consider how a Champion can influence attitudes about domestic abuse
- Identify the impact victim blaming has on victim/survivors and reframe victim-blaming statements
- Give examples of a trauma-informed approach
- Be confident to implement your organisation’s domestic abuse policy and procedures that relate to domestic abuse
- Signpost and promote specialist DA support services and referral pathways available to survivors, children, and perpetrators
- Offer a safe and effective response when a colleague or tenant discloses domestic abuse as part of a coordinated response
Course Duration:
This course contains 2 modules and is split over 2 mornings (7 hours total).
DAHA require Champions to schedule a meeting between the 2 Modules (organised and facilitated internally) to review the resource pack and familiarise themselves with their domestic abuse procedure ahead of Module 2
Before you book this training, please ensure you meet the following criteria
- You have a Champion role description
- Your Champion network has been identified (successful and effective Champion networks are volunteers rather than recruited)
- All Champions have received appropriate domestic abuse awareness and are confident to explain the dynamics of coercive control and the impact the perpetrator’s abuse has on victims/survivors and their families.
- You have identified someone internally to support and lead your Champion network/facilitate reflection and action planning sessions
Cost:
Group booking of 20 Delegates or less: £2,000
(This course cannot exceed 20 delegates)
This excludes the DAHA Membership discount (5% Affiliated Members, 10% Accredited/Accreditation Members)
(DAHA Training courses are exempt of VAT)
CLICK HERE TO BOOK!!
DAHA Early Identification and Responding© For neighbourhood and community housing teams
Level – Beginner/refresher
This course is for:
Teams who interact with residents’ face to face, make home visits and have an opportunity to safely ask about domestic abuse e.g.- housing officers/neighbourhood teams
By the end of this course, you will be able to:
- Recognise survivor/victims who do not fit the stereotypes of domestic abuse
- State who is at the highest risk when in an abusive relationship and why this issue is a housing issue
- Describe the dynamics of domestic abuse and identify coercive and controlling behaviours
- Explain the impact a perpetrator’s tactics have on survivor/victims
- Apply a domestic abuse lens to identify domestic abuse in a housing setting
- Identify the multiple factors that create barriers to support
- Consider how a believing and validating culture can enable engagement
- Feel confident to safely start conversations about domestic abuse
- Give a helpful response when survivors disclose domestic abuse and signpost to expert support
- Determine if the red flags of risk are present and safely pass concerns on
Course Structure:
This course contains 3 modules and is split over 3 mornings (10.5 hours total).
Delegates must attend all 3 mornings to meet the learning outcomes and receive their CPD certificate.
- Module One: Foundation in dynamics of domestic abuse – 3.5 hours
- Module Two: Identifying domestic abuse in a housing setting – 3.5 hours
- Module Three: Acting on professional curiosity and offering a safe response - 3.5 hours
Training costs:
Group booking of 20 Delegates or less: £2,800
£140 per additional delegate - Maximum 25 delegates per course
Open courses will become available to book in 2023
(DAHA Training courses are exempt of VAT)
This excludes the DAHA Membership discount (5% Affiliated Members, 10% Accredited/Accreditation Members)
CLICK HERE TO BOOK!!
DAHA Early Identification and Responding© For contact centres and phone-based customer service teams
Level – Beginner/refresher
This course is for:
Teams who take calls from residents and have an opportunity to identify domestic abuse over the phone, safely ask and pass concerns on to the relevant team/agency
e.g – phone-based customer service teams, call centre teams.
By the end of this course, you will be able to:
- Recognise survivor/victims who do not fit the stereotypes of domestic abuse
- State who is at the highest risk when in an abusive relationship and why this issue is a housing issue
- Describe the dynamics of domestic abuse and identify coercive and controlling behaviours
- Explain the impact a perpetrator’s tactics have on survivor/victims
- Recognise the indirect ways domestic abuse can be identified over the phone
- Act on professional curiosity and feel confident to safely ask if customers are safe in their relationships
- Give a helpful response when survivor/victims disclose domestic abuse and record and share all concerns safely
Course Structure:
This course contains 2 modules and is split over 2 mornings (7 hours total).
Delegates must attend both mornings to meet the learning outcomes and receive their CPD certificate.
- Module One: Foundation in dynamics of domestic abuse - 3.5 hours
- Module Two: Identifying domestic abuse over the phone and offering a safe response - 3.5 hours
Training costs:
Group booking of 20 Delegates or less: £2,000
£100 per additional delegate - Maximum 25 delegates per course
Open courses will become available to book in 2023
(DAHA Training courses are exempt of VAT)
This excludes the DAHA Membership discount (5% Affiliated Members, 10% Accredited/Accreditation Members)
CLICK HERE TO BOOK!!
DAHA Early Identification and Responding© For homelessness support settings/rough sleeping teams
Level – Beginner/refresher
This course is for:
Frontline homelessness professionals working with survivor/victims experiencing multiple disadvantages, across a range of homelessness support settings e.g., supported accommodation, outreach teams, assessment centres and Housing First teams.
By the end of this course, you will be able to:
- Recognise survivor/victims who do not fit the stereotypes of domestic abuse
- State who is at the highest risk when in an abusive relationship and why this issue is a housing issue
- Describe the dynamics of domestic abuse and identify coercive and controlling behaviours
- Explain the impact a perpetrator’s tactics have on survivor/victims
- Feel confident to safely start conversations about domestic abuse, bearing in mind the barriers and challenges faced by survivors experiencing multiple disadvantages.
- Give a helpful response whether a survivor is ready to take action around abuse or not.
- Determine if the red flags of risk are present and put a risk management plan in place; this includes making referrals to appropriate services and multi-agency forums.
Course Structure:
This course contains 2 modules and is split over 2 mornings (7 hours total).
Delegates must attend both mornings to meet the learning outcomes and receive their CPD certificate.
- Module One: Foundation in dynamics of domestic abuse - 3.5 hours
- Module Two: Recognising multiple disadvantage and skills to respond safely to domestic abuse in a homeless setting - 3.5 hours
Training costs:
Group booking of 20 Delegates or less: £1,100
£55 per additional delegate - Maximum 25 delegates per course
Open courses will become available to book in 2023
(DAHA Training courses are exempt of VAT)
This excludes the DAHA Membership discount (5% Affiliated Members, 10% Accredited/Accreditation Members)
CLICK HERE TO BOOK!!
Statement on the publication of the Renter’s Reform Bill
18 May 2023
Yesterday, the long-awaited Renter’s Reform Bill had its first reading in Parliament, fulfilling many of the ambitions set out within the Renter’s Reform White Paper, to ‘reset the balance of rights and responsibilities between tenants and landlords’. The most prominent and welcomed aspect of the bill is the end of Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions, which has caused housing insecurity and homelessness for many private renters, including victims of domestic abuse living in the private rented sector (PRS).
There are now more victims of domestic abuse living in the PRS than ever before, in part due to the growth of the PRS, but also due to a significant lack of social housing, with many victims of domestic abuse having no other choice but to take on PRS tenancies, which have often been insecure, unaffordable, and, unsafe. In the context of a cost-of-living crisis, including soaring rents, and local housing allowance rates that do not meet rental demands, many victims of domestic abuse (many of whom are single women with children) are placed in positions of great hardship and the risk of homelessness, in addition to the ever-present threat of harm and homicide.
By removing Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions, and the government’s commitment to take future action to address discrimination against tenants with children, we hope victims of domestic abuse will face fewer housing barriers to achieving safety. However, we continue to be concerned that this will be undermined by the changes proposed within the bill to make it easier for landlords to evict on grounds of anti-social behaviour (ASB) and rent arrears. This includes, broadening the discretionary ASB ground for eviction to ‘’any behaviour capable of causing nuisance or annoyance’’ as well as introducing a new mandatory ground for repeat serious arrears, as detailed within the White Paper.
Victims of domestic abuse are significantly more likely to have ASB complaints made against, often due to the misidentification of domestic abuse as ASB. Victims of domestic abuse are also more likely to be in rent arrears, both as a direct result of economic abuse, and due to the economic and practical burden of fleeing abuse and becoming homeless, often with their children (victims of domestic abuse in their own right). With no proposed safeguards in place to protect victims of domestic abuse from evictions related to domestic abuse, we fear this will lead to harm and homelessness. As a result, victims of domestic abuse may become more dependent on their abuser and make it even more difficult to leave.
We have worked closely alongside the DAHA-led National Housing and Domestic Abuse Policy and Practice Group to publish a detailed briefing on the impact of the proposed changes through the RRB on victims of domestic abuse in cases of ASB. We make clear recommendations for how the government can safeguard victims of domestic abuse and other vulnerable tenants, including those at risk of other forms of abuse or exploitation or in need of health or social care support. These recommendations included:
- not expanding the ground’s definition to “any behaviour ‘capable’ of causing nuisance or annoyance”
- introducing a pre-eviction ASB protocol for landlords and managing agents.
- a commitment to the professionalisation of the PRS which ensures landlords and managing agents are equipped to fulfil their legal obligations to their tenants.
- developing guidance for landlords and managing agents on responding to ASB and rent arrears, including links between ASB, rent arrears and domestic abuse (accessible within the new property portal) as well as guidance for judges.
We look forward to further scrutinising the bill, which will undoubtedly lead to further recommendations from our National Group, particularly in the areas of rent arrears. We want to work with sector partners, government, and parliamentarians to ensure the bill works to protect all renters, which must include victims of domestic abuse living in the PRS who already face far too many barriers to safety and housing insecurity.
For more information and any press enquiries, please contact the DAHA National Group Chair and Senior Housing Manager, Deidre Cartwright, by emailing: d.cartwright@standingtogether.org.uk
David is the Head of Housing at Cambridge City Council who, in December 2019, became the fifth local authority in the UK to achieve DAHA accreditation.
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When we set out on our path to Domestic Abuse Housing Alliance (DAHA) accreditation back in May 2018 I remember realising fairly early on that I had underestimated the energy and commitment officers in my teams and beyond would apply to this area of work. It was clear that there was a pent up desire to tackle domestic abuse head on and the ‘DAHA thing’ presented officers with an opportunity to make a difference on an issue they were clearly passionate about.
As we fastidiously worked our way through the 8 key areas demanded by the process, ticking each milestone off one-by-one, we suddenly hit our first major challenge: in relation to domestic abuse, did we or did we not have a believing and non-judgemental culture within our Housing Advice (Housing Options) Service? This is big; we average about 3 homeless applications a fortnight from customers experiencing domestic abuse.
At the same time, this was a learning process for our DAHA colleagues. Given that the alliance was born in the housing association sector and the accreditation process had historically focused on organisations’ housing management functions, they had to quickly get up to speed with housing options, advice and statutory homelessness functions.
Anyway, coming back to the believing culture, the issues that emerged, through a number of case audits, were about language used and where we might place the burden of ‘proof’. Like a number of authorities, Cambridge experiences a surfeit of demand over supply for social/affordable housing and the private rental market is in the upper quartile of unaffordability across the country. Coupled with this, we have a responsibility to apply homelessness legislation fairly and equitably. Inevitably, this leads to an investigative culture amongst the workforce.
We have addressed the issues that have arisen by implementing the following:
- Creating a survivor-led focus within our homeless applications process - pre-accreditation, a homeless application would be focused on determining whether the accommodation was purely ‘reasonable and available’. However it is now much more focussed on risk and options for the survivor and we now have a bespoke personal housing plan (PHP) for domestic abuse victims/survivors.
- Extensive domestic abuse training has enabled staff to better understand and identify the full range of abusive practices (particularly around coercive control) and, most critically, what impact this has on the individual and her/his family members
All our housing advisers and officers now aim to complete a DASH for every applicant (we have completed 46 in the last 12 months) or tenant we believe to be experiencing domestic abuse. On occasions, this has enabled officers to assure our customer that what they are experiencing is abuse, when previously they had not considered it as such. A positive by-product of completing a DASH is that asking applicants to evidence abuse via crime reference numbers, for example, no longer seems so important.
We have made huge strides in working with our partners at the Independent Domestic Abuse Alliance (IDVA) service and Cambridge Women’s Aid in particular. I am under no illusions that we will continue to disagree on occasions but our partnerships in this sphere seem much more collaborative now and we are receiving customer feedback assistance from both partners.
As part of my research for this blog I spoke with 3 front line housing advisers and a senior housing adviser, who acts as our domestic abuse champion for the Housing Advice Service. One, in particular, was indignant that the ‘believing culture’ should ever be questioned. What she and others have acknowledged, though, is that all of the accreditation work has created a stronger platform to enable our officers to ‘believe’ and I think this is the critical point; the measures we have put in place take us ‘beyond belief’. I don’t think the desire to believe was ever in question.
Aside from the measures cited above, advisers pointed to the importance of extending appointments to 1 hour and 45 minutes so that they can invest time in assessing customers who have experienced domestic abuse and that the assessment is not just concerning homelessness but is a safety and safeguarding assessment too. As a result, the number of homeless applications taken has risen significantly since advisers have been completing DASHs; from 44 in 2018 to 76 in 2019.
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