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Stockport Homes Group (SHG) has just passed their DAHA accreditation in June 2024. Below is the feedback and review of DAHA accreditation from SHG team.

Having just finally crossed the line and achieved our initial DAHA accreditation at Stockport Homes Group (SHG), I thought it might be useful to share some of our experiences and what we found worked (and didn’t work!). 

Firstly, if it is something you are considering, then I would recommend taking the plunge and committing to the process.  It has, without doubt, led to significant improvements in the service we provide, enhanced partnership working and helped develop a more person-centred approach across SHG.  However, it does require buy in from across the organisation and is far from a box ticking exercise; it needs time and focus. 

What struck me from the start is that the DAHA Team don’t expect you to be perfect and prefer honest self-reflection and insight into the positives and challenges of your service.  For SHG that meant thinking about what we wanted to achieve in relation to domestic abuse; operationally, strategically and in our cultural approach.  The eight different DAHA themes and criteria within them forming the basis of a gap analysis, with input from both DAHA and specialist domestic abuse services in the Borough.  The next step was to look at a SMART action plan to deliver the required changes. 

Perhaps the next biggest lesson was that even the most amazing of action plans don’t deliver themselves, and ‘drift’ is possible when people are so busy with their day jobs.  It needs a senior lead to make sure actions are met, resources prioritised and ensure accountability.  Again, it’s also worth noting that the DAHA Team are there to provide support rather than catch you out, have a great deal of knowledge and are fun and engaging to work with. 

During the early stages of preparing for accreditation it seemed clear that our structures could be improved, primarily by bringing together a bespoke domestic abuse team.  That involved making two housing options officers domestic abuse specialists, alongside an existing dedicated colleague within the Safer Neighbourhoods Team.  With a focus on enhanced training and development, co-located with specialist services several days a week and using the same database, that has led to a more joined up and upskilled level of service to customers.  They are also able to act as a point of expertise to colleagues throughout SHG, including attending team meetings, customer events and providing guidance and support to colleagues who may be experiencing difficulties of their own. 

Policies and procedures also required a full overhaul, with partner agencies, customers, and colleagues across SHG engaged in their review.  That included input from staff LGBTQ+, ethnic minority and disability groups, reflecting the need to take an intersectional approach, with the experience of domestic abuse varying widely dependant upon other factors such as ethnicity, gender, and sexuality.  The need for a person-centred approach is a theme that ran throughout achieving the accreditation, leading to reflection about other areas of service delivery. 

While SHG has always had a strong focus on safeguarding, domestic abuse was largely seen as a sub-set of staff development and training in that area.  To establish it more prominently as an issue, a large-scale training programme was initiated that was delivered to 200 staff over a 12-month period.  Developed in collaboration with domestic abuse services, this used a mixture of theory, practical application, and the use of powerful individual stories to give staff the confidence and skills to better address the issue.  Shorter, ‘toolbox’ talks were also undertaken for repair operatives and other staff, with a specialist organisation also commissioned to upskill colleagues on how to work with perpetrators. 

The training enabled some in depth and lively discissions about the nature of domestic abuse, the role of housing providers and embedded cultural perspectives.  For example. historic housing outlooks have at times been geared around expecting people to move to different areas when experiencing domestic abuse, rather than being led by people’s wishes and making safety plans around their present and future.   

In many respects the more work we did, the more we realised how much more we could or should be doing.  The assessment process recognises that there is always scope for learning and continuous improvement, with initial accreditation just recognising that you have made a purposeful and impactful start on that journey.  An important art of the assessment is developing a sustainability plan, identifying steps in the short to medium term to build on progress. 

The accreditation itself involves file checks, case studies, interviews with staff up to Chief Executive Officer level, focus groups and one to one meetings with partner agencies and effectively anything else that catches DAHA’s eye along the way.  Engaging as many people and agencies as possible, building new relationships and developing existing ones is a vital part of the DAHA process and recognises that domestic abuse can only be effectively addressed through a partnership approach. 

So, in summary, SHG have found DAHA accreditation to be challenging, enjoyable, hard work, stimulating and engaging; but most importantly has led to a more accessible, knowledgeable, empathetic, person centred service for customers.  It has strengthened the wider partnership approach towards tackling domestic abuse at an operational and strategic level and helped reinforce a positive organisational culture. 

A great deal still be done, and DAHA will be keeping a beady eye on us to make sure the pace doesn’t slacken! 

This blog post is published in July 2024.

The Guardian article of 28 August “English councils moving homeless families out of areas at almost three times official rate” makes for uncomfortable reading: “Data shows more than 34,000 households placed out of area last year, with some moved more than 200 miles away”.

In an effort to address the homelessness crisis, local authorities often find themselves under pressure to secure temporary accommodations for homeless families. The practice of relocating families far from their communities raises serious ethical and practical concerns. This approach, often referred to as "out-of-area placement," can have devastating consequences for families already in vulnerable situations.

• Strained Support Systems: Moving families to unfamiliar areas disrupts their access to local support networks, such as friends, family, schools, and healthcare facilities. This isolation can lead to increased feelings of loneliness and anxiety, making it even harder for families to regain stability.
• Education Disruptions: For families with school-aged children, being uprooted to a different part of the country can result in abrupt changes in schools. This disruption not only affects a child's educational continuity but also their emotional well-being, as they struggle to adjust to new environments and peers.
• Employment Challenges: Adults in these displaced families may find it difficult to maintain their jobs if the move places them far from their workplaces. This setback can perpetuate the cycle of poverty and make it harder for families to transition out of homelessness.
• Mental and Emotional Strain: Homelessness is already emotionally taxing, and being moved far from familiar surroundings can exacerbate mental health issues for both parents and children. Feelings of instability and a lack of control can take a heavy toll on their well-being.
• Loss of Dignity: For families forced to leave their communities, the loss of dignity is profound. The practice can strip them of their sense of belonging, leaving them feeling like they are burdens rather than valued citizens.
• Strain on services: little consideration is ever, it seems, given to the impact on local services & resources that moving a family or person with additional needs or multiple disadvantage to an area could have. Often the “forced” move would not include the local authority connecting or linking the family or individual to relevant services so they often “disappear” through the cracks until they reach crisis point and come to (often statutory) services’ attention when needs are higher than ever.

The Guardian article refers to research from Nottingham University where Dr Steve Iafrati, an assistant professor of social policy at the University says “These are people who have got no money, who have experienced domestic abuse, who have come out of prison, or who have mental health problems. They are then moved sometimes hundreds of miles away from their families, from social networks, from their mental health practitioners and from their children’s school – and the vast majority have children.” The research tells us that black and minority ethnic families were most affected by the practice. Of the councils moving more than 100 families out of their areas, more than 90% confirmed that black and minority ethnic families were disproportionately involved.

We know these families are the most vulnerable in our society. Many will be women with their children fleeing domestic abuse. Reading this article reminds me of a case seen during a Domestic Abuse Housing Alliance (DAHA) accreditation assessment.   I will summarise as best I can without identifying the family or the council. A woman for whom English was not her first language, and her children presented as homeless fleeing domestic abuse, no longer feeling safe in their own home. Duty accepted; the family are placed in temporary accommodation where they were expected to share facilities with a male resident. Feeling unsafe here they returned home whilst the application was processed. One child in school, one with complex medical needs, and under a local children’s hospital receiving care. Children's Social Care supports the family.  All contact is conducted through an interpreter. The decision was to offer the family a tenancy (privately rented) in a large city over 100 miles away. Offer made in a (standard, generic) 3-page letter written in English. Notes tell us that she “refused the offer”. No further notes.   

To achieve accreditation, DAHA requires that organisations adopt a coordinated community response (CCR) to domestic abuse which places the responsibility to achieve safety on agencies and not on the victim/survivor. It is also centred on holding the perpetrator of abuse to account.  DAHA requires organisations to demonstrate a person-centred and adopt a trauma-informed approach to responding to domestic abuse.  Challenging the provider on how this case demonstrated any of these, they explained that it was going to be impossible for this woman to afford to remain living in this area independently and so, for her there was no option other than to move to an area where she had a better chance of maintaining a tenancy. Wrong, but I get it, it’s the reality of our current housing crisis in the UK – some areas are simply unaffordable for many.

So, faced with the barrier that affordability presents, how could they have met the requirements to demonstrate a CCR and to be person-centred and trauma-informed? The answer feels quite simple, show some empathy and work collaboratively.  

When asked what this means I ask people to close their eyes and put themselves into the shoes of this woman: In a country she may not have chosen freely to live in, coercively controlled, physically, and economically abused. Never travelled outside of this city. Caring for a child with severe and complex health issues – the stress and worry possibly (probably) borne by her alone. Limited (or no) social network – possibly just through connections met through the child’s school, and/or medical care system. Welcome support from a social worker, trust just building. Grappling with a new language, able to grasp some, speak some, read some but complex legal situations needing explanation in own language. Living in fear for herself and, worse, for her children’s safety. Grabbing the first opportunity to leave her abuser – the courage of that (mind-blowing for me).

Now open our eyes and consider how we manage the situation which would not necessarily change the fact that the only place we can find her to live is a long way away. Bring her professional support network together with her, meeting in a neutral environment and, through an interpreter, discuss the options and how you are all going to work with her and colleagues in corresponding services in the “new” area to help her settle and build a safe home and a new life free of abuse for her and the children. It is ESSENTIAL that relevant specialist by and for services are engaged in both areas, offering her the right, culturally sensitive, domestic abuse support that she needs.  She will still, I have no doubt, be wary and fearful of such a move, and possibly feel it’s very unfair that she has to move at all (it is), BUT she may feel more able to take that leap with the support and kindness of her professionals' network. Empathy and kindness cost nothing and can make all the difference for someone presenting as homeless, seeking help and some compassion.

Conclusion

I conclude with some potential solutions to the displacement dilemma.

1. Prevention Over Relocation: Rather than focusing solely on relocating families, authorities should invest in preventive measures to stop homelessness from happening in the first place. This might include more accessible social services, affordable housing initiatives, and financial support for at-risk families. For victims/survivors fleeing domestic abuse, there should ALWAYS be the choice: “Would you like to stay in your own home if we can make it safe for you to do so?” This would then trigger action by the local authorities to work in collaboration with all other agencies within the CCR to hold the perpetrator to account, remove them, manage them, disrupt them, and prosecute them – working together to enable the home to be a safe place for the victim/survivor (including the children) to remain if that is what they want to do. Choice, choice, choice.
2. Local Support Focus: Local authorities should prioritise efforts to find temporary accommodations within the same area whenever possible. This approach would allow families to maintain their connections and support systems.
3. Collaborative Solutions: Local authorities, should collaborate with other agencies including Social Care, Health, police, specialist services including by and for services, etc. to develop comprehensive strategies to address homelessness and all causes of homelessness. These strategies should be rooted in empathy and understanding of the challenges homeless families face.
4. Impact Assessment: Before relocating families, authorities should conduct thorough impact assessments to understand the potential consequences of such a move. This will help them make more informed decisions that prioritize the well-being of the families involved.
5. Trauma-Informed Approach: When moves are unavoidable, local authorities should adopt a trauma-informed approach. This involves recognising the potential emotional and psychological impact of relocation and providing appropriate support to help families cope with the changes.
6. More social housing. DAHA and Standing Together fully support Shelter’s call on the government to build social housing.

“Data released.. revealed that 34,418 households were placed out of area last year, based on responses from 80% of English councils. This incomplete figure suggests a total that is 172% above what was officially recorded the previous year.”

The practice of moving homeless families to different parts of the country by UK local authorities is a deeply flawed approach that magnifies the challenges faced by these vulnerable individuals. Straining support systems, disrupting education and employment, and exacerbating mental and emotional strain are just a few of the consequences that families endure. By adopting a more compassionate and holistic approach, local authorities can work towards not only providing safe accommodation but also helping families rebuild their lives with dignity and stability. Homelessness is a complex issue that demands comprehensive and empathetic solutions to ensure a brighter, safer, and successful future for those in most need. I am pretty certain that not every one of the 34,418 cases of households being moved out of area was not for affordability reasons. When Dr Iafrati tells us in the Guardian article that his research highlighted that “Of the councils moving more than 100 families out of their areas, more than 90% confirmed that black and minority ethnic families were disproportionately involved” we must consider that racism is a factor in decision making.

We can, and have to, do better.

Judith Vickress, Senior Housing Manager, Standing Together Against Domestic Abuse (STADA) and outgoing Domestic Abuse Housing Alliance (DAHA) Programme Manager

To enquire about DAHA Membership and accreditation please contact daha_membership@standingtogether.org.uk and see here https://www.dahalliance.org.uk/ for more information. We provide a comprehensive support service to guarantee success for all members.

This blog post is published in August 2023.

Paul is a Tenancy Sustainment Coordinator at Calico Homes who achieved DAHA accreditation in February this year. Based in Burnley, Paul has been in his role since May 2017 and before that was one of Calico's Neighbourhood Coordinators. When he's not working Paul enjoys spending time with his 7-year-old daughter and playing football.

I was first approached by our Assistant Director of Customer Services to lead on the process of gaining DAHA accreditation in January 2019. As a Tenancy Sustainment Coordinator I had managed my own local team but not a team from across the Calico Group so it was an exciting opportunity to lead on this important work.

Calico’s position as a group structure provided us with some fantastic opportunities to develop an innovative approach. We saw the potential to work collaboratively across the group drawing our own domestic abuse services, a training company (AFTA Thought), mental health and drugs recovery programme experts (Acorn Academy), along with our communications team, HR and learning and development who were all represented on the DAHA steering group.

It was apparent at the first project meeting how passionate everyone was about raising domestic abuse awareness not only within Calico but also to influence wider societal change. The sharing of knowledge and sense of team spirit from across the group brought a real positivity and impetus to drive this project forward.  Although the accreditation was specifically aimed at housing, as an organisation we wanted to go one step further and roll out domestic abuse training to the whole Calico Group.

For the training programme we decided to use AFTA Thought Training Consultants who bring the ‘lived experience’ into a room using actors. Using applied theatre in facilitation of the training was unique – it drew on our policies and procedures and ensured people had a clear understanding of their individual roles and responsibilities in being confident to report concerns of domestic abuse.

I knew that Calico could play an important role in influencing society and we set about inviting other leads from our partner agencies to attend the training. This resulted in AFTA Thought being invited to design and deliver domestic abuse training across Burnley Borough Council and Lancashire Care Trust.

Calico had already introduced ideas such as Safe Leave and a perpetrator programme, and we worked collaboratively to ensure these initiatives were shared among our audiences in the hope they would go back and review their own individual policies.

We also recognised the possibility that as well as tenants and service users, there could be victims and perpetrators among our staff who needed to access help and support. We wanted to be able to encourage them to feel safe enough to come forward and access the help and support Calico have on offer. As a result of this we developed a Domestic Abuse Ambassadors programme and asked for volunteers from across the group – the response was very positive and to date we have 20 trained Ambassadors.

After we gained DAHA accreditation in February 2020 it was important to us to keep the momentum going. We used the collective learning and wisdom from the accreditation process to motivate and inspire other community organisations across Lancashire. This resulted in a number of initiatives including ‘Men Speak Out’ – a conference organised by the Calico Group’s domestic abuse service Safenet to encourage men to speak out against domestic abuse.

Calico will continue the ripple effect in promoting and championing our work around domestic abuse. We want to build on the learning we acquired during the DAHA accreditation process in order to strengthen our understanding and positively impact the lives of victims, survivors and perpetrators of domestic abuse.

This blog post is published in October 2020.

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.

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.

This blog post is published in July 2020.

Housing providers are a central piece of the puzzle for addressing domestic abuse as a route into homelessness. Kelly explains: “If you’re a housing provider, you should do all you can to support a tenant to either stay in the home (when it is safe to do so), or provide them with a move to a different property in another area, but on the same tenancy type, as well as supporting them to move into safe emergency accommodation and again, ensuring they keep their tenancy status on being re-housed.”

Establishing patterns of abuse with co-ordinated case management is another provision for supporting tenants experiencing domestic abuse. Easy access to evidence of abuse can make the difference that emboldens housing providers to intervene. 

Streetwise, a system developed by Gentoo in partnership with Housing Partners, is there to start the work of joining up the dots and keeping records that can be used to evidence why intervention needs to be taken. Every survivor of domestic abuse has different needs; Streetwise offers a chronological record of incidents, enabling housing officers to create a tailored approach to support.

The system comes as two modules; one relating to antisocial behaviour (ASB) and the other to domestic abuse. Kelly takes us through the ways in which a domestic abuse case management system can prevent further abuse that can lead to homelessness:

“Having a domestic abuse module or system as opposed to just an ASB one that incorporates domestic abuse, means quite often the case actually being seen as Category 1. The value with Streetwise is that you’ve got a full history of a person’s case. In terms of Streetwise and MARAC (Multi Agency Risk Assessment Conference), where you’ve got a range of partners round the table to safety plan for the victim, it really is essential to ensure you’ve got a comprehensive set of notes and a victim’s full history to make sure that they get the best response. That means that you can then give a much more in-depth response.

At Gentoo, we’ve also got the Risk Indicator Checklist (RIC) built into Streetwise meaning that we can see at a glance that person’s level of risk. It is worth pointing out that risk is not static, and the RIC should be completed after every new incidence of abuse. This gives a chronological order – everything’s there – and we get a true picture of what’s actually happening.”

With five women dying per week and the public’s attention being refocused on what can largely be a hidden crime, the urgency to intervene and prevent further trauma is making its way to the front of the agenda. Housing providers have a unique relationship with their tenants that can be used to establish themselves as a trusted source of help to their customers.

Nurturing these relationships, paying attention and having strong and accurate records of incidents will lead to a fuller picture of the abuse that exists in homes up and down the country and could ultimately be the cornerstone for addressing this particular pathway to homelessness.

Housing partners produce a series of platforms to support frontline teams. If you want to know more about Streetwise, or any of their solutions, you  can email them on info@housingpartners.co.uk and they will have someone get back in contact with you.

This blog post is published in July 2020.