What is Domestic Abuse

The Domestic Abuse Act 2021 provides a statutory definition of domestic abuse.

 Behaviour of a person towards another is considered domestic abuse if:

• Both individuals are aged 16 or over, and
• They are personally connected to each other, (regardless of gender or sexuality).
• The behaviour is abusive.
• A single incident or a pattern of behaviour

A ‘Personal connection’ means the individuals concerned:

• are due to be, are currently, or have been, married or civil partners to each other

• are, or have been, in an intimate personal relationship with each other

• are, or have been, parents (or had a parental relationship) to the same child

• are relatives

Domestic abuse is a set of behaviours that is used to gain power and control over a partner. This behaviour can be shown in different ways and often multiple (more than one) type of abuse can happen in a relationship.

Some of these abusive behaviours may include:

How does this impact children?

The Domestic Abuse Act 2021 recognises children as victims of domestic abuse in their own right. 

A child is considered a victim of domestic abuse if they: 

• See or hear the abuse. 
• Experience the effects of domestic abuse. 
• Are related to the person being abused or the perpetrator. 

If a child has been a victim of domestic abuse this can have long lasting emotional and psychological impact on children.

A child may experience:

Children notice what is happening during domestic abuse.

 They try to understand what is going on.

They think about what might happen next and what their role is in the situation.

Children sometimes feel responsible for the abuse, even though it is not their fault.

They may feel worried about what could happen.

Children often try to solve problems and protect themselves, both physically and emotionally.

As children grow older, their understanding of the situation and their ways of coping change and develop. Children may not understand in the future what is a healthy relationship.

Domestic abuse means that a child’s right to feel safe and secure is not met. Domestic abuse can impact on children’s behaviour, brain development, their education and on their wellbeing.

Children can experience psychological effects which may include:

• aggression and challenging behaviour
• low mood or depression
• anxiety – worrying about their parents or carers safety particularly when they are at school
• changes in mood
• difficulty building relationships with children and adults
• isolate or withdraw from friendships
• fearful
• suicidal thoughts or feelings

Domestic Abuse can cause confusing relationships with parents and carers. They have conflicting feelings such as:

• not having a strong bond with their parents
• hoping a parent who is being abused will leave to make them safe
• worry what might happen if parents or cares separate
• being afraid of their parents or carers
• confused about loving or being loved by the person who is abusing their other parent or carer

A traumatic childhood experience such as being a child who is a victim of domestic abuse can affect a child’s brain development. This can impact on:

• Executive functioning skills –
• How a child’s brain grows - healthy relationships when a child is young helps to build strong brain development which helps a child learn.
• How a child responds to situations, showing overactive stress responses known e.g. sometimes known as flight, fight, freeze/flop or fawn

How can parents and carers be supported

In school Catherine Stretton and Leona Wallace are community champions. This means they have been trained to understand domestic abuse and how to help parents, cares and children to access support services.

Any conversation is school is confidential. You chose when it is a safe time to talk and where is a safe place to talk. You don’t have to give a reason why you want to speak to them to the school office. You just ask to speak to them.

 Alternatively, you could ring or text a message to 07540100124 between 9.00am – 4.30am weekdays during term time. Outside of these hours leave a message and someone will get back to you. You can also email dsl@spinneyhill.leicester.sch.uk

You could also call our local Leicester FREEVA helpline

Call the local helpline: 0808 80 200 28

The helpline is open:

• Monday to Friday 8am to 8pm
• Weekends and bank holidays 10am to 4pm

If the line is busy you can leave a message for someone to call you back. Give details of when it might be safe to call you.

If you need to, give a code word for how the responder can know that it is safe for you to talk.

Text support: 07715 994 962 (For text only, calls to this number are not answered).

National helpline number: 0808 2000 247

Freeva have a website with lots of different information. You can choose different languages

https://freeva.org.uk/

Leicester City Council has lots of information and advice on its website https://www.leicester.gov.uk/your-community/emergencies-safety-and-crime/domestic-and-sexual-abuse/

Other Support Services

Panahghar : free dedicated BAME multi lingual support, advice and advocacy and access to safe refuge for victims and their families of domestic abuse, sexual abuse or gendered abuse in Leicester. https://www.safehouse.org.uk/

Living Without Abuse: provide help and support for ANYONE suffering from domestic abuse or sexual violence in Leicester, Leicestershire or Rutland. https://lwa.org.uk/

Women’s Aid Leicestershire Limited (WALL): temporary refuge accommodation and support services for all victims of domestic abuse and violence, regardless of race, gender, age or sexual orientation. https://wa-leicester.org.uk/

Zinthiya Trust: Working to alleviate poverty and abuse in Leicester https://www.zinthiyatrust.org/

New Dawn New Day: Practical, emotional and therapeutic support to women and girls who are considered vulnerable and have multiple and complex needs. Telephone - 03333 444 304 https://ndnd.org.uk/

First Step An organisation run for male survivors of sexual abuse and rape and their supporters. Telephone - 0116 254 8535 https://firststepleicester.org.uk/

Juniper Lodge Sexual Assault Referral Centre: Professional non-judgemental advice Telephone - 0116 222 1542 https://juniperlodge.org.uk/SexualAssaultReferralCentre/

Jasmine House Rape Crisis Leicester based charity working with female survivors of sexual abuse, sexual violence and rape. Telephone - 0116 255 5962 https://www.jasminehouse.org.uk/

 Quetzal: Supporting women recovering from the trauma of childhood sexual abuse in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Telephone - 0333 101 4280 https://quetzal.org.uk/

Leicestershire LGBTQ+ Centre Telephone - 0116 254 7412 https://www.leicestershirelgbtqcentre.org/

Leicestershire Police Website https://www.leics.police.uk/

Campaigns

There are national and local campaigns to held adults understand domestic abuse, violence against women and men

Enough. End Violence Against Women and Girls

You're Right. They're Wrong

Other school support for victims of Domestic Abuse

Operation Encompass

The school is part of a national project that runs jointly between schools and local police forces. Our local police force is Leicestershire Police

Operation Encompass is the reporting to school that the police attended a domestic abuse incident, where there are children in the home, of a family in school. Prior to the start of the next school day, the school will be informed of the incident. School record that they have been notified on their school safeguarding record system called CPOMS.

Operation Encompass will ensure that a member of the school staff, usually Mrs. Stretton(DSL) known as a Key Adult, is trained to allow them to liaise with the police and to use the information that has been shared in confidence, while ensuring that the school is able to make provision for possible difficulties experienced by children, or their families, who have experienced a domestic abuse incident.

You or your child will not be quizzed or asked questions about the incident as this can cause further distress to both adults and children. It also could be not a safe time or place to talk. The class teacher will be told so that they are able to ensure that they are prepared to look after your child in the best possible way as soon as they come into school and to give assurances that we are here to support.

If you are safe, you may choose to talk to Mrs. Stretton or another key adult who is trained in school so that they can help to find you support.  They would check with you whether this is both a safe time and place to talk. A partner may ask where you were or why did you take so long. Adults in school would not ask you to describe what happened. Their purpose is to listen and seek support for you and your child.

How our Curriculum teaches the importance of healthy relationships?

In school we have designed an aged appropriate curriculum to teach children about healthy, respectful relationships alongside an age appropriate understanding of domestic abuse. We want children to have the knowledge, skills and attitude to be able to prevent themselves from being either victims or perpetrators (the person who is abusing another), We want children to know how and be empowered to access support. We want them to be able to spot the signs of unhealthy relationships and know that abuse is never acceptable.

We teach children about understanding and expressing their emotions and empathy towards other. Through Zones of regulation we teach children strategies to recognise emotions and select strategies to help them regulate their behaviours.

We teach children the understanding of a range of relationships, what a positive, healthy, respectful relationship looks like thus gaining the understanding and awareness of when a relationship is abusive, disrespectful or unhealthy.

Children need to understand their rights as enshrined in the UNCRC. They should be taught how to exercise these rights and the responsibility to respect the rights of others. They need to understand rules, expectations and the boundaries of relationships.

An overview of key themes developed over the years in school can be seen below

Targeted Support in school

Listening to children, parents and professional’s advice, support is identified for individual children, families or groups of children. This might be 1:1 session for children offering emotional support or strategies through our Family Support Worker. It may be group sessions with children talking about friendships, healthy relationships, gender bias, boundaries and expectations. It may be specific work identified to families around adjusting to a new home, finances, community. Our work is varied as it is responsive to the needs of the child and family

Specialist Work

The school works with different agencies or charities such as Living Without Abuse, Pangahar, Family Support Workers, Social Workers, services relating to immigration and law.