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Practitioner in Residence: Navigating complex cases in Domestic Abuse-Related Death reviews

 

Danielle Sharp is the founder and Chief Executive of the Centre for Safer Society, an organisation dedicated to supporting services in designing evidence-based responses to reduce violence, abuse, and harm. Through the Centre, Danielle conducts service evaluations, develops impact-driven strategies for organisations working to end violence and abuse, and serves as an Independent Chair for statutory Domestic Abuse-Related Death reviews – work that brings her face-to-face with the families of those who have been killed or died by suicide.

For most of her career, Danielle has worked in the domestic abuse and violence against women and girls (VAWG) sector. She began in frontline roles supporting young people and families before moving into strategic positions developing and commissioning evidence-based local responses to domestic abuse. Her work then expanded to national level at SafeLives, where as Head of the Knowledge Hub she led projects such as the Home Office One Front Door pilot, and Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conference (MARAC) national oversight.

It is through her work as an Independent Chair for Domestic Abuse-Related Death reviews that Danielle identified the practice challenge that will form the focus of her Practitioner in Residence (PiR) research at the Violence and Society Centre (VASC). In several reviews, a recurring issue has emerged: cases where practitioners identify ‘bi-directional violence’ or ‘dual-allegations’ between individuals. This creates significant difficulties in accurately assessing risk, determining whether there is a primary victim and primary perpetrator, and making informed safeguarding decisions.

While some valuable resources exist, such as Michael Johnson’s domestic abuse typologies and the Respect practice toolkit for identifying primary victims and perpetrators, these tools are not yet consistently embedded across all agencies responding to domestic abuse. Particularly within policing and social care, practitioners often lack accessible, practical guidance to navigate these complex cases with confidence.

With the support of VISION Co-Investigator and Senior Lecturer Dr Elizabeth (Lizzie) Cook, Danielle’s focus in the PiR programme will be to bridge the gap between research and practice by developing practical resources for professionals. These tools will equip practitioners with greater clarity and confidence when navigating cases involving dual-reports, ultimately improving risk assessment and decision-making.

For further information, please contact Lizzie at elizabeth.cook@citystgeorges.ac.uk

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Reducing young people’s exposure to violence in Lambeth

High Trees Community Development Trust and the Lambeth Peer Action Collective (LPAC) were recently awarded further funding from VISION to co-develop an evaluation framework to measure the impact and value for money of open access youth work and provision on reducing young people’s exposure to violence in Lambeth.

The project draws on an existing collaboration and partnership between VISION, High Trees and LPAC that explored the role trusted adults and safe spaces play in protecting young people from violence. The findings from the original partnership support emerging national data about the role that youth organisations, positive activities and trusted adults play in supporting vulnerable young people. However, existing approaches to evaluation surface challenges about how youth work is measured, monitored and evaluated. Through previous LPAC research with young people, youth practitioners and organisations, the team observed a disconnect between how practice is recognised and valued by young people and how funders, commissioners and policymakers expect impact and value for money to be measured.

This contributes to gaps in the quality, consistency and reliability in evidence, particularly as smaller youth organisations have limited capacity and resources to contribute to large-scale evaluations using established methods. For those offering open access youth work and services, where provisions can be accessed by young people regardless of background or need, demonstrating impact and value for money proves even more difficult as these interventions are longer-term, open-ended and/or unstructured across different settings.

Therefore, building on the previous LPAC research and an initial Cost-Consequence Analysis (CCA) produced by VISION, the aim of the current project is to co-produce an evaluation framework, including components for economic evaluation, that supports youth organisations in Lambeth to measure and demonstrate the impact (and potential value for money) of youth service provision.

For further information on the original research, please see the blog, The story so far: Co-production in Lambeth

For further information, please contact Lizzie at elizabeth.cook@citystgeorges.ac.uk

Understanding Violence: The risks for migrants with rising far-right fascism

VISION is pleased to announce the funding for an exciting new project from the Migrants’ Research Network (MRN). The funding will extend and disseminate MRN’s existing work to:

  1. understand the nature of far-right violence against migrants in the UK focusing on sites where MRN is currently engaged,
  2. provide migrants with resources to recognize and understand when significant risk of violence is present, and
  3. catalogue migrant experiences of violence to feed forward to better understanding and future resourcing of violence prevention.

MRN has worked extensively to support migrants, to build a basis for political participation and advocacy of migrant interests, and to recognize and combat violence and discrimination. In an existing piece of work, MRN created a draft of an ‘explainer’ document for migrants living in temporary accommodations, detailing the nature of racism in the UK, and the rise of far-right violence against migrants, what risks migrants may face, how to recognize potentially violent situations, and what support and resources are available to migrants with insecure status who have experienced or fear experiencing violence.

Given the resurgence of far-right activity, this document can provide a crucial resource to support migrants, providing information to help mitigate fear. However, there is also a significant gap in knowledge regarding the types of violence migrants experience, how these experiences integrate across the life course in the context of previous experiences of violence, and how they affect a sense of safety in place.

This project seeks to fill that gap by integrating lived experience perspectives, and knowledge of those who work closely with migrants experiencing violence, such as caseworkers. Those with lived experience would iteratively revise the current explainer document, to be rolled out via various digital outlets, for broader reach.

While the motivation for this project is the basis of longstanding advocacy work, and academic-practitioner knowledge exchange, the objectives will fully integrate lived experience. The final outputs will be a series of social media posts for circulation and an ‘explainer’ leaflet, co-designed for migrants in insecure accommodation regarding far-right violence. Quantitative data in the form of a survey, and qualitative data collected in the course of discussions regarding the types of violence experienced by migrants and the fear of far-right violence, will generate a report to fill a gap in knowledge regarding violence experienced by people with insecure migration status.

For further information, please contact Andri at andri.innes@citystgeorges.ac.uk

Practitioner in Residence: Improving services for those experiencing teenage relationship abuse

Aisling Barker

Aisling Barker, Violence Against Women and Girls Workforce Development manager at Islington Council, and qualified social worker, is the latest practitioner to join the City St George’s University of London (CSGUL) Practitioner in Residence programme. She became aware of the programme through her work on teenage relationship abuse with co-Deputy Director of the Violence and Society Centre (VASC) at CSGUL and VISION consortium Senior Research Fellow Dr Ruth Weir.

Aisling and her team in Islington have been supporting professionals in their practice with adolescents for five years. They identified concerning trends in violence and abuse in relationships where the victim was as young as 13 years of age but the person causing harm was also as young as 14 or 15 years old. An alarming lack of support available for these young people was apparent – particularly those who were causing harm to their partners at that young age.

Aisling presented the work of her team at the first conference on Adolescent Domestic Abuse hosted by VISION in April 2024. Driven by curiosity the team began to analyse cases to understand where there were system strengths and gaps. They found knowledge and practice gaps in services responding to young people where there was harm in their relationships. They also found that young people often had good relationships with practitioners such as youth workers, gang workers and youth justice case workers. Identifying an opportunity for practice improvement, Aisling and her team developed a training and support package for services working with young people affected by criminality and offending behaviour. Aisling also presented the findings from their case analysis and a case study at the second National Working Group on Teenage Relationship Abuse roundtable in November 2024 also hosted by VISION.

With the support of Ruth and the VASC and VISION teams, Aisling’s focus as a Practitioner in Residence will be documenting and examining the impact of this training and support package as an innovative approach to the prevention and early intervention on violence against women and girls.

For further information, please contact Ruth at ruth.weir@citystgeorges.ac.uk

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VISION researchers present at the European Conference on Domestic Violence

Fourteen researchers from across the UKPRP VISION research consortium attended the September 2025 European Conference on Domestic Violence (ECDV) in Barcelona, Spain. The team presented key findings from their VISION research and several also convened a symposium. It was a successful turnout from the team and a fantastic networking opportunity.

The ECDV conference aims to support and reflect the aims of the Council of Europe’s Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence. It was developed to enhance the visibility and connection of individuals working to address domestic violence in Europe, while also benefitting from the contribution of colleagues from outside Europe.

  • Anastasia Fadeeva convened the symposium Health perspectives on addressing domestic violence and abuse
  • Ladan Hashemi, Anastasia Fadeeva and Sally McManus presented Gender Asymmetry in Physical Health Associations with Intimate Partner Violence (IPV)
  • Anastasia Fadeeva and Niels Blom presented Injuries and Seeking Healthcare following Violence: Inequalities by Victim-Perpetrator Relationship
  • Vanessa Gash presented Hounded Out? Measuring the Effect of Workplace Violence on Women and Men’s Employment Transitions
  • Natalia Lewis and Lizzie Cook participated in the workshop, Community of practice for evidence syntheses on gender-based violence: learning together to enable methodological developments and improve evidence for policy and practice.
  • Lizzie Cook presented Analysing sex/gender-related motives and indicators in England and Wales
  • Sally McManus presented Commercial Determinants of Health: Opportunities for domestic violence prevention from a public health framework analysis which was written with VISION colleagues Olumide Adisa and Mark Bellis.
  • Ruth Weir convened the symposium Violence and abuse in young people’s intimate relationships
  • Polina Obolenskaya and Annie Bunce presented Too soon, too late: experience of and professional responses to abuse in teenage relationships
  • Ruth Weir presented ADA and its consequences: a rapid systematic review
  • Annie Bunce convened the symposium, Exploring multiple vulnerabilities using specialist services’ administrative data: Challenges, opportunities and lessons for the future
  • Maddy Janickyj and Leonie Tanczer presented Understanding Technology-Facilitated Abuse: Exploring real-life experiences through Support Services’ data
  • Annie Bunce presented The role of vulnerability in the inequity of health outcomes for DVA survivors
  • Hannah Manzur presented Disclosure to Formal Agencies and Specialised Support Services among Victims of Intimate Partner Domestic Abuse: Comparing Inequality Patterns, Victim Profiles, and Harms by Disclosure, written with VISION colleagues Annie and Ravi
  • Ladan Hashemi and Hannah Manzur presented Ethnic Disparities in outcomes from contact with DVA support services
  • Gene Feder convened the symposium Adding to the evidence base that community-based perpetrator programmes work to reduce abuse: Positive findings from REPROVIDE, a UK randomised controlled trial

Photographs:

  1. Top, left to right: Annie Bunce (VISION, City St George’s University of London), Ruth Weir (VISION, City St George’s University of London), Nicola Farrelly (University of Lancashire), Polina Obolenskaya (VISION, City St George’s University of London), Christine Barter (University of Lancashire), Aisling Barker (Islington City Council and City St George’s University of London), and Katrina Hadjimatheou (University of Essex)
  2. Middle, left to right: Hannah Manzur (VISION, City St George’s University of London), Ladan Hashemi (VISION, City St George’s University of London), Maddy Janickyj (VISION, University College London), and Annie Bunce (VISION, City St George’s University of London)
  3. Second from bottom: Vanessa Gash (VISION, City St George’s University of London)
  4. Bottom, left to right: Angel Deng (Kings College London), and Ladan Hashemi, Anastasia Fadeeva and Sally McManus (VISION, City St George’s University of London)

New national data collection on workplace violence: Dr Vanessa Gash leads winning entry to UKHLS Innovation Panel Competition 2025

Dr Vanessa Gash

We are thrilled to announce that Dr Vanessa Gash has been selected as a winner of the prestigious UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS) Innovation Panel Competition 2025.

Dr Gash’s winning proposal introduces a new battery of indicators on workplace violence, a critical and timely topic in labour market research. These indicators will be fielded to a nationally representative sample as part of the UKHLS Innovation Panel, a unique test-bed for pioneering survey methods and content within the broader Understanding Society study.

This project not only generates valuable new data on workplace violence across the UK, but will also advance methodological innovation in how such sensitive topics are measured. Once collected, the data will be made publicly available, offering researchers across disciplines the opportunity to explore and build upon this work.

In addition to the data release, Dr Gash and her co-applicants, including Dr Niels Blom, will develop a series of working papers to disseminate findings and insights from the project. These papers will contribute to academic debates and inform policy discussions around workplace safety and wellbeing.

The Innovation Panel Competition is a highly competitive initiative that supports cutting-edge research ideas with real-world impact. We are proud to see Dr Gash’s work recognised and supported by Understanding Society.

For more details about the Innovation Panel and the competition, visit the Understanding Society website.

Exploring Better Responses to Teenage Relationship Abuse

Dr Ruth Weir

Blog by Dr Ruth Weir, VISION Senior Research Fellow in Criminology

Between April and July, Gloucestershire Constabulary’s Deputy Chief Constable Katy Barrow-Grint and I led a series of three place-based roundtables in Gloucestershire, Northumbria and Oxford, as part of our ongoing research into teenage relationship abuse (TRA).

The events were supported by VISION colleagues Annie Bunce, Polina Obolenskaya and Julia Sahin, alongside Kat Hadjimatheou, Honorary Senior Fellow at the Violence and Society Centre and Senior Lecturer at University of Essex. Each roundtable brought together a wide range of local practitioners—from policing, social care, education, health, and specialist services—as well as people with lived experience of adolescent domestic abuse or teenage relationship abuse. The aim was to explore what is working locally, where the challenges lie, and what would be needed for the local area to become a national exemplar in responding to TRA.

The level of engagement was striking. Attendance was high across all three sessions, with more than 80 participants in Northumbria alone. Far from being one-off conversations, the roundtables have sparked ongoing collaboration with local working groups already being set up to continue improving multi-agency responses to teenage relationship abuse.

The roundtables also provided a platform for Katy, VISION’s first Practitioner in Residence and now an Honorary Research Fellow, to share early findings from her national survey of police forces’ current responses to teenage relationship abuse. These insights are helping to build a clearer picture of practice across the country and will inform the next stage of research and policy development.

For further information, please contact Ruth at ruth.weir@citystgeorges.ac.uk

Dr Ruth Weir and Gloucestershire Constabulary’s Deputy Chief Constable Katy Barrow-Grint

Knowledge Transfer Partnership award for City St George’s UoL and the National Centre for Domestic Violence

Dr Darren Cook

Blog by Dr Darren Cook, VISION Research Fellow in Natural Language Processing

Introduction

I’m pleased to share that a cross-university collaboration between City St George’s School of Social Policy and Global Affairs (SPGA) and School of Science and Technology (SST) has been successful in a recent Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) competition.

Working alongside our industry partner, the National Centre for Domestic Violence (NCDV), our project will develop data science capabilities that enhance automation, scalability, and efficiency at NCDV. This will enable improved support, faster response times, and better outcomes for victims of domestic abuse. The project is due to begin in early 2026 and will run for approximately two years.

Importantly, this is the first KTP involving SPGA. As such, it marks a significant milestone for the school, creating new pathways for impactful collaboration with industry and laying the groundwork for future projects that can translate academic expertise into measurable social change.

What is a KTP?

A Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) is a collaborative programme between UK businesses and universities, supported and part funded by Innovate UK [1].

Each KTP addresses a specific business challenge, enabling the transfer of knowledge and expertise from academia into industry through a KTP Associate. The Associate is employed by the business but supported by an academic supervisor, delivering a structured package of work designed to drive innovation and growth.

KTPs are proven to have a significant impact, generating more than £2 billion for the UK economy between 2010 and 2020 [2]. They also support the professional development of Associates, who gain unique experience at the intersection of academia and industry.

What is the focus of this KTP?

Having been successful in our funding application, I will serve as the Academic Supervisor, working alongside Dr Chris Childs (Academic Lead) and the appointed KTP Associate. Together, we will design and implement advanced data science tools to automate key data processes within NCDV.

By streamlining and scaling these processes, the project will:

  • Enable NCDV to support more victims in need.
  • Reduce response times, ensuring urgent legal protections can be accessed more quickly.
  • Provide a replicable model of innovation that could benefit other organisations in the domestic abuse sector.

This partnership also has substantial potential impact for REF, by generating demonstrable evidence of social and economic benefit from research-led activity.

Who are the NCDV?

The National Centre for Domestic Violence (NCDV) [3] is a Community Interest Company (CIC) that helps victims of domestic abuse obtain urgent legal protection through the courts.

Domestic abuse is a widespread and pressing issue:

  • An estimated 2.1 million people in England and Wales experienced domestic abuse per year (1.4 million women and 751,000 men) [4].
  • Police in England and Wales receive over 100 calls relating to domestic abuse every hour [5].

Against this backdrop, the work of NCDV is vital. This KTP will strengthen their capacity to respond to high demand and ensure more victims can access the protection they need.

References

[1] Innovate UK – Knowledge Transfer Partnerships
[2] Innovate UK, KTP Impact Report
[3] National Centre for Domestic Violence
[4] Office for National Statistics, “Domestic abuse prevalence and trends, England and Wales: year ending March 2023.”
[5] Refuge, “Domestic abuse statistics.”

For further information, please contact Darren at darren.cook@citystgeorges.ac.uk

New leadership role in National Criminology Network

Dr Darren Cook

We’re delighted to share that Dr Darren Cook, Research Fellow at VISION and the Violence & Society Centre at City St George’s UoL, has been appointed Co-Chair of the British Society of Criminology’s Policing Network.

In this role, Darren will help lead national discussions on contemporary policing research and practice, and support collaboration across the UK’s criminology and policing research community.

Darren will play a key role in shaping the Network as a space for thoughtful, impactful, and outward-facing policing research.

The team plans to foster cross-disciplinary collaboration, support early-career researchers, and ensure criminological perspectives are part of broader debates around policing, technology, and justice.

Call for Frontiers in Sociology abstracts: Enhancing data collection and integration to Reduce health harms and inequalities linked to violence

Frontiers in Sociology is currently welcoming submissions of original research for the following research topic: Enhancing Data Collection and Integration to Reduce Health Harms and Inequalities Linked to Violence.

This edition is guest-edited by Dr Estela Capelas Barbosa (University of Bristol and the UKPRP VISION research consortium), Dr Annie Bunce (City St. George’s, UoL and the UKPRP VISION research consortium), and Katie Smith (City St. George’s, UoL / University of Bristol).

Submissions should focus on any of the following:

  • advancing measurement approaches which emphasise cross-sector harmonisation to better evaluate interventions, address health inequalities, and reduce violence
  • addressing any form of violence (e.g., physical, non-physical, technology-facilitated) and its impacts on health, social and economic well-being, and marginalised groups, considering intersections of age, gender, ethnicity, disability, and religion

Research using existing datasets or primary data (quantitative or qualitative), cross-sectoral and cross-disciplinary approaches (e.g., sociology, criminology, public health), and lived experience perspectives is encouraged.

Contributions may include conceptual reviews, methodological innovations, empirical studies and systematic reviews on themes such as health inequalities, intervention effectiveness, outcome measurement, data harmonisation, and linkage strategies.

Abstracts are due by 7th April 2025, and the deadline for manuscripts is 28th July 2025.

For details of the different article types accepted and associated costs, please follow this link https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/sociology/for-authors/publishing-fees.

For more information and to submit an abstract or manuscript, please use the “I’m interested” link below or visit the Research Topic page here https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/67291/enhancing-data-collection-and-integration-to-reduce-health-harms-and-inequalities-linked-to-violence. 

This special edition provides an excellent opportunity to advance knowledge in this critical area. Please do reach out and contact us if you have any questions: annie.bunce@city.ac.uk

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