Safeguarding Minister Jess Phillips admitted that the UK’s main domestic abuse screening tool “doesn’t work” but that “we have to make the very best of the system that we have”. So much for ‘we will half domestic violence against women’…
Police and social services mainly use a Dash questionnaire to assess risk of domestic abuse, though in 2022, academics from Manchester and Seville found 96% of victims later deemed “high risk” were first marked only “standard” or “medium” by Dash. According to FOIs by the BBC, more than half of UK police services still use the tool…
Jess Phillips said:
“Until I can replace it with something that does [work] we have to make the very best of the system that we have. Any risk assessment tool is only as good as the person who is using it. The grading system won’t immediately protect you.”
Phillips also delayed Labour’s much-touted Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy and still hasn’t said when she will appoint a rape gang inquiry chairman. Add this to the list of problems for the ‘safeguarding’ minister…
Sarah Pochin at Reform Scotland’s manifesto launch event: “I really wanted to come on in a Reform tartan burka, but apparently I wasn’t allowed… One day let’s do one of these events not live-streamed. We’ll do all the naughty stuff…”