South London and Maudsley (SLaM) is an NHS Foundation Trust based in London, which specialises in mental health. It comprises four psychiatric hospitals, the Ladywell Unit based at University Hospital Lewisham, over 100 community sites, and 300 clinical teams.
Domestic Abuse and Exploitation Lead, Rosa Keneally, tells us about the work she is leading at SLaM, which encompasses both employees and patients.
- SLaM are implementing a new domestic abuse policy in October 2024 following extensive changes to reflect key developments that have taken place both locally and nationally, including the Domestic Abuse Act 2021, emerging research on addressing perpetrators, and to highlight a new local online Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conference (MARAC) system. The policy was shared on the Trust intranet and promoted by the safeguarding team when giving training and supervision.
- Monthly surgeries for employees who are experiencing domestic abuse to access support, which managers can also access if they would like advice on how to support colleagues. The surgery details have been circulated across the Trust and promoted within team meetings, and several cases have surfaced.
- Training for over 50 HR employees. These have highlighted the internal “Ask Me!” campaign, promoting the need for all managers to routinely ask all employees about their safety at home and at work as part of their one-to-one meetings (and for all patients to be routinely asked too). They are also developing bespoke training for employees working within CAMHS (children and adolescent mental health services).
- Recruiting Domestic Abuse Champions among employees. Recruitment posters are being circulated across the Trust, with the aim of acquiring one champion in each department, who will meet for a monthly ‘Power Hour’.
- Campaigns and Visibility Days jointly delivered by the safeguarding team and the National Guardian's Office. The first one was at the Bethlem Royal Hospital with a focus on domestic abuse and sexual safety; the details of this event were circulated to all employees across the Trust. They also held a 16 Days of Activism domestic abuse conference there in 2024, and this year’s conference will focus on sexual safety from an intersectional perspective.
- Developing an awareness toolkit on the employee intranet, with the intention of making it easy for employees to access important information about domestic abuse processes and support, which can be applied to both colleagues and patients. This includes a sexual safety e-learning module.
- Developing a live domestic abuse tool for patients to sit within their health record, with prompts for NHS employees to ask additional questions or take certain actions as part of the information they receive. If patients are identified as a victim-survivor of domestic abuse, healthcare employees are required to complete a record of a trusted person for that patient who they can contact if they cannot get hold of the patient directly. Following the completion of several domestic homicide reviews in South London, Rosa has started working on a domestic abuse and suicidality toolkit.
- Liaising with the Drive Partnership (a domestic abuse perpetrator behaviour change programme), as SLaM’s coverage area, Croydon, is one of the three areas in England and Wales that will be part of the Government pilot project requiring perpetrators with a domestic abuse prevention order to be referred to a perpetrator programme, a specialist substance misuse service, or to engage with mental health services.
- Running a domestic abuse employee audit in 2024. The responses have been collated to help the safeguarding team to obtain further understanding of SLaM employees’ confidence, competence, and preparedness to complete routine enquiry, Domestic Abuse, Stalking and Honour Based Violence Risk Identification (DASH) assessments, and referrals to the MARAC as required. The audit findings are now being used to develop further support pathways.
- Raising awareness of Honour Based Abuse (HBA) such as female genital mutilation (FGM) at hospital events. Safeguarding team and hospital employees attended awareness-raising sessions to help identify HBA cases, with the help of specialist organisation, Karma Nirvana.
