Description:

The Comprehensive Needs Assessment of Child/Adolescent to Parent Violence and Abuse in London (2022) report was commissioned by the London Violence Reduction Unit.

The report’s aim was to improve understanding of the prevalence and nature of children and young people's use of violence and abuse towards parents/carers in London. The report further aims to support implementing a coherent strategy and policy response to partnership work.

The study adopted a mixed-methods approach including a series of interviews with young people and parents/carers.

The study found that there is no single driver of child/adolescent to parent violence and abuse There are multiple complex, and intersecting, common pathways which increase the vulnerability of both parents/carers and children/young people to violence and abuse. . These include (but are not limited to) adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and trauma, structural factors that impact on parental capacity, exploitation and extra-familial harm, exposure to domestic abuse, unmet emotional and psychological needs and unidentified special educational and disability (SEND) needs.

The report summarises 10 recommendations to inform good practice:

1. Establish the variation in terminology and definitions of child/adolescent to parent violence and abuse used by different statutory services and voluntary and community sector organisations to inform the development of statutory guidance.
2. Promote an understanding of child/adolescent to parent violence and abuse both as form of domestic abuse, as well as potentially symptomatic of other child protection/safeguarding issues such as extra-familial harm as well as exposure to abuse and violence in the family home.
3. Statutory guidance to support the development of a longitudinal dataset on the incidence of child/adolescent to parent violence and abuse.
4. Support all services to identify and develop more specialist expertise in understanding the dynamics of child/adolescent to parent violence and abuse.
5. Encourage tailored responses to child/adolescent to parent violence and abuse.
6. Raise and embed awareness and understanding of child/adolescent to parent violence and abuse as a form of domestic abuse distinct from intimate-partner violence.
7. Facilitate greater multi-agency collaboration on child/adolescent to parent violence and abuse cases and consider the development of a multi-agency information sharing forum for professionals to discuss high-risk cases.
8. Train and develop child/adolescent to parent violence and abuse champions in each London borough’s children’s social care / safeguarding team.
9. Ensure pan-London coverage of child/adolescent to parent violence and abuse specific services.
10. Commission independent evaluation which examines the existing intervention models used to respond to child/adolescent to parent violence and abuse across London.