Fulfilling Lives South East has collaborated with East Sussex County Council and Brighton & Hove City Council to evaluate the impact of a pilot trailing a new approach to the local MARAC systems.

The Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conference (‘MARAC’) is a regular weekly local meeting to discuss how to help victims of domestic abuse at high risk of murder or serious harm. It brings together Representatives from a number of agencies in the local area to discuss the safety, health and wellbeing of people experiencing domestic abuse (and their children) and to agree actions and safety plans in order to reduce risk and keep individuals safe.

In 2019, the Joint Domestic, Sexual Violence & Abuse and VAWG Unit for Brighton & Hove and East Sussex reviewed the MARAC structures and referral pathways. The review highlighted the increasing numbers of referrals into the MARAC locally across Brighton & Hove and East Sussex, as well as highlighting the increasing challenges of safety planning for victims of complex and repeat cases. The MARAC Support Team worked with agencies to shape a new ‘Hub’ model in response to challenges identified in the review. A three-month pilot was launched in January 2020 to trial a new approach and was rolled out across Brighton & Hove and East Sussex.

This report shares the learning of the Brighton & Hove and East Sussex MARAC pilot with a view to informing the future design of the MARAC structures locally. We also hope that these findings and reflections can support other areas in the country who are interested in developing their own local MARAC structures and systems to improve outcomes for high risk victims of domestic abuse.

What the evaluation says

From this evaluation, the data supports that the MARAC meeting now feels safer and more effective than before. Meeting conversations have moved away from having an update-focus to allow for more discussion about safety and planning. The changes that have been made have created strong foundations to continue to develop this important space. The evaluation has shown that this is dependent on effective preparation, smaller number of meeting attendees, productive relationships between agencies, and effective chairing.

You can read the full evaluation report here: MARAC report to learn more about the evaluation findings and recommendations for the future.

IfFulfilling Lives South East has a particular interest in the experiences of people with Multiple and Complex Needs (‘MCN’). 93% of women who work with us have experienced domestic abuse and many are heard at MARAC. Our client-facing work has previously highlighted to us the challenges of discussing complex cases in detail within the previous MARAC structure and we are pleased to see that conversations appear to now be more focussed on risk planning, exploring agency involvement and ensuring accountability of actions. We are also very interested in how the evaluation highlights that complex cases require clearer definition and pathways within future MARAC systems in order to ensure safety planning is completed in the most effective way possible. This is an area that we hope will be included for further consideration and development in the future.

Fulfilling Lives is committed to continue working with partners across the public and voluntary sectors to support in finding new ways of working and testing new ideas to help improve the situation for women who have multiple complex needs and experience domestic abuse and violence. Should you wish to discuss the report further, please contact Rebecca Rieley, Systems Change Lead for FLSE:

rebecca.rieley@sefulfillinglives.org.uk

Author – Rebecca Rieley