Identifying and responding to domestic abuse in children's social care

Children’s social care practitioners play a key role in identifying and responding to domestic abuse.

Sadly, opportunities to protect children are often missed. In some cases, this can lead to fatal consequences for children who continue to have a contact with a parent who is also a perpetrator of abuse following parental separation.

In this webinar, we will be joined by Women’s Aid colleagues Phoebe Nicholson-Pallett (Senior Research and Policy Officer), Simran Kaur (Research and Policy Officer) and Nikki Bradley (Director of services) who will explore key learning from the 2025 report, Nineteen More Child Homicides.

The report tells the stories of 19 children who have been killed by a parent who was also perpetrator of domestic abuse through child contact (formally or informally arranged) over the past decade.

Learning outcomes

As a result of attending this webinar participants will:

• Understand recent legislative changes and the implications for domestic abuse survivors who access the family courts.
• Understand key findings from Nineteen More Child Homicides, including the increased risk at point of separation.
• Reflect on the role of social care practitioners in identifying controlling and coercive behaviour, and how to apply this knowledge and empower colleagues to do the same.
• Understand how social care practitioners can improve information sharing between the family courts and relevant statutory agencies regarding domestic abuse.
• Use the learnings from the report to improve their response to the non-abusive parents, including appropriate signposting to specialist domestic abuse services.