Guidance
This guideline covers planning and delivering multi-agency services for domestic violence and abuse. It aims to help identify, prevent and reduce domestic violence and abuse among women and men in heterosexual or same-sex relationships, and among young people.
Recommendations
This guideline includes recommendations on:
- planning and commissioning services
- local strategic multi-agency partnerships
- identifying domestic violence and abuse
- providing tailored support and specialist advice and advocacy
- support for specific groups affected by domestic violence and abuse, including people who find it difficult to access services, children and young people, and people who have a mental health condition
- support for people who perpetrate domestic violence and abuse
- training for health and social care professionals
Who is it for?
- Health and social care professionals
- Commissioners and providers
- People who work for specialist domestic violence and abuse services
- People who work in criminal justice settings and detention centres
- People affected by domestic violence and abuse and their families and carers
- Members of the public
Is this guideline up to date?
We checked this guideline in August 2018. We found no new evidence that affects the recommendations in this guideline.
Guideline development process
How we develop NICE guidelines
This guideline was previously called domestic violence and abuse: how health services, social care and the organisations they work with can respond effectively.
Your responsibility
The recommendations in this guideline represent the view of NICE, arrived at after careful consideration of the evidence available. When exercising their judgement, professionals and practitioners are expected to take this guideline fully into account, alongside the individual needs, preferences and values of their patients or the people using their service. It is not mandatory to apply the recommendations, and the guideline does not override the responsibility to make decisions appropriate to the circumstances of the individual, in consultation with them and their families and carers or guardian.
All problems (adverse events) related to a medicine or medical device used for treatment or in a procedure should be reported to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency using the Yellow Card Scheme.
Local commissioners and providers of healthcare have a responsibility to enable the guideline to be applied when individual professionals and people using services wish to use it. They should do so in the context of local and national priorities for funding and developing services, and in light of their duties to have due regard to the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination, to advance equality of opportunity and to reduce health inequalities. Nothing in this guideline should be interpreted in a way that would be inconsistent with complying with those duties.
Commissioners and providers have a responsibility to promote an environmentally sustainable health and care system and should assess and reduce the environmental impact of implementing NICE recommendations wherever possible.