Domestic Violence Service Standard

We’re committed to providing our tenants with great services and putting them at the heart of everything we do. We firmly believe everyone has the right to feel safe and secure in their home. This service standard tells you what level of service you can expect from us in responding to domestic abuse.

We will:

• Make sure you are listened to, treated fairly and with respect.
• Make sure our staff are professional, trained, knowledgeable about domestic abuse and supportive and non-judgemental.
• Provide you with a single point of contact who will manage your case, usually the Housing Patch Manager for your area.
• Respond within one working day, adopting a survivor and person-centred approach that considers the survivor's needs and any children in the household.
• Arrange to meet you at a safe location to complete a domestic abuse risk assessment form and discuss a referral to the Nottingham domestic abuse multi-agency risk assessment conference (MARAC), where professionals meet to coordinate their agency’s role in minimising risk to survivors of domestic abuse.
• Agree on a clear plan with you that sets out how we will support you. The plan will be led by you and based on your concerns and wishes. If it is safe to do so, we will provide you with a copy of this plan.
• Agree on a safe method of contact so that we can keep you updated. This could include talking to us over the phone, through an online video call, at our offices, or another safe venue.
• Provide relevant advice and help, including information about alternative housing, additional security measures such as the sanctuary scheme in the home and suitable support from specialist organisations.
• Only share your information with your consent unless legally required or to protect someone at risk. Your safety and confidentiality are our top priorities.
• Provide you with advice, information, and support to help you access alternative accommodation if staying in your home is unsafe.
• Hold the person responsible for the abuse to account if appropriate, including taking legal possession where applicable. We will not take any action without consulting with you first.
• Offer support for those responsible for domestic abuse to modify their behaviour where appropriate, to prevent reoccurrence.

We work closely with partner agencies such as local domestic abuse services, Police and wider Council Services to ensure the best outcome for survivors of domestic abuse.

Your safety is our main concern, so we will not inform the person responsible for the abuse that we have spoken to you.

Domestic abuse awareness

We’ll widely publicise information to raise awareness about domestic abuse, including how to get help if needed and what to expect from us.

We’ll share information with tenants about the help and support we and partner agencies provide around domestic abuse.

How do we check we’re meeting these service standards?

We will review your case at least monthly and conduct case audits to make sure we meet our promises.

We will regularly report how we are doing

• on our website and social media
• in our tenant newsletter 
• to the Housing Quality Assurance Board (made up of tenants who scrutinise our services).

When we will review these standards

• annually, we review our service plan
• when we review the domestic abuse policy and procedure
• when your feedback tells us we need to, for example, through the customer satisfaction survey or complaints about the service.