Domestic Homicide Reviews
Domestic Homicide Reviews (DHRs) were established on a statutory basis under section 9 of the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act (2004).
This provision came into force on 13 April 2011.
The purpose of a DHR is to:
- establish what lessons are to be learned from the domestic homicide regarding the way in which local professionals and organisations work individually and together to safeguard victims
- identify clearly what those lessons are both within and between agencies, how and within what timescales they will be acted on, and what is expected to change as a result
- apply these lessons to service responses including changes to policies and procedures as appropriat
- prevent domestic violence homicide and improve service responses for all domestic violence victims and their children through improved intra and inter-agency working
DHRs are not inquiries into how the victim died or into who is culpable; that is a matter for coroners and criminal courts, respectively, to determine as appropriate.
The review process is to ensure agencies are responding appropriately to victims of domestic violence by offering and putting in place appropriate support mechanisms, procedures, resources and interventions with an aim to avoid future incidents of domestic homicide and violence.
Published Havering DHRs
We express our deep condolences to the family and friends of Ava and Oliver.
Their deaths were, and remain, devastating to the staff involved and for all community safety partners.
Any circumstances like the ones in which Ava and Oliver died must be thoroughly investigated and reviewed so that we can understand what went wrong and what needs to be done differently to prevent something similar from happening again.
We have acted on all the key issues raised as a result of the investigations, inquest and this review.
This includes adapting how we manage risk assessment and mental capacity, as well as changes to our management of safeguarding adult work.
We have improved our joint working arrangements with NELFT services so that where both organisations are involved with the care of a family we share the right information to reduce any risks and to safeguard more effectively together.
Community safety partners deal with life and death situations every day.
We all share a passionate commitment to do everything we can to protect lives and keep people safe.
While Ava’s and Oliver’s deaths were not predictable, there is much learning to do as a result of those tragic circumstances for our partnership.
We are committed to implementing that learning immediately.