Safety Audit UK is an organisation established in 2005 to develop the Praxis International Safety and Accountability Audit for use in the UK. Ellen Pence developed the model in Duluth, USA, to help agencies investigate their processing of domestic violence cases in order to discover how effective they are in increasing the safety of victims and holding perpetrators accountable for their behaviour.

• Neil Blacklock, the founder and Development Manager of the Domestic Violence Intervention Project, London (1991-2006), and currently the Accreditation Project Manager for Respect (The National Association for Perpetrator Programmes and Linked Support Services).
  
  
• Nina George has a background in working with victims of domestic abuse and is currently the Domestic Violence Co-ordinator for Lancashire.
  
  
• Susan Kennedy, currently a senior manager in HM Prison Service, has a history of innovative domestic abuse work, including providing training and consultancy.
  
  
• Dave Potts has been involved in the development of a range of domestic abuse interventions with male perpetrators and currently works as an independent trainer and consultant in domestic abuse (with Susan Kennedy forming Kennedy Potts Training Associates).

What is a Safety Audit?

Undertaking a safety audit is a process which looks at whether the responses that we have created to address domestic violence do what they are intended to, namely increase the safety of those at risk of domestic violence and increase the accountability of those who perpetrate such abuse.

A safety audit is not about criticising individuals or looking at individual competences. Rather, the focus of an audit is the institutional processes (forms, policies, procedures, training, interagency links, administrative practices, deployment of resources, theories and organisational purpose/mission) that act upon the lives of those affected by domestic violence. The focus of an audit is understanding how our professional responses to someone's lived experience of domestic violence shape that experience into a case that our agencies then respond to.

A safety audit is something that a small, local, multi-disciplinary group, with the support of audit co-ordinators, undertake in order to discover the specific strengths and weakness in the agency's response to domestic violence. The Safety Audit can be quite narrow (e.g. how a referral form might affect victim safety) or very broad (e.g. how do the triage arrangements in an A & E department affect domestic violence cases).

• Initial negotiation on the nature of the audit, perhaps informed by a focus group, which is then followed by forming and preparing an audit team.
  
  
• Determining what part of the process to examine and therefore defining the breath of the safety audit.
  
  
• Define the scope of the audit (one intervention may affect another and therefore audits need parameters thus defining the depth of the audit).
  
  
• Collecting data: looking at files, reading policies, observing practice, interviews with key staff and service users.
  
  
• Analyzing data.
  
  
• Recording findings and progressing towards recommendations.

All safety audits are trying to answer the question, "How does this (practice, policy, rule, etc) enhance victim safety and the accountability of offenders?"

What value does a safety audit have beyond other forms of evaluation?
A Safety Audit is not about assessing whether or not something works, but it will give you information about how a process is working and what might improve its effectiveness. It involves the audit team learning about the problems faced by the agency in responding to domestic abuse and it therefore generates investment in the audit process and the implementation of its outcomes.

No matter how good you believe your processes are, we believe the safety audit process will bring new learning and systems improvements and will strengthen your work.

How long does the process take?
The length of time needed for an audit depends on its scope and depth. After initial negotiations, a short intense audit, say involving only one agency, could be completed over four months.
A more extensive audit, involving the audit team tracking the flow of information across several agencies and different systems, could take up to a year.

• The agency's strengths in responding to domestic violence.
  
  
• How its processes impact upon the lives of those affected by domestic violence
  
  
• How the agency responses can change to improve their effectiveness.

How would I go about setting up a Safety Audit?
In the first instance contact Safety Audit UK at:

Susan Kennedy & Dave Potts e-mail: kennedypotts@btinternet.com
Nina George e-mail: lass@chicas.fsnet.co.uk
Neil Blacklock e-mail: neil.blacklock@respect.uk.net

We will discuss with you whether the safety audit approach will deliver what you require. This could be followed by a meeting where we can develop the audit question and sketch out who will participate in the audit. Safety Audit UK will then prepare a draft of how we see the audit proceeding, including timescales and cost.