COMPLETING THE SOCIAL WORK ASSESSMENT
Regionally there is work on going in terms of agreeing a
core risk assessment tool for social workers to use in
cases of DV. This would be evidence based and assist
social work assessment in terms of thresholds for child
protection / family support.
In the absence of same, however, the social work
assessment should consider the information obtained
from the DASH with which to analyse risk of harm and
need for further intervention.
Where a victim has not engaged with completion of
DASH, the questions within the tool can be used as a
prompt for the social worker to gather relevant
information.
Within the assessment, it is necessary to gain an
understanding of the risk posed by the perpetrator, the
vulnerability of the victim and children, the ability of the
victim to safeguard herself and children, the support
network available to assist them, and the supports
required from social services to assist in keeping them
safe.
In discussion with the perpetrator the social worker (with
the benefit of having completed a check on the
perpetrator's history) should consider the following (from
SARA v3 2015):
If the perpetrator has a history of violence within
intimate relationships, general violence or, has been