MARAC and IDVA

What is MARAC?

MARAC = Multi Agency Risk Assessment Conference.

It is a forum where multiple agencies get together to provide a co-ordinated response for those at the highest risk of domestic abuse

What are the aims of the MARAC?

There are four aims of MARAC – to safeguard adult victims, make links with other public protection arrangements in relation to children, perpetrators and vulnerable adults and to safeguard agency staff as well as to address the behaviour of the perpetrator.  This is achieved by an information sharing and action planning process at MARAC.  To make this work case management and specialist support, before, during and after the meeting, is normally provided by the Independent Domestic Violence Advisor.  You should have an IDVA service in your region which will provide specialist support to high risk victims of domestic abuse from the point of crisis and be skilled at working and co-ordinating the responses of different agencies.

What is the support that CAADA can offer my MARAC?

The process that we set out on page 3 of this booklet may not look exactly like the way the MARAC is working in your area.  If this is the case, CAADA aims to offer support in a number of ways.

ü       Training: We provide a range of training aimed at all the key participants in MARAC including the Chair, Co-ordinator, Representatives and IDVAs.  We also have developed a MARAC Champions training programme that equips local delegates to cascade training and information about the MARAC to front line practitioners.

ü        Help Desk: We run a help-desk which can be contacted at marac@caada.org.uk where we will attempt to answer any practical problems regarding the process, but cannot comment on individual cases.

ü       Practical Tools: In addition to the appendices to this document, we have created simple checklists to help you create sound information sharing and operating protocols.

ü       Data Collection: We also receive quarterly data from your MARAC Co-ordinator and analyse this in relation to the performance of your MARAC compared with others in your region and nationally.  This is something that may be of relevance to you in your work and in communicating the value of MARAC to colleagues in your own agency.

ü       Cost Benefit Analysis: Equally, CAADA can provide a simple cost benefit analysis for your MARAC if you can provide us with the relevant information in relation to the nature of the cases that you are dealing with.

ü       Quality Assurance: We believe that it is important for victim safety that MARACs follow the evaluated model set out in this document.  Thus the final part of our implementation package is Quality Assurance, which provides an independent assessment of your MARAC in relation to 11 good practice principles.  It focuses heavily on the role of the different partners in the MARAC: the Chair, the IDVA, the Co-ordinator and all the representatives from different agencies and as part of this your views will be sought as to how your MARAC is operating.  For more information about the MARAC Quality Assurance process please go to www.caada.org.uk.

IDVA

IDVA = Independent Domestic Violence Advisor

As you will be aware, cases are normally only discussed once in MARAC with the feedback on the completion or non-completion of actions being taken at the next meeting, a second discussion only being prompted if there is a repeat incident.  This is often concerns representatives and it is important to understand the role of the IDVA in supporting victims before, during and after the MARAC meeting.  As noted above, the IDVA service will normally provide:

1. A response to high risk victims from the point of crisis and would normally get a referral within 24 hours of an incident taking place.  Normally their referrals come from the police and the health service.  However, they increasingly are receiving self-referrals as their role becomes more widely known.
2. The IDVA service will offer practical support to high risk victims ahead of the meeting.  This includes:
   1. Reviewing an existing risk assessment that has been done by another agency (say the police) and checking it again with the victim.  Often, the victim will disclose more to an IDVA than to other professionals;
   2. Discussing the full range of safety options with the victim, aiming wherever possible to keep them safe in their home;
   3. Supporting them in whatever way meets their safety needs most effectively.  This may be through the family courts, the criminal courts or in relation to housing, immigration or other issues.
   4. As noted above, the IDVA will normally represent the views of the victim at the meeting and it is their role to try and contact them beforehand and establish how best the partners can address the risk and safety issues.
   5. After the meeting it is normally the IDVA’s role to follow up with the victim in order to communicate the key elements of the action plan and will typically work with the victim for four to six months in total.

We recommend that an IDVA should have a caseload of no more than 100 referrals per annum of which we would expect something around 70-75% to engage with the service.  Thus it is important to make sure that your IDVA service locally is properly resourced in order to support the volume of victims that your MARAC is dealing with.