Introduction

Abstract

Moral and legal obligations to address issues of domestic violence and abuse (DVA) are now of global concern. At a regional level, the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (Istanbul Convention), 2014, provides legally binding standards to improve the prevention of violence, the protection of victims, and the prosecution of perpetrators through a set of integrated policies, calling for a stronger coordination of legal and community-based responses (Council of Europe, 2011). Although at the time of writing this chapter, the UK had yet to ratify the Istanbul Convention, the last 10-15 years has also seen a powerful policy rhetoric materialize in the UK, advocating the need for more effective interdisciplinary, multi-agency working and coordinated community responses to issues of DVA. From the late 1990s onwards, professional partnership networks have emerged, pursuing collective responsibilities for protection, prevention, and intervention. However, some of these groupings have remained narrow and self-referential in their outlook (Dobash & Dobash, 1998), with the ideologies of the larger leading organizations tending to dominate (Nash, 2010). The additional benefits of partnership working have also been differentially pursued by policymakers and service providers, which may, in turn, be viewed as following: a strategy to ensure that a joint, prompt, and effective response is made to cases where victims/survivors and children may be in imminent danger; an opportunity to improve, coordinate, innovate, and expand the range of DVA services available; a strategy to address prior evaluations of poor practice by a single agency; a mechanism by which the resourcing of a particular service may continue; or an opportunity to streamline funding overall.