Hackney Council has launched the UK's first local guidance focused on trauma caused by domestic abuse, aiming to improve responses to child victims. The Hackney trauma-informed multi-agency guidance: responding to child victims of domestic abuse was launched in 2024/25.
The initiative was discussed at the Living in Hackney Scrutiny Commission meeting on Tuesday 23 September 2025, as part of a broader review of the Eliminating Violence Against Women & Girls Strategy 2022-25.
To support the implementation of this guidance, the Council's Domestic Abuse Training and Consultation Service, provided by DAIS since 2023, trained 1653 professionals in Hackney and the City in 2024/25. The training covers a range of issues including coercive control, bystander interventions, FGM, and domestic homicide prevention. Training is also tailored to the needs of particular services and organisations, and feedback from those trained has been overwhelmingly positive.
The guidance is part of Hackney's wider strategy to combat violence against women and girls (VAWG). The strategy has four priorities:
- Preventing and reducing VAWG
- Supporting all victims and survivors
- Holding perpetrators to account
- Building trust and confidence
The Hackney Domestic Abuse Risk Assessment, a key component of this strategy, contains prompts to help practitioners explore considerations of Anti Racist Practice, Intergenerational Abuse, Extra-Familial Harm and Exploitation, Disability and LGBTQ+ Status, ensuring the needs of children from diverse cultural backgrounds or with specific vulnerabilities are addressed.
According to a report from the Domestic Abuse Intervention Service (DAIS), implementation of the VAWG Strategy is led and coordinated by DAIS and overseen by the VAWG Strategic Board, which reports to Hackney's Community Safety Partnership. The structure of the Hackney VAWG Partnership is shown below:
