MARAC

[Portmore]

Name changed but long term member.

I've been referred to MARAC following a serious injury - hospital safeguarding referred.

It's not a partner it's another family member who has autism & a serious mental health illness.

They found large amounts of Internet searches related to hatred of women (incel type stuff). He rarely leaves home & has never had a partner so I'm certain I'm the only one at risk.

I've not reported to police due to long-standing family loyalty & previous bad experience police in complex situations.

Has anyone been in a similar situation or could share experiences of what to expect.

I have no support as although the law defines it as domestic abuse, IDVA is not commisioned or funded to support.

I'm in England if that makes a difference

I’m so sorry for the situation you are trying to manage.
I think, though, you have to put family loyalty etc to one side. You are not safe. You deserve to be safe. You are worth protecting and are just as valuable and precious as your relative.

To meet the threshold for MARAC they must be very concerned for you and your safety. Is this a family member you live with, or one who you help care for in their home? This to me sounds like a situation where family loyalty means fuck all, you have to be safe and you’ve ended up injured! Hopefully the outcome of the MARAC referral is better support for you both.

I'm not sure anyone would know if they've been in a similar situation without you saying who they are to you, how often you need to see them and why etc.

Is this your son, and do you live with them?

You’ll get very different answers if it is a son, who you obviously can’t walk away from, vs a brother, uncle or cousin who you definitely should walk away from if they are capable of seriously injuring you.

The thing is depending on what they’ve done online, they definitely could be a risk to others.

I meant experience with MARAC & what it involves & what to expect.
I don't meet criteria for idva as they only funded for partner/ex partner violence so not really anyone to ask

It's a younger sibling who I had custody of so in some ways it feels like abandoning my own child.

I'm more looking for experiences & advice on the MARAC process.

I didn't want to ask without context as most people would have experienced it in partner/ex partner violence so didn't want people to make that assumption that I understand their experiences that are deeply personal (if that makes sense) I just wanted to be honest that it's not a partner/ex partner

I don’t have personal experience of MARAC only professional but it’s basically a process for formal
information sharing between organisations so police, health, education, social care whoever is relevant attend the meeting and give a report so that all info is collated and then agree a response from each agency to minimise risk. They can’t really do anything against your will if you are an adult with capacity though. If you choose to continue to put yourself at risk noone will over ride that. The police can choose to prosecute without your cooperation if it meets that threshold but it’s very hard for them with no witness statement and CPS usually decline. I am very surprised at lack of IVDA access though as family members would count in our area. DV is DV. The process might yield more offers of support for you/ family member but it is toothless to force anything without cooperation

It's basically a quick meeting between diff agencies - social workers, DA advisors, police where they work out what they can do to reduce the risk of you getting murdered. When I've been the subject of them before it triggered the police making an arrest and I got an IDVA, but I don't know what course of action there will be to help you. I feel like social services need to support you more but I appreciate they can also be really unhelpful like the police.

I hope you make a quick recovery and get the support you deserve

I suspect that in the light of recent reports eg Stockport the police will take this more seriously than in the past and they may choose to prosecute. Depends on the nature of the material and their participation level. Ask yourself what you want as an outcome? Do you want the person removed and cared for elsewhere? Seems like that would be a good outcome. Also please do disclose anything you are aware of rather than risk assessing it yourself when you are too close and not the expert. I would suggest that you cannot really know if he is a risk to anyone else. The Southport killer and the Tate Modern guy were not considered to be a risk to others by those close to them when they very clearly were. I don’t mean to upset you or to fear monger but just to ask you to be very open with the police and let them decide so it’s not all on you.

Thank you

Who told you you don't meet the criteria? I know it's different in different areas, but I'm surprised.

Have you not got any DV worker at all? Tje whole premise of MARAC is that somethings the "victim's voice" and of course feeds back to them afterwards.

In my area the chair would absolutely demand that you're allocated an IDVA of you've scored high on the DASH / DARA.

Can you call your local support line and just double check?

The IDVA would usually provide you target hardening, Halo app, and practical and emotional support, all vital in DV.

The domestic abuse service that covers my area & is a contracted to provide idva's (there's only one provider) They told me that themselves.
They are only funded for partner/ ex partner or co-habiting family members.

They offered safety planning email & links to their website & signposted me to hollieguard but other than that I do not meet the criteria for idva.

It's one of the things I hope marac can address.

Would MARAC mean that one agency would have to act as the point of contact rather than them all signposting me to each other & bouncing me between services?

That's the one thing I'm hoping that marac will offer.

I will try and be helpful although MARAC won’t look the same for everyone. As you’ve just said above, about where you want the services to share information and stop bouncing things around - this should be the point and benefit of a MARAC in my experience. One person (usually the person most involved) holds the MARAC and holds the case as it were, the others then feed that person info and it’s discussed as an multidisciplinary issue, and agreed upon next steps etc. You can then have one point of contact, the lead professional. In theory this should work well and it’s a good idea broadly, but each professional needs to be on the ball so ask for changes if they’re not. You might get someone turn up say from I don’t know, social care let’s say, and they’ll say something like they haven’t read the file or met him. Anything like that, flag and ask for someone who has.

What a painful situation, and I have such empathy for you, but you cannot throw your life away to be abused and potentially killed. I understand the family and emotional connection, and it won’t be a cut and dried decision to make, but his life isn’t worth more than yours. Do what you can to ensure he has support etc but please try to take a pathway where you yourself are not at risk.

No. They say it's not domestic abuse because it's not a partner/ex partner & because mental health is a big factor.

I don't have a point of contact at all. The referal was done by the hospital safeguarding team & they will present my case at marac. Hospital safeguarding does not have ongoing involvement after the meeting.

Does the marac chair/co ordinator contact people to get their views ahead of the marac?

What agency chairs/co ordinates marac that I could ask.

Would anyone feedback after the meeting eg the chair/co ordinator.

Marac is this Wednesday

Thank you. That's really helpful. I appreciate it 💐

It may vary, but my local MARAC is chaired by police. They wouldn't ever feedback or contact beforehand as that's the role of the IDVA.

I've worked in DV adjacent fields for over 20 years and never known there not to be a way to get an IDVA somehow. What was your score on the DASH? That sometimes does influence who'll fund.

Just because he currently doesnt the leave the house, that doesnt mean he cant or wont. Potentially motivated by the hate that is eating him up right now. And the impact of that could be catastrophic.

I strongly suggest you press charges against him for assault. Hopefully given his disability he will then get the help (and containment) he so clearly needs. I understand how hard a decision that is, but speaking as someone who been through this in my family, the alternative is much much worse. Deal with it now, or deal with it later - thats the choice.

Im so sorry you have to go through all this. It doesnt go away, but the sooner you protect yourself from the harm the better, and the better choices you can make for them.

I'm an IDVA. Each MARAC is a little different but they're often run by police and they hear lots of cases one after the other. They invite lots of professionals (usually social care, health, IDVA, schools etc) and ask for a report from each ahead of the meeting so they have a picture of the contact all agencies currently have/have had with you and your family. Then the MARAC chair assigns actions to each. One agency won't usually co-ordinate the others, but various agencies should be tasked with things to support and help you keep safe. Whoever has the most contact with you as an agency should feed back what happened and what the actions are.

Stockport???

Do you mean Southport?

Thank you

I'm not sure what dash is? Is it the risk assessment?
I don't think I had a formal risk assessment. The hospital consultant asked if I would consent to a safeguarding referal which I did. She came to see me the next day & I had an informal chat
She said she would need to inform police due to nature of the injuries. Police spoke to me & confirmed that I did not want to give a statement. They framed it as a 'routine welfare check'
It was the hospital safeguarding nurse who has done referal for MARAC. All I know is that it's been accepted & will be held on Wednesday.
I've got no other information or point of contact apart from police reference number so don't know what to accept.

I called the domestic abuse service who were sympathetic but said it's not domestic abuse & I'm not eligible for idva. They emailed me some safety planning advice & links to their website. They said I can use their helpline if needed but they can't provide idva.

If you're 'personally connected' and both over the age of 16, then it's domestic abuse. The statutory definition is here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/domestic-abuse-bill-2020-factsheets/statutory-definition-of-domestic-abuse-factsheet