What is it?
A DHR is a review of the circumstances in which the death of a person aged 16 or over has, or appears to have, resulted from violence, abuse or neglect by:
- A person they were related to or a current or ex-partner (this includes relationships between adults who are or have been intimate partners or family members, regardless of gender or sexuality) or;
- A member of the same household as them.
What is the purpose of a DHR?
- Establish what lessons are to be learned from the domestic homicide, specifically the way in which local professionals and organisations work individually and together to safeguard victims
- Identify clearly what those lessons are, both within and between agencies, how and within what timescales they will be acted on, and what is expected to change as a result
- Apply these lessons to service responses including changes to policies and procedures as appropriate
- Prevent domestic violence homicide and improve service responses for all domestic violence and abuse victims and their children through improved intra and inter-agency working.
DHR guidance
A duty to undertake domestic homicide reviews was implemented by the Home Office through statutory guidance in April 2011.
Wigan's Building Stronger Communities Partnership has produced local guidance, which reflects the commitment of statutory and voluntary organisations across the Borough to learn lessons from the tragic deaths of victims of domestic violence and abuse.
This is to improve the way in which organisations and practitioners can put in place suitable support mechanisms, procedures, resources and interventions with the aim of avoiding future incidents of domestic homicide and violence.
Learning from DHRs
As a result of the domestic homicide reviews that have taken place, the Home Office has produced two reports based on the learning identified:
Published reviews
You can view anonymised domestic homicide executive summaries below:
*DHR Executive and Overview report for May 2020 has been concluded and shared with the Home Office. A decision has been made by Wigan Place and Community Safety Partnership not to publish this review in line with Section 8 of Home Office Statutory Guidance 2016. The learning from this report has been shared with relevant partners and recommendations and learning will continue to be adhered to