RESEARCH T Domestic violence work hindered by uncertainty How effectively can social workers protect adults who are facing domestic violence? Hugh McLaughlin and colleagues studied one northern city in England to try to find out This confusion was also reflected by a senior manager, who said this about the multi-agency context: Domestic abuse is everyones businessI know it is very important that [were] all around the table, but were not all clear why we are there. I am embarrassed by departments response. It was not unusual to have 20-plus attendees around the table, but not the victim/service user or a frontline practitioner On further exploration it became clear that adults social workers tended to see violence or abuse between intimate partners or family members as either a safeguarding or a domestic violence issue rather than as a parallel process which recognises the interconnections between the two, as recommended in the LGA and Adass guidance (2013). This uncertainty about which system should be used and when, leads to both a lack of co-ordination and a lack of consistency in the process. The local authority we studied had also had to cope with substantial cuts that had resulted in significant churn within the service. When asked about training on domestic abuse the social workers identified a range of training, including an overall increase of 24 per cent in cases between 2010 and 2013. We interviewed 14 service users and none understood what a Marac was, mistaking it for their IDVA. They also all identified a loss of control at the point of the Marac. Half of them viewed the situation positively, while the other half said they would have liked to have attended their Marac. So our findings show the service user/victim becoming increasingly objectified and silenced by this process. Maracs have become progressively managerialist to deal with the greater demand for services. A key finding of the follow-up of interviews at six months was that, during the emergency period of the Marac, there was a great deal of activity, but this tended to come to an abrupt end soon after. This created a major problem because these service users/victims wanted services such as counselling, but agencies were no longer interested in them. Adult social care has a critical role to some who claimed they had had none and others for whom it was part of their qualifying course. Another group had done the local authority two-hour online course, and a few had undertaken further training on domestic violence. All felt they would benefit from more training. We also looked at Maracs, which are non-statutory multi-agency risk assessment conferences focused on the top 10 per cent of high-risk domestic violence cases identified using an actuarially based RIC. Maracs are chaired by the police and have representatives from adults and childrens social services, probation, independent domestic violence advocates (IDVAs), health, the fire and rescue service, Womens Aid, housing bodies, Victim Support, and drug and alcohol services. In the northern England city we studied it was not unusual to have 20-plus attendees around the table, but not the victim/service user or a frontline practitioner. Maracs wanted managers who could commit resources to attend. These conferences allocated 10 minutes to a case, dealing on average with 20 each meeting each month, representing play in addressing and supporting adult domestic violence service users/victims. This role, however, requires clarification. Adult social care staff need access to appropriate qualifying and postqualifying training on domestic violence. It is also time to reconsider the purpose of Maracs and identify a new sustainable, more personalised and less managerially oriented process. If this does not happen, adult service users/ victims are in danger of being further abused by the system. Hugh McLaughlin, Rachel Robbins, Claire Bellamy, Concetta Banks and Debbie Thackray are all members of the Department of Social Care and Social Work at Manchester Metropolitan University. The research was funded by the NIHR School of Social Care Research. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the National Institute for Health Research, SSCR or the Department of Health. RESOURCES hree bodies of work have pushed domestic violence up the political agenda. A critical report from Her Majestys Inspectorate of Constabulary (2014), advice from the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE, 2014), and guidance from the Local Government Association and Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (LGA and Adass, 2013) all highlight that domestic violence is a social care issue. Domestic violence is gendered and often associated with childrens services, in particular child protection. Older women and men are absent from the research literature and there is a belief that domestic violence stops at around 50. This is a fallacy as shown by the death of Mary Russell, 81, who was killed by her 88-year-old husband. Our interviews with social workers in adult social care in a northern city indicated that there was no consensus about their responses in domestic violence cases. Views ranged from isnt that a police role? to that from another worker who indicated they would use the Co-Ordinated Action Against Domestic Abuse (CAADA) Risk Identification Checklist (RIC) to help them assess a potential case. Adult social care has a critical role to play in addressing and supporting adult domestic violence victims. This role, however, requires clarification "