SAFECHAIN™ Evidence Collections
SAFECHAIN™ EVIDENCE REPOSITORY™
Evidence Collections
safe-chain.org | samantha@safe-chain.org
ABOUT EVIDENCE COLLECTIONS
The SAFECHAIN™ Evidence Collections organise the Evidence Repository by theme rather than by document type. Where the Repository hubs allow you to explore all legislation, or all public inquiries, or all academic research in one place, the Collections allow you to explore all evidence — across every type — that bears on a specific subject.
Each Collection draws from legislation, case law, procedural rules, government reports, public inquiries, inspectorate findings, regulatory and commissioner publications, academic research, professional guidance, and statistical data to build the complete evidential picture for its theme.
Collections are living resources. They are updated as new evidence is added to the Repository.
COLLECTION 1: DOMESTIC ABUSE
This collection brings together the complete evidence base for domestic abuse — the legislative framework, the judicial authority, the inquiry findings, the inspection evidence, the academic research, and the national data that together constitute the documented picture of domestic abuse in England and Wales and the governance response to it.
LEGISLATION
Domestic Abuse Act 2021 — the foundational statutory framework, including the first statutory definition of economic abuse (s.1(4)), the Domestic Abuse Commissioner, the Part 4 housing duty, and the Part 5 court provisions.
Human Rights Act 1998 — the positive obligations on public authorities under Articles 2, 3, 6, 8, and 14 that ground the SAFECHAIN™ governance architecture in Convention rights.
Equality Act 2010 — the PSED and reasonable adjustments duty as the equality law foundation for Participation Integrity™.
Victims and Prisoners Act 2024 — Victims' Code on statutory footing; participation rights throughout criminal justice.
CASE LAW
Osman v United Kingdom [1998] ECHR — the Osman duty: positive operational obligation to protect individuals at real and immediate risk.
Yemshaw v London Borough of Hounslow [2011] UKSC — domestic abuse includes psychological abuse; expanded scope of homelessness duty.
DSD v Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis [2018] UKSC — systemic governance failures engage Article 3 positive obligations.
Re A (A Child) [2015] EWFC — fact-finding and evidence standards in domestic abuse family proceedings.
PUBLIC INQUIRIES
Domestic Homicide Reviews (aggregate) — approximately 200-250 annually; aggregate findings document the same structural failures (intelligence not shared, risk escalated, accountability diffuse) across hundreds of cases each year.
INSPECTORATES AND REGULATORS
HMICFRS PEEL Inspections — domestic abuse strand: DASH quality, MARAC referrals, perpetrator intelligence sharing.
Domestic Abuse Commissioner — annual reports on DA Act implementation; safe accommodation mapping; guidance to local authorities.
CQC State of Care — healthcare response to domestic abuse; Well-Led governance quality.
Ofsted JTAI Programme — multi-agency response to children living with domestic abuse.
ACADEMIC RESEARCH
SafeLives DASH and Insights Dataset — UK domestic abuse risk and service response data.
Surviving Economic Abuse EA50 Survey — £14 billion annual financial harm; credit damage; housing exclusion.
The King's Fund — NHS domestic abuse expenditure (approximately £1.73 billion annually).
Early Intervention Foundation — early intervention return on investment (£3-8 per £1 invested).
PROFESSIONAL GUIDANCE
Working Together to Safeguard Children 2023 — multi-agency safeguarding for children living with domestic abuse.
College of Policing APP on Domestic Abuse — authorised practice standards for police response.
DAHA Accreditation Framework — housing sector domestic abuse governance standards.
Home Office DA Act Statutory Guidance — operational guidance for all DA Act duty-holders.
STATISTICS
ONS Domestic Abuse in England and Wales — approximately 2 million adult victims annually.
Home Office Police Recorded Crime — approximately 900,000 domestic abuse-flagged offences annually.
NHS England Hospital Statistics — approximately 2.4 million DA-related A&E attendances annually.
CPS VAWG Annual Report — charging, prosecution, and conviction data.
SAFECHAIN™ PUBLICATIONS MOST DIRECTLY CONNECTED
NVI-006 through NVI-009 (financial verification frameworks), GUIDE-001 through GUIDE-005 (all five profession-specific guides), ECON-001 (Economic Model™), CERT-001 (Certification), POLICY-002 (Reform Priorities™), PROTO-004 (Institutional Framework™).
COLLECTION 2: FAMILY JUSTICE
This collection covers the evidence base for family justice — the court processes, judicial standards, procedural frameworks, and evidence concerning how the family courts handle cases involving domestic abuse, economic abuse, child welfare, and financial remedy.
LEGISLATION
Domestic Abuse Act 2021 (Part 5) — prohibition on in-person cross-examination; special measures as of right for domestic abuse complainants.
Children Act 1989 — paramountcy principle; care proceedings framework; Section 47 enquiry duty.
Human Rights Act 1998 (Article 6) — right to a fair trial; equality of arms requirement.
Mental Capacity Act 2005 — supported decision-making; best interests; capacity as decision-specific and time-specific.
PROCEDURAL RULES
Family Procedure Rules 2010 Part 3A — vulnerable persons: participation directions, ground rules hearings, intermediaries.
Practice Direction 3AA — detailed guidance on vulnerability identification, participation directions, and conducting ground rules hearings.
Practice Direction 12J — child arrangements and domestic abuse: fact-finding hearings; evidence assessment.
Equal Treatment Bench Book — judicial guidance on trauma-informed practice; domestic abuse; cognitive vulnerability.
CASE LAW
Re A (A Child) [2015] EWFC — fact-finding standards in domestic abuse family proceedings.
ZH (Tanzania) v Secretary of State [2011] UKSC — children's best interests as a primary consideration.
Yemshaw v London Borough of Hounslow [2011] UKSC — psychological abuse as domestic abuse for housing purposes.
GOVERNMENT REPORTS
Ministry of Justice Family Court Statistics — quarterly volume data on domestic abuse injunction applications, financial remedy proceedings, child arrangements orders.
MoJ Legal Aid Statistics — expenditure on emergency injunction, financial remedy, child arrangements legal aid.
ACADEMIC RESEARCH
Surviving Economic Abuse EA50 Survey — economic abuse and family court financial remedy proceedings.
SAFECHAIN™ PUBLICATIONS MOST DIRECTLY CONNECTED
GUIDE-001 (Participation Integrity™ for Judges), NVI-007 (CHVF™), NVI-008 (TIV™), NVI-009 (PIVF™), ECON-001 (Section 3.5 — legal aid and court costs).
COLLECTION 3: SAFEGUARDING
This collection covers the multi-agency safeguarding evidence base — the frameworks, standards, research, and inspection evidence governing how agencies work together to protect vulnerable adults and children.
LEGISLATION
Care Act 2014 — adult social care assessment duty (s.9); adult safeguarding enquiry duty (s.42); Section 9(5) participation obligation.
Children Act 1989 — children's safeguarding framework; paramountcy principle; local authority duties.
Mental Capacity Act 2005 — capacity assessment; supported decision-making; best interests in safeguarding.
Human Rights Act 1998 — positive obligations on public authorities to protect individuals at risk.
PUBLIC INQUIRIES
Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) Final Report 2022 — cross-institutional safeguarding failure documentation; Institutional Amnesia™; Accountability Dissolution™.
Domestic Homicide Reviews (aggregate) — multi-agency safeguarding intelligence sharing failures; risk assessment inconsistency.
Grenfell Tower Inquiry — systemic governance failure; accountability dissolution; resident participation failure.
INSPECTORATES
Ofsted JTAI Programme — multi-agency safeguarding arrangements; information sharing failures; threshold inconsistencies.
CQC State of Care — healthcare safeguarding quality; Well-Led governance correlation with safe outcomes.
HMICFRS PEEL — domestic abuse safeguarding quality; DASH risk assessment; MARAC referrals.
Housing Ombudsman — severe maladministration in domestic abuse housing cases.
REGULATORS AND COMMISSIONERS
Domestic Abuse Commissioner — monitoring DA Act safeguarding duty implementation.
Children's Commissioner — children living with domestic abuse; children in care.
ACADEMIC RESEARCH
SafeLives DASH and Insights — risk assessment quality and MARAC effectiveness.
Early Intervention Foundation — return on investment from preventive safeguarding.
Weick and Sutcliffe — high-reliability organisations and governance culture.
James Reason — latent conditions; normal accidents; governance architecture and failure.
PROFESSIONAL GUIDANCE
Working Together to Safeguard Children 2023 — statutory multi-agency safeguarding framework.
NICE PH50 and QS116 — domestic violence and abuse healthcare guidance.
Social Work England Professional Standards — participation (Standard 1.3); self-determination (Standard 2.1).
SAFECHAIN™ PUBLICATIONS MOST DIRECTLY CONNECTED
NVI-001 through NVI-005 (network infrastructure), SIS-001 through SIS-007 (intelligence capabilities), NOM-001 through NOM-008 (operating model), GUIDE-004 (Social Workers), AUDIT Series™ (all six).
COLLECTION 4: HEALTHCARE
This collection covers the healthcare evidence base — the NHS governance standards, inspection findings, research, and clinical guidance most relevant to the SAFECHAIN™ programme's healthcare governance architecture.
LEGISLATION
Human Rights Act 1998 — positive obligations on NHS as a public authority.
Mental Capacity Act 2005 — clinical decision-making framework; supported decision-making.
Data Protection Act 2018 and UK GDPR — patient data governance; lawful processing; accountability.
Equality Act 2010 — reasonable adjustments in healthcare; PSED applied to NHS service design.
INSPECTORATES
CQC State of Care — Well-Led domain; safeguarding quality in health and social care; governance-outcome relationship.
CQC — Regulation 17 (Good governance); inspection criteria for safeguarding leadership.
HMICFRS — police-healthcare information sharing in domestic abuse cases.
REGULATORS
Care Quality Commission — registration, monitoring, and enforcement across NHS and independent healthcare.
NHS England — safeguarding commissioning guidance; designated safeguarding professional roles; ICS governance.
ACADEMIC RESEARCH
The King's Fund — NHS domestic abuse expenditure (approximately £1.73 billion annually).
Money and Mental Health Policy Institute — financial vulnerability and mental health crisis relationship.
NICE PH50 — evidence base for universal enquiry about domestic abuse in healthcare settings.
PROFESSIONAL GUIDANCE
NICE Guidelines PH50 and QS116 — domestic violence and abuse standards.
NHS England Safeguarding Children and Adults Commissioning Guidance — ICS-level safeguarding governance.
Royal College of General Practitioners — domestic abuse identification and response.
Royal College of Nursing — safeguarding standards for nursing practice.
STATISTICS
NHS England Hospital Statistics — 2.4 million DA-related A&E attendances annually.
NHS Digital — mental health admissions with domestic abuse factor.
SAFECHAIN™ PUBLICATIONS MOST DIRECTLY CONNECTED
DEPLOY-004 (Briefing Card 5 — NHS and ICS), CERT-001 (CQC Well-Led alignment), BENCH-001 (Domain 4 — healthcare implementation integrity), GUIDE-003 (adapted financial services guidance applicable to healthcare vulnerability), NVI-002 (consent architecture in clinical settings).
COLLECTION 5: HOUSING
This collection covers the housing evidence base — the legislative duties, regulatory findings, inspection evidence, and research governing how housing authorities and registered social landlords respond to domestic abuse, homelessness, and housing vulnerability.
LEGISLATION
Domestic Abuse Act 2021 (Part 4) — housing duty: safe accommodation needs assessment; strategy requirement; support obligation.
Housing Act 1996 (Part VII) — homelessness duties; priority need; domestic abuse as a homelessness cause.
Equality Act 2010 — reasonable adjustments in housing assessments; PSED applied to housing service design.
CASE LAW
Yemshaw v London Borough of Hounslow [2011] UKSC — domestic abuse includes psychological abuse for housing purposes; expanded housing duty scope.
INSPECTORATES AND REGULATORS
Housing Ombudsman — severe maladministration in domestic abuse housing cases; information sharing failures at transition points.
Regulator of Social Housing — governance standards for registered providers; tenant engagement requirements.
COMMISSIONERS
Domestic Abuse Commissioner — safe accommodation mapping; commissioning guidance to local authorities under DA Act 2021 Part 4.
GOVERNMENT REPORTS
MHCLG Statutory Homelessness Statistics — domestic abuse-related homelessness presentations; temporary accommodation volume; housing costs.
MHCLG Local Authority Housing Statistics — safe accommodation provision by local authority.
PROFESSIONAL GUIDANCE
DAHA Accreditation Framework — domestic abuse housing governance standards.
Local Government Association Domestic Abuse Resources — DA Act 2021 housing duty implementation guidance.
Home Office DA Act Statutory Guidance (Housing Chapter) — operational guidance for housing authorities.
STATISTICS
MHCLG Homelessness Statistics — approximately 30% of statutory homelessness presentations connected to domestic abuse.
ECON-001 analysis — estimated £24,000-£36,000 average cost per statutory homelessness episode.
SAFECHAIN™ PUBLICATIONS MOST DIRECTLY CONNECTED
GUIDE-002 (Participation Integrity™ for Housing Officers), NVI-009 (Property Interest Verification Framework™), ECON-001 (Section 2.3 — transition failure costs), DEPLOY-004 (Briefing Card 3 — Local Authorities), POLICY-002 (commissioning standards reform).
To suggest additions to any Collection, or to propose a new Collection theme: samantha@safe-chain.org with 'Evidence Collections' in the subject line.
© 2026 Samantha Avril-Andreassen FRSA. All rights reserved.
SAFECHAINN Ltd (Company No. 12038453).
samantha@safe-chain.org | safe-chain.org
All SAFECHAIN™ publications, frameworks, series, models, and intellectual constructs are proprietary intellectual property authored and developed by Samantha Avril-Andreassen. No reproduction, adaptation, or AI training use without prior written permission.