EVERYDAY BUSINESS, THE RIGHT TO EQUALITY REPORT AND THE SAFECHAIN™ FINDING
The Question Is No Longer Whether Domestic Abuse Exists. The Question Is Whether Institutions Are Designed to Respond Once It Becomes Visible.
By Samantha Avril-Andreassen FRSA
The publication of the Domestic Abuse Commissioner's Everyday Business report, together with the findings of the Right to Equality report, marks an important moment in the evolution of family justice, safeguarding and institutional accountability.
Both reports arrive at a similar conclusion from different directions.
Domestic abuse is not peripheral to family court proceedings.
It is central to them.
The Domestic Abuse Commissioner's review found evidence of domestic abuse in 87% of case files examined and allegations of domestic abuse in 73% of hearings observed. Those figures alone should fundamentally alter how institutions understand risk, participation and decision-making.
The significance of these findings is not that they reveal something entirely new.
The significance is that they confirm what safeguarding professionals, researchers, practitioners and survivors have repeatedly identified for many years.
Domestic abuse is not an occasional issue.
It is everyday business.
The question therefore changes.
The debate is no longer whether domestic abuse exists within family proceedings.
The debate is whether institutions are designed to respond effectively once abuse becomes visible.
Awareness Is No Longer the Problem
For decades, enormous effort has been invested in awareness.
Campaigns have been launched.
Training programmes have been delivered.
Research has been commissioned.
Reviews have been published.
Legislation has evolved.
Professional guidance has expanded.
Awareness has undoubtedly improved.
Yet the findings of both reports suggest a difficult reality.
Recognition does not automatically produce protection.
Information does not automatically produce action.
Risk visibility does not automatically produce safeguarding.
This is where SAFECHAIN™ begins.
SAFECHAIN™ was never developed to explain abuse.
It was developed to examine what happens after abuse becomes visible.
The architecture asks a different set of questions:
Was vulnerability recognised?
Was participation protected?
Was disclosure reliable?
Were warning signs connected?
Was risk continuity maintained?
Was harm foreseeable?
Who knew?
What happened next?
These questions shift the conversation away from awareness and towards implementation.
The SAFECHAIN™ Finding
One of the most significant findings emerging from the SAFECHAIN™ Architecture is that institutional failure rarely begins with a lack of information.
Institutional failure often begins with fragmentation.
Police may hold critical information.
Healthcare may hold critical information.
Housing providers may hold critical information.
Schools may hold critical information.
Banks may hold critical information.
Domestic abuse services may hold critical information.
Courts may hold critical information.
The victim experiences one continuous pattern.
Institutions experience disconnected events.
This distinction is critical.
The victim experiences coercive control as a continuous reality.
The institution often encounters isolated snapshots.
A housing issue.
A safeguarding issue.
A financial issue.
A court issue.
A health issue.
The pattern becomes fragmented.
The risk becomes diluted.
The response becomes inconsistent.
This is where preventable harm begins to emerge.
The Participation Question
One of the most important themes emerging from both reports concerns participation.
Domestic abuse affects far more than physical safety.
It affects confidence.
It affects memory.
It affects concentration.
It affects decision-making.
It affects the ability to gather documents, challenge evidence and engage with complex procedures.
SAFECHAIN™ describes this as a Participation Integrity issue.
Participation should not be measured simply by attendance.
A person may attend a hearing.
That does not mean they are participating effectively.
A person may submit evidence.
That does not mean they possess equality of arms.
A person may be physically present.
That does not mean they have meaningful access to justice.
Participation is not a procedural formality.
It is a safeguarding issue.
When participation deteriorates, decision-making reliability deteriorates alongside it.
The Family Court Challenge
The findings contained within Everyday Business raise a profound question for the future of family justice.
If domestic abuse is present in the overwhelming majority of proceedings, should domestic abuse still be treated as a specialist consideration?
Or should safeguarding become a foundational component of family court decision-making?
SAFECHAIN™ argues that the answer is clear.
Safeguarding cannot be an optional layer applied to proceedings.
Safeguarding must become part of the operating system itself.
This requires:
disclosure integrity;
participation integrity;
safeguarding continuity;
documentation continuity;
equality of arms;
institutional accountability.
Without these foundations, systems risk recognising abuse while simultaneously failing to respond effectively to its consequences.
Beyond Reports
The publication of reports is important.
Research matters.
Evidence matters.
Professional reviews matter.
But reports alone do not prevent harm.
The challenge facing institutions today is not whether further evidence can be gathered.
The challenge is whether existing evidence can be operationalised.
The United Kingdom possesses extensive knowledge regarding:
coercive control;
domestic abuse;
post-separation abuse;
economic abuse;
stalking;
non-fatal strangulation;
safeguarding risk.
The question is no longer whether we understand these issues.
The question is whether our institutions are capable of acting upon what they already know.
The Future of Safeguarding
SAFECHAIN™ was developed around a simple proposition.
People experience systems as one journey.
Systems must learn to do the same.
The future of safeguarding will not be determined solely by awareness.
The future will be determined by connectivity.
Can institutions connect information?
Can they preserve participation?
Can they maintain accountability?
Can they recognise patterns rather than isolated incidents?
Can they identify preventable harm before it becomes irreversible?
These are the questions that will define the next generation of safeguarding reform.
Conclusion
The Domestic Abuse Commissioner's Everyday Business report and the Right to Equality report should be viewed as more than research publications.
They are signals.
Signals that awareness alone is no longer sufficient.
Signals that implementation remains inconsistent.
Signals that institutional fragmentation continues to undermine protection.
SAFECHAIN™ reaches a simple conclusion.
The next stage of reform is not more awareness.
The next stage is infrastructure.
Because safeguarding does not fail when information is absent.
Safeguarding fails when information is present but systems are unable to act upon it.
That is the challenge facing family justice.
And that is the challenge SAFECHAIN™ was designed to address.
Samantha Avril-Andreassen FRSA
Founder, SAFECHAIN™
Author | Researcher | Governance, Safeguarding & Institutional Integrity Framework Developer
© 2026 Samantha Avril-Andreassen. All rights reserved.
SAFECHAINN Ltd (Company No. 12038453).
SAFECHAIN™ is a governance, safeguarding, institutional integrity and accountability architecture authored by Samantha Avril-Andreassen. Reproduction or implementation of SAFECHAIN™ frameworks without permission is prohibited.
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