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ProfileALISON BIRDFor the last 10 years Alison has been working within domestic abuse and
stalking settings. Alison is currently Clinical Lead and Interim Services Director for Stalking at Changing Pathways, Basildon. This is the only Stalking Advocacy Service within Essex & the East of England. Alison is providing clinical support to their ISACs and assisting with creating a Stalking Recovery Programme. The ISACs at Changing Pathways have created and sustained the first stalking survivor group which has been hugely successful and is a powerful testament to the ISAC team at Changing Pathways. Alison worked for Laura Richards (as DASH Co-ordinator) and alongside Tricia Bernal who bravely recounted Clare’s story in those DASH classes. Both were key advocates within Protection Against Stalking (PAS) who were campaigning to make stalking a criminal offence. This is when Alison’s awareness of the dangers of stalking came from and where Alison gleaned such an in-depth understanding of domestic abuse, risk assessment and the intrinsic nature of advocacy. Protection against Stalking (PAS) spearheaded the campaign which successfully saw stalking recognised as a criminal offence in November 2012. |
Alison works closely within the Essex SETDAB (Southend Essex Thurrock Domestic Abuse Board) panel who are scrutinising the way stalking is handled within Essex and aiming to ensure that victims of both domestic abuse and stalking receive the appropriate support. Essex want to ensure that handling stalking cases appropriately is on the agenda for 2019.
When Alison first attended MARAC in Essex in 2018 – stalking cases were being labelled incorrectly and termed as harassment and the risk was being missed. Having come from Paladin highlighting the key differences between stalking and harassment has enabled agencies to begin the pivotal shift away from harassment to the crime of stalking. 2019 should see some positive changes within Essex for stalking victims.
Bereaved families (Tricia Bernal and Carol Faruqui), survivors (Tracey Morgan and Sam Taylor), professionals and many involved with PAS worked together as a team to criminalise stalking, winning awards for their work. Alison has worked with Tricia Bernal and understands what drives her and other bereaved families and survivors to try and make positive changes to other people’s lives when they are affected by domestic abuse, coercive control and stalking. Meeting and working with Tricia changed Alison’s career path – starting as a volunteer for a domestic violence charity, Colchester and Tendring Women’s Refuge, before quickly moving into the field in a professional capacity and developing her highly regarded expertise, doing a job that matters and makes a difference.
When Alison first attended MARAC in Essex in 2018 – stalking cases were being labelled incorrectly and termed as harassment and the risk was being missed. Having come from Paladin highlighting the key differences between stalking and harassment has enabled agencies to begin the pivotal shift away from harassment to the crime of stalking. 2019 should see some positive changes within Essex for stalking victims.
Bereaved families (Tricia Bernal and Carol Faruqui), survivors (Tracey Morgan and Sam Taylor), professionals and many involved with PAS worked together as a team to criminalise stalking, winning awards for their work. Alison has worked with Tricia Bernal and understands what drives her and other bereaved families and survivors to try and make positive changes to other people’s lives when they are affected by domestic abuse, coercive control and stalking. Meeting and working with Tricia changed Alison’s career path – starting as a volunteer for a domestic violence charity, Colchester and Tendring Women’s Refuge, before quickly moving into the field in a professional capacity and developing her highly regarded expertise, doing a job that matters and makes a difference.
“Victims can feel embarrassed going to the police reporting what appears to be seemingly harmless behaviour. It might be flowers or love letters. What we need is for victims’ friends, colleagues and families to understand the seriousness of stalking and to report it at the earliest stage…lives are still being lost.” Tricia Bernal 2018,
To understand what stalkers do to people’s lives, it is important to listen to the many victim/survivors voices: “….
Alison has been immersed in the world of protecting stalking and domestic abuse victims and looking at risk and how to react to it.
She is passionate about justice, ensuring vulnerable people are supported, working in partnership, gaining knowledge and ultimately ensuring the victim’s voice is amplified.
- "I’ve come to the conclusion that nobody’s going to help me, the authorities have washed their hands of it … I don’t want to live in fear” (after a 27-year stalking campaign).
- “I feel like the only way I can stop the stalking is to kill myself”.
- “I just want it to stop”.
- “I never feel safe. I know she won’t stop and this is never going to end. I am living in fear, always looking over my shoulder.”
- “The only time I can live my life freely is when he is behind bars. When he is free I am in prison."
Alison has been immersed in the world of protecting stalking and domestic abuse victims and looking at risk and how to react to it.
She is passionate about justice, ensuring vulnerable people are supported, working in partnership, gaining knowledge and ultimately ensuring the victim’s voice is amplified.
People need to recognise the extreme impact that domestic abuse, coercive control and stalking have on the victims and those close to them = “TRAUMA”.
The trauma can last forever and we need to find successful solutions to dealing with perpetrator behaviour.
The trauma can last forever and we need to find successful solutions to dealing with perpetrator behaviour.
Aims of S-DAST and the Training it provides.
Alison was one of the first trained ISACs and as such there aren't any stalking case workers in England and Wales with as much frontline stalking experience. Couple the number of cases that Alison has worked, with the number of stalking victims she has supported combined with her training expertise, she is one of the countries most knowledgeable stalking trainers."
Frontline Experience
As a frontline stalking case worker (Independent Stalking Advocacy Case Worker, ISAC) at Paladin, National Stalking Advocacy Service, Alison was privileged to work alongside innumerable high risk domestic abuse and stalking victims: ex-intimate and non-intimate. This role enabled her to advocate for the victims of stalking and work in a multi-agency capacity upskilling statutory agencies such as police and social services. As a result of Alison’s advocacy and the resulting multi-agency work there were successful stalking prosecutions and convictions. Fundamentally it has led to Alison now having a substantive subject knowledge that not many others have in England and Wales. This role can be viewed in BBC1 documentary “Stalkers” aired in 2017.
There are few frontline stalking workers who have the experience Alison has and who will have supported the sheer amount of stalking victims that she has. This is because stalking advocacy is relatively new and she was lucky to become one of first ISACs and one of the trainers on the ISAC course. Alison has trained staff to become ISAC qualified at Paladin (National Stalking Advocacy Service), National Stalking Helpline, Veritas Justice, Changing Pathways, Safer Places and the Hollie Gazzard Trust. There are now a handful of active ISACs around England but this needs to increase.
In 2017 Alison was honoured to be one of the expert panel members for the HMICs inspection Living in Fear into how police and CPS were responding to stalking victims 5 years after the legislation was brought in. She was also a critical reader for this report. The inspection shows there is still a long way to go before agencies fully understand what stalking is and how to respond to victims appropriately. It is early days and both victims and police face barriers when it comes to stalking.
Having been a speaker at Paladin’s Raising the Bar Best Practice Conference 2017 Alison was able to share the frustrations of stalking victims and look at what can be done moving forwards. Clive Ruggles opened the conference and articulated the horror of what can happen when stalking is not understood. They also held workshops to look at risks, best practice and what a good investigation looks like.
In 2017 Alison received the Paladin award for “Going Above and Beyond” supporting stalking victims.
During her career Alison has trained officers from the following police forces:
Working in a national capacity as an ISAC it gave Alison an insight into which police forces were not recognising stalking and joining the dots and where there are pockets of best practice.
There are few frontline stalking workers who have the experience Alison has and who will have supported the sheer amount of stalking victims that she has. This is because stalking advocacy is relatively new and she was lucky to become one of first ISACs and one of the trainers on the ISAC course. Alison has trained staff to become ISAC qualified at Paladin (National Stalking Advocacy Service), National Stalking Helpline, Veritas Justice, Changing Pathways, Safer Places and the Hollie Gazzard Trust. There are now a handful of active ISACs around England but this needs to increase.
In 2017 Alison was honoured to be one of the expert panel members for the HMICs inspection Living in Fear into how police and CPS were responding to stalking victims 5 years after the legislation was brought in. She was also a critical reader for this report. The inspection shows there is still a long way to go before agencies fully understand what stalking is and how to respond to victims appropriately. It is early days and both victims and police face barriers when it comes to stalking.
Having been a speaker at Paladin’s Raising the Bar Best Practice Conference 2017 Alison was able to share the frustrations of stalking victims and look at what can be done moving forwards. Clive Ruggles opened the conference and articulated the horror of what can happen when stalking is not understood. They also held workshops to look at risks, best practice and what a good investigation looks like.
In 2017 Alison received the Paladin award for “Going Above and Beyond” supporting stalking victims.
During her career Alison has trained officers from the following police forces:
- Surrey
- Sussex
- West Mids
- Devon & Cornwall
- MET
- West Mercia
Working in a national capacity as an ISAC it gave Alison an insight into which police forces were not recognising stalking and joining the dots and where there are pockets of best practice.
CPS - Crown Prosecution Service
Additionally, Alison has provided stalking training to CPS in London and realised that there is a barrier for victims between police & CPS and the way stalking crimes are recorded. There is also a culture of blame and a lack of joined up working between CPS & Police at times.
Women of all ages are being domestically abused and in worse case scenarios are being murdered by partners or ex-partners. S-DAST wants to help eradicate this problem e.g. Shana Grice (Sussex), Alice Ruggles (Northumbria), Molly McClaren (Kent), Clare Bernal (London). Although it is widely recognised that domestic abuse is a gendered issue Alison has supported numerous male domestic abuse & stalking victims e.g. Imre Marton.
3Rs
3Rs
- Recognise
- Risk assess
- React
- The Criminal Justice System is the area where we can make the most changes. Training Police, CPS, Judges and Magistrates to understand stalking, domestic abuse and coercive control is critical. This is where Alison has extensive experience and substantive knowledge. It is worth all CJS professionals reading the latest report which highlights the need for improved understanding of stalking - HMIC Report "Living in Fear".
- CAFCASS (The Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service) also need training and often put children at further risk. Alison has been a witness to multiple section 7 reports and Family Court cases where there is little or no understanding of domestic abuse, stalking, coercive control and the damage this all does to children.
The message to domestic abuse victims is: split up or we could take your children due to the violence. However, once you have split up the violent father is considered entitled to have contact with the children which is extremely damaging and dangerous.
Do CAFCASS and Judges think that these often high risk perpetrators have anything beneficial to offer their children? This standpoint of entitlement will damage our children’s futures and the mothers/victim’s recovery process as they become entrapped by the perp. - Universities/schools - the age for victims being referred to domestic abuse and stalking services is getting younger. Recently services report an increase in younger people (school age) being victims of Image Based Abuse, coercive control and stalking. In order to combat this S-DAST can provide training and support to schools and universities. If children & students are educated around domestic abuse, coercive control & stalking risks they will be able to better protect themselves and others.
- Children - Alison was fortunate to work one day a week with Family Solutions in Essex during 2018. This highlighted that as a society more children are being labelled as having ADHD, learning difficulties, challenging behaviour at school and Alison observed that the majority of these children were living in abusive households. Unless this problem is addressed more and more children will be labelled wrongly at school and expelled etc when actually their behaviour is a result of domestic abuse & trauma. Alison has subsequently partnered with a range of children’s workers such as child social workers & family workers to put together age-appropriate training for schools.
- NHS, Health Practitioners and GPs need to be able to recognise domestic abuse/stalking and know how to respond appropriately. Both DASH Training, Coercive Control training and Stalking Training is an essential for health practioners. In some instances this may complement any CPD modules that are expected to be completed.
- Workplaces – hopefully you have a workplace policy on Domestic Abuse & stalking (the ingredients) but do you know how to use it (the recipe)? S-DAST can bring to life the policy so you know how to use it and why you need it. Contact Alison to see what you specifically need in your workplace.
- Beauticians, nail technicians, hairdressers – how to spot the signs of coercive control, domestic abuse and or stalking and how to signpost.
Objectives
- Bring to life safeguarding policies.
- Ensure safeguarding leads understand domestic abuse & stalking.
- Create awareness for young people/students around healthy relationships and how to reach out for support.
- Give talks on domestic abuse & stalking to prevent future harm.
- Train agencies & any staff on risk assessment (DASH) and good practice in domestic abuse & stalking cases.
- Signpost victims to the right support.
- Be victim-focused and look to close down the perpetrator.
Sharon Stratton, College of Policing said “I know your training meets and exceeds the goals for the police CPD sessions on stalking and harassment”
Just want to thank you again for the training you provided it came massively in handy when I completed my first DASH!!! Very pleased and proud of it. Anyways, just wanted to say thank you."
Please contact Alison Bird on alison@changingpathways.org
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