Audit no. P/24/080/LPO
The existing solutions were not sufficient to prevent domestic violence in an effective and complex manner or improve the fate of its victims – as revealed by the NIK audit. What made things worse, neither the police, nor social welfare facilities fully complied with their statutory duties. That was the case with 90% of the audited entities in 2021-2023. None of them developed tools, procedures or methods to identify persons particularly threatened with domestic violence. The absence of proper action posed a threat to the life and health of individuals who suffered violence. Also, many perpetrators were not effectively isolated from their victims.
According to the data of 9 district police offices, most frequently domestic abusers were under the influence of alcohol. The share of analysed blue cards registered in such cases ranged from 45%-82%, depending on the police station. The intervening police officers did not always transport perpetrators to police offices or sobering stations, though. In four police offices, not more than 20% of individuals were isolated in that way. The audit also showed there were no procedures or good practices to provide immediate safety to victims. For instance, police cars were not equipped with child seats and emergency procedures outside working hours were not agreed.
The Blue Card is a police protocol for domestic violence, aimed to provide safety to its victims. Not in every case the intervening police officers started the procedure to diagnose the situation and the needs of alleged victims of domestic violence. In every third police office the procedure was not launched in some cases, although there were grounds for that. In none of the audited police offices were the Blue Card procedures conducted properly. Additionally, information about registered blue cards was collected in many separate databases which significantly limited their functionality. Still, there was no central national register in place, integrated with other systems, available for all public institutions involved in domestic violence prevention. A database of this type would not only provide comprehensive knowledge about families covered by the Blue Card procedure but also enable estimating the scale of this violence and effectively plan preventive measures. In view of the above, NIK recommended that the Prime Minister should take efforts to create such a register.
The number of facilities offering support to domestic violence victims was too small. In the audited period, in four of seven audited districts there was no support centre, crisis intervention centre or a specialist support centre and domestic violence victims were sent to facilities located in distant districts. The distance often discouraged or even prevented the victims from using this form of support. Still not many perpetrators participated in educational activities. Only 167 individuals took part in correctional education programmes and less than half of the participants (77) completed them. As for psychological and therapeutic programmes the number of participants was 48, of whom nearly 75% (35) completed them.
It needs to be added that the victims of domestic violence not always looked for help. That was the case with 25% of participants of the survey conducted by NIK.
Absence of diagnosis prevented effective support
Underestimation of the scale of domestic violence in the audited period was the biggest problem, which was particularly dangerous for three social groups: children, elderly persons and persons with disabilities. Local programmes and systems for domestic violence prevention should be based on a reliable diagnosis. Most of the audited social welfare facilities, though, failed to meet the obligation to develop and implement programmes or did it improperly.
The costs of implementing local programmes as well as the social costs of violence were estimated in a negligent way or not at all. Three of the 23 audited institutions did not earmark any financial resources to counteract domestic violence. In many other facilities, the amount of funds for this purpose was insufficient.
Heads of the audited institutions admitted they did not have enough funds for domestic violence prevention or related interventions. Also, they could not financially support the work of interdisciplinary teams.
At the same time, in all the audited facilities, expenditures for domestic violence control were registered in an inconsistent way and some costs were incurred directly from the local governments’ budgets. That is why, it was extremely difficult or even impossible to establish the entire amount earmarked for domestic violence prevention.
Blue Card procedure – not always applied
Applying the Blue Card procedure implies launching coordinated activities by representatives of various institutions (social workers, police officers, teachers, psychologists, doctors or nurses) to provide safety to domestic violence victims.
In 2021 and 2022, the Blue Card procedure was usually started by police officers – over 70% and social workers (about 13%). In that period, in nearly 4.5 thousand cases the procedure was initiated by police officers. The police stations covered by the audit received 60 blue cards from education facilities and even less from healthcare facilities (only 20). Considering that hundreds of thousands of individuals had direct contact with potential domestic violence victims, including minors, and could notice first symptoms of that abuse, the number of blue cards registered by those professional groups was very small.
The audit highlighted inconsistent approach of police officers to launching that procedure. In 2022-2023, depending on a district the share of all home interventions ranged from 5% to over 73%. On the other hand, the absence of a joint database on families and persons having blue card, created a risk that many employees of various institutions could start the Blue Card procedure for the same person or family.
At the same time, information about effective procedures were not transferred immediately among institutions or their transfer was not documented. Minors were in a particularly difficult position. In over half of district police stations covered by the audit domestic violence was reported in families with children. However, information about starting the Blue Card procedure was not transferred to a team dealing with minors’ issues (or its transfer was not documented). All in all, NIK identified 30 cases of its kind. Delays in transferring Blue Card forms to interdisciplinary groups or working teams made it impossible to take action with regard to domestic violence abusers and their victims. One of the audited social welfare facilities in five cases including children as victims, failed to prepare required individual assistance plans for them for over a month, and in an extreme case for over a year and two months.
Not only blue cards
The key irregularities identified by NIK were related to the fact that victims were not given immediate support. In six out of nine district police stations covered by the audit, alleged domestic violence victims were visited with delays (60 cases in total). Also results of NIK’s survey indicate that the waiting time for help and support was too long. Nearly 27% of respondents confirmed that they had to wait and for 13% of them the waiting time was too long,
The support centre was organised only in one of nine municipalities in which the audited institutions operated. In the remaining eight municipalities, people whose safety was threatened were directed to facilities located outside the municipality, far from their place of residence, which could discourage them from using the suggested form of support. In four districts and their municipalities, there was no support centre in place, no crisis intervention centre and no specialist support centre.
In the social welfare centres audited by NIK, psychological, legal, family and social counselling was provided, but to a different extent. Social counselling was available in every facility thanks to social workers employed there.
Both the auditees’ explanations and the survey results indicate that the restructuring of the existing violence control system should aim to boost prevention activities. This can be achieved through commonly available counselling and support.
Barriers on the way to effective solutions
The audited social welfare institutions and police stations declared mutual cooperation. In practice, though, the facilities often carried out the tasks assigned to them at their minimum (and thus were not very effective). Cooperation between the police and social welfare institutions was disturbed, among others, because of working hours. This generated problems with providing necessary and comprehensive assistance in the afternoon, at night or on weekends. On the other hand, directors of social welfare centres pointed to, for example, impaired flow of information between social welfare centres and family courts, which informed only the parties about their decisions or rulings, not noticing other institutions involved in solving a specific case.
According to NIK, the key problem was related to the fact that healthcare representatives were not involved in counteracting domestic violence. And it was doctors and nurses who were most often the only ones who had direct contact with "small" children who remained outside institutional care (nurseries, kindergartens or schools). In this context, they should be able to notice signs of violence against the youngest and react to them accordingly.
