Simon Kerss

Simon Kerss is the director / owner of a small, independent consultancy based in Cambridge, UK. Established in January 2020, the consultancy specialises in work to address Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG), including the production of statutory reviews, analyses / evaluations of agency interventions, training programmes, and bespoke workforce policies. To date, Simon has completed or is working on 13 statutory Domestic Abuse Related Death Reviews (DARDRs) for a range of Community Safety Partnerships across England.

Simon has previously worked as a Home Office-appointed Domestic Homicide Review Reader.  In this capacity, he quality assessed over 150 DHRs / SCRs / Independent Mental Health Homicide Investigations / joint reviews and has contributed to, or led on, other DHRs as a practitioner, commissioner, and author. These DHRs and joint reviews have included issues of modern-day slavery, coercive and controlling behaviours, trafficking, HBV, child / adult safeguarding, suicide, ‘collateral homicide’, substance misuse, mental health, adolescent to parent violence, and adult family violence.

Simon was an Honorary Fellow with the International Policing and Public Protection Research Institute (IPPPRI) for 5 years, where he specialised in evaluating agency responses to Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) and other forms of Serious Violence / Crime.  Prior to this, he was a lecturer in criminology at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU), Cambridge for 8 years. Simon continues to teach at ARU as an Associate Lecturer.

Simon has recently co-authored the national evaluation of MAPPA Serious Case Reviews with IPPPRI / VKPP and is the independent Chair of Cambridgeshire Constabulary’s Out of Court Disposal Scrutiny Panel.

As the country’s first male Domestic Violence Coordinator (later, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence Partnership Manager), Simon was responsible for developing and implementing several countywide, multi-agency strategies and associated action plans over the course of a decade in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.  This role involved coordinating and embedding activities such the DASH RI, MARAC, IDVAS, ISVAS, and DHRs (including piloting the process for the Home Office in 2010) within local services, and undertaking four countywide, multi-agency needs assessments.

Simon’s ties to the voluntary sector have remained strong throughout his career.  He has volunteered as an advisor to a local women’s charity since 2007 and has worked in partnership with specialist services as a practitioner, strategic manager, and commissioner. He is a special academic advisor to the national charity Embrace: Child Victims of Crime and also currently works as a peer review cadre member for the College of Policing’s Vulnerability Knowledge & Practice Programme, acting as the academic advisor to a multi-agency team of ‘inspectors’ assessing Police responses to issues of domestic abuse, child abuse / sexual exploitation, and other areas of Police ‘vulnerability’.

Prior to the above, Simon worked with vulnerable teenagers in a variety of roles in Children’s Services across Suffolk and Cambridgeshire including the Connexions Service, Youth Service, Youth Offending Team and Children’s Social Care.