Domestic abuse affects one in five children in the UK, with long-lasting impacts on all aspects of a child’s life, from their mental and physical wellbeing to their ability to build healthy relationships in the future. Despite this, there remains a significant gap in robust evidence about what works to prevent domestic abuse and support children and families.

While services across the country are working under intense pressure to support victims and families, relatively few programmes have been evaluated to a high standard. This makes it harder for government, commissioners and local areas to identify which approaches genuinely improve outcomes and to invest in them with confidence. Our REACH Plan aims to address this challenge by generating high-quality evidence on services to support children affected by domestic abuse.

We also know that the right conditions need to be in place to enable access to evidence-based support, including joined-up services, informed commissioners, and a well-equipped workforce. That’s why we’ve committed to evaluating approaches that equip the children’s and families’ workforce to spot and respond to domestic abuse more effectively.

To take this forward, we’re partnering with the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) to launch a new opportunity for London local authorities to take part in an evaluation of Safe & Together, an internationally recognised model which aims to improve responses to domestic abuse.

About Safe & Together

The Safe & Together Model is a framework for transforming how the workforce respond to families affected by domestic abuse, developed by David Mandel and the Safe & Together Institute. The model applies a child-centred, strengths-based, and systems-informed approach to keep children safe and together with the non-abusive parent wherever possible, partnering with the non-abusive parent as a default safeguarding approach, and intervening with perpetrators to reduce harm to children. The Safe & Together model has been delivered by Respect since 2019 as part of the Safe & Together London Partnership, which involves bespoke implementation support for London boroughs.

The model aims to improve practitioner knowledge, confidence and consistency, while strengthening organisational approaches and reducing victim-blaming within safeguarding systems.

While there is already promising evidence on Safe & Together, this evaluation has a key role to play in deepening our understanding of the model’s impact on workforce competencies and, ultimately, on outcomes for children and families.

About the evaluation

We are inviting London boroughs to participate in a pilot randomised controlled trial of Safe & Together, designed to strengthen the evidence base on what works in domestic abuse workforce development and safeguarding practice.

Up to seven London boroughs will take part in the evaluation, which will test the feasibility and early impact of the model.

The programme will run from autumn 2026 to March 2028, with successful applicants working closely with delivery partner Respect, a UK charity focused on stopping perpetrators of domestic abuse, lead borough Waltham Forest, and independent evaluators Cordis Bright. Together, partners will explore how the Safe & Together model can be implemented effectively in diverse local contexts and generate robust evidence to inform future policy and commissioning.

This opportunity is open to London boroughs delivering children’s social care services that have not recently implemented Safe & Together at scale. We recognise the complexity of evaluating a programme delivered in diverse local contexts and under real-world constraints, and so are seeking proposals from local authorities/ boroughs with a high commitment to evaluation and an interest in the use of the evidence created.

By participating, local authorities will contribute to a growing body of evidence on domestic abuse programmes, helping to close critical evidence gaps and ensure children and families receive support that is proven to work.

Applications close at midday on Monday 8 June 2026. You can apply, and find out more about the opportunity, here.