Evaluating domestic abuse programmes for children & families

Domestic Abuse
June 27, 2023

Evaluating domestic abuse programmes for children & families

Highlights

These documents provide insights into domestic abuse programmes for children and families. The three publications provide learnings on content of programmes and data usage, and provide supporting case studies.

The four programmes focused on are:

Children Overcoming Domestic Abuse (CODA) as delivered by Early Years Alliance
For Baby’s Sake
Lambeth Early Action Partnership (LEAP) Enhanced Casework Service
Family Action Survive and Thrive Integrated Children’s Service

Summary

This suite of three publications is the result of an exploratory study focused on domestic abuse programmes for children and families. They aim to find out more about domestic abuse programmes linked to children’s outcomes, as well as exploring the feasibility of evaluation.

Aims

This research will help improve the effectiveness of domestic abuse programmes and enhance the evidence base on domestic abuse that can apply to other local areas and interventions.

Method

Foundations worked closely with the four programmes below on theory of change development, desk research, interviews, focus groups and gathering administrative data:

Children Overcoming Domestic Abuse (CODA) as delivered by Early Years Alliance
For Baby’s Sake
Lambeth Early Action Partnership (LEAP) Enhanced Casework Service
Family Action Survive and Thrive Integrated Children’s Service

Key Findings

The feasibility report covers the background, aims, methods, key findings and discussion points from our work with four domestic abuse programmes. The report has yielded a wealth of learning about the content of domestic abuse programmes and the challenges and opportunities of enhancing evaluation of programmes in the future.
During the fieldwork, we conducted a set of focus groups on how programmes used beneficiary data pre, during and post programme. The sub-report on beneficiary data usage within a domestic abuse service context sets out a number of important learning points for both future evaluation and potential options for data innovation work and pre-programme risk assessment.
The case studies guide provides insights into opportunities to address some of the key barriers to evaluation in the domestic abuse sector through illustrative examples from the more extensive UK and international literature. The guide considers enablers to evaluation across a variety of interventions, including therapeutic and preventative programmes.

Related Publications

Strategy

Domestic Abuse

The REACH Plan: A five-year plan to find out what works to prevent domestic abuse & support child victims

Learn More

Report

Domestic Abuse

Strengthening knowledge and awareness in family services of domestic abuse (SKAFADA)

Learn More

Evaluating domestic abuse programmes for children & families