In 2024, Foundations launched REACH (Researching Effective Approaches for Children), an ambitious five-year plan to find out what works to prevent domestic abuse and support the recovery of babies, children and young people. REACH aims to address the national lack of high-quality impact evaluation on how best to support some of our most vulnerable children.
This report sets out the progress we have made towards these aims in the first phase of REACH and outlines the findings of our pilot randomised controlled trials (RCTs) of two recovery services, Bounce Back 4 Kids, delivered by PACT, and WeMatter, delivered by Victim Support.
REACH: An update on our five-year plan
An update on our five-year plan to find out what works to prevent domestic abuse & support child victims
DownloadThe report covers:
- Why REACH is needed
- Progress in the first phase of REACH and learnings about domestic abuse programmes
- What have we learnt about how to evaluate domestic abuse programmes
- The next phase of REACH and the need for collective action.
In the first phase of REACH, we have made significant progress in showing that it is possible to robustly and ethically evaluate the impact of domestic abuse programmes, incorporating RCTs within wider evaluation methods.
We have learned three key lessons about what is needed to make this possible:
- Programme delivery should be funded and implemented in such a way that an impact evaluation is feasible.
- Evaluation works best as a partnership between evaluators, delivery partners, and experts by experience.
- Investment in programme development and evaluation capacity-building is critical.