20 November 2025
Ahead of the Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) strategy, new research today signals a turning point in addressing the long-standing evidence gap on how to support child victims to recover from domestic abuse, says Foundations, the national What Works Centre for Children and Families.
Around 1 in 5 children in the UK are affected by domestic abuse, and a significant factor in why families come into contact with children’s social care. The impact of domestic abuse on children can be long-lasting, affecting their mental and physical health and their ability to form healthy relationships. Yet access to support is inconsistent, only 29% of victim-survivors saying they were able to access help for their children.
Last year, Foundations’ ambitious five-year REACH Plan set out to identify effective approaches to preventing domestic abuse and supporting child victims, including by funding service delivery to enable two pioneering randomised controlled trials (RCTs).
In a new report on the first phase of REACH, Foundations shows that it is possible to ethically evaluate the impact of domestic abuse services for children and young people using RCT methods, setting a precedent for future work.
Reports on pilot RCT trials of Bounce Back 4 Kids and WeMatter, recovery services for children and young people who have experienced domestic abuse, found indications of meaningful benefits for children and preliminary evidence of impact on their outcomes:
- Children and young people who took part in WeMatter reported improved mental wellbeing, and improvements in how they managed difficult feelings and situations
- Children also reported feeling more supported because of the safe space that WeMatter provided for them to discuss experiences and feelings
- Families who participated in BB4K showed improvements in measures of parental self-efficacy and children’s behaviour at home
- Relationships between children and parents had improved throughout the duration of the BB4K programme
Both programmes will now move forward to full scale evaluations, the first of their kind in the UK, marking a pivotal moment for the evidence on how to support child victims of domestic abuse.
But Foundations warned that lessons must be learned about how to equip hard-pressed domestic abuse services to demonstrate their impact. The REACH report identifies the need for stable and sufficient funding for local service delivery to support evaluations, and for investment in ‘by and for’ organisations so that they too can be evaluated and demonstrate their contribution to supporting children and families. The report also highlights that successful evidence generation must embed the victim-survivor voice by involving children and families with lived experience.
Announcing the next phase of REACH, Foundations said that alongside the first full-scale RCTs of their kind for recovery programmes, work needs to be done to:
- Generate evidence on what works to equip Children’s Social Care practitioners and the wider workforce with the skills to effectively support families affected by domestic abuse, and
- Overcome barriers to domestic abuse evaluation, including the specific barriers experienced by “by and for” organisations
Dr Jo Casebourne, Chief Executive of Foundations, said: “Ahead of the upcoming VAWG strategy, today’s reports mark a turning point in finding out what works for children experiencing domestic abuse. Despite the work of hard-pressed domestic abuse services, we know support remains patchy, especially for child-victims, and there are unacceptable gaps in the evidence base about the impact of services on children and families.
“Progress in the first phase of our REACH plan signals a genuine breakthrough for child victims, and for domestic abuse services. Now, for the first time, we can say with confidence that we can ethically and robustly research the impact of services on children’s outcomes. The move to take two recovery services to full-scale evaluations – the first of their kind in the UK – is a pivotal moment in our efforts to help children and families overcome the effects of domestic abuse.
“But we must learn the lessons of our report that greater focus is needed on capacity building in stretched services to support them through evaluation. Crucially, more needs to be done to address the barriers faced by grassroots and ‘by and for’ organisations to taking part in this kind of research.’
“The forthcoming VAWG strategy offers a critical window of opportunity. Our ambition is for children to be able to access evidence-based support whenever it is needed, from early intervention to recovery. To make this happen requires a greater focus on evidence generation, and investment in delivery to support evaluation. In REACH’s next phase, we’ll partner with services, victim survivors, evaluators and funders on this. Together, we can build a stronger evidence base, strengthen services, and ensure every child affected by domestic abuse gets the support they need.”
Children and Families Minister Josh MacAlister said: “Today marks a turning point for children affected by domestic abuse. For too long, we haven’t had the evidence we need about what actually works to help these children recover and thrive.
“Domestic abuse can have a terrible impact on children, which is why what Foundations is announcing today matters so much. This is an important part of our ongoing evaluation of support services for child victims of domestic abuse, and we’re already seeing early indications that these programmes are making a real difference, making sure every child affected by domestic abuse can access support that we know works.
“Tackling domestic abuse and violence against women and girls is a priority for this Government. Our manifesto set out our commitment to reduce violence against women and girls by 50% within a decade and we will be publishing our cross government Violence Against Women and Girls strategy shortly which will develop a whole system response to improve support for victims of domestic abuse, including children.”
Natausha van Vliet, Chief Executive of PACT said: “All of us at PACT are thrilled to see this groundbreaking research begin to close the evidence gap in supporting children who have experienced domestic abuse. Bounce Back 4 Kids was created as we recognised the lack of provision for children to recover from the trauma of domestic abuse. By providing a safe, trauma-informed environment, we enable children and their victim-survivor parent to rebuild and strengthen relationships while equipping families with tools to move forward and thrive. Feedback from families has always been positive but it is incredibly encouraging to see more robust early evidence of its positive impact through this pilot. We look forward to continuing to work with Foundations and others to build the evidence base and give children and parents healing from domestic abuse the best possible chance to heal and thrive.”
Johanna Parks, Director of Operations, Service Design and Innovation at Victim Support said: “Victim Support developed WeMatter to tackle the postcode lottery of support for children and young people affected by domestic abuse. Too often, those not deemed ‘high risk’ face long waits or struggle to access services at all. The pilot evaluation indicates that WeMatter provides meaningful benefits for children, providing a safe, structured space for recovery and improving mental wellbeing. We’re proud of these findings and will continue to strengthen referral pathways, expand access, and influence how support for children is delivered across England.”
For further information, please contact Charlie Baker, Senior Press Officer: 07508 125 611 / charlie.baker@foundations.org.uk