Falkirk currently has four certified Safe & Together trainers, which has allowed the local area to benefit from a wide range of training opportunities for partners. The model is in line with Falkirk’s community planning partnership’s learning and development framework, and the council has rebranded how it communicates and promotes the training opportunities within the authority. The service is providing all local partners with the opportunity to access either 4-day core training, 1-day overview sessions, supervisors training, briefing sessions and Safe & Together roadshows. This offers multi-agency partners the opportunity to learn the principles of the model and guide them further if they require more advanced levels of training.
Follow-up to training is also provided to newly trained mentors six weeks after their core training. This provides opportunities to discuss any successes and challenges they have had in implementing the model in their practice, as well as sharing examples of how they have done so. This meeting also provides space to revisit tools within the model to refresh their memory. These mentors also have access to a Teams channel that includes a host of relevant resources and tools.
In addition to training, case consultations with the service development worker are offered to multi-agency partners. This allows for the Safe & Together model to be considered in relevant cases and has assisted practitioners in understanding a child’s behaviour and recognising a pattern of behaviour from a perpetrator of domestic abuse.
The Equally Safe Trauma Support Service and Family Group Decision Service provide a tailored package of support to victims/survivors of domestic abuse, including children. The service also works with the perpetrator in his role as a dad and uses the Safe & Together Perpetrator Mapping Tool to document patterns of behaviour. This supports practitioners and victims/survivors to understand the pattern of behaviour and how these impact on family functioning. Partnering with victims/survivors is an essential Safe & Together principle that helps promote change within this service – from initial point to referral, victims/survivors have choice and a voice to choose which part of the service would support them and their children. Having a worker to support them in safety planning, looking at support and enabling them to feel more in control of their lives is paramount to the partnering and healing process.
The ‘Women Unite’ participation group is an additional activity that has been developed by this service. This group has involved the Safe & Together model in a variety of ways, such as discussing their journey through the service with Safe & Together mentors and creating domestic abuse standards for court advocacy. The group has also been included as part of a focus group for research undertaken by Stirling University. This research had a focus on the Safe & Together model in relation to the impact services have on the safety and wellbeing of mothers affected by domestic abuse, and how mothers feel about the support they receive.
Outcomes
The impact of implementing the Safe & Together model is becoming increasingly evident across Falkirk. Practitioners appear to find the training educational, with feedback on the briefing sessions stating:
This was a very informative session as it covered all areas of Domestic Abuse within different situations and relationships. Very eye opening.
During the training sessions themselves, practitioners appear to already be reflecting on their practice and thinking of ways to change this to reflect the Safe & Together principles.
One activity of the Equally Safe Service was the establishment of participation group of survivors. This group gave a presentation at one of the Safe & Together mentor forums, which was well received by the mentors:
Absolutely amazing. Personal journeys are very moving. Not only because of how far Safe & Together has improved lives, but also how far we still have to improve responses to domestic abuse.
All workers and managers in the Equally Safe Service have received relevant Safe & Together training for their roles, and this has had a significant impact on the lives of the women and children engaging with this service:
[Equally Safe Service] have given the support to help us feel like we have endless possibilities in life after abuse, and in a way that didn’t feel clinical. It felt as though they help pick up the pieces from a time that everything felt completely broken.
With victims/survivors becoming peer mentors and facilitating group work programmes, women have felt they have a voice to make positive changes to others and can help move forward with their families.
Equally Safe [Falkirk] gives a platform for your voice to be heard, feel united, and understood.
During an ESF Open Day, organised with victims/survivors to promote the service and bring awareness about Safe & Together training, positive feedback was received:
Look what happens when choice, control, collaboration, safety and empowerment are prioritised. What a great session!
Enablers
Falkirk has recognised the benefits of having a number of certified Safe & Together trainers in their partnership as this has provided more training opportunities for the workforce. This allows all local partners to access Safe & Together training, including the 4-day core training, 1-day overview, supervisors training and briefing sessions. This has been made possible as there is strong and collective leadership and a shared vision to this work. Joined up working across local partners, as well as strategies and agendas, has also been key to furthering the implementation of Safe & Together.
Barriers
There have been several barriers to embedding this work in Falkirk, such as short-term funding cycles which creates difficulties for long term planning. Additionally, there is a lack of organisational capacity for staff to access training and implementation of support. Competing local and national priorities and agendas can also put pressure on this work due to lack of commitment from leadership to prioritise implementation of domestic abuse-informed approaches.