The Safe & Together Model is an internationally recognised suite of tools and interventions designed to help social workers and other key professionals to engage with families experiencing domestic abuse in a child-centred, strengths-based way. The Safe & Together Model aims to help change how practitioners work with families impacted by domestic abuse. The key principles of Safe & Together include:
- Keeping children safe and together with the non-offending parent
- Partnering with the non-offending parent as the default position
- Intervening with perpetrator(s) to reduce risk and harm to the child
This case study highlights the impact of adopting the Safe & Together Model in practice when working with families who have experienced, or are continuing to experience, domestic abuse. It shows the improved outcomes of partnering with the survivor to keep her and her children safe and demonstrates the importance of holding the perpetrator accountable and visible during engagement with other agencies and services, and the impact that not doing so can have. It uses a real case involving a survivor, Sara, and her children, who received support from Falkirk’s Equally Safe Service.
Background and context
Sara has been in a relationship with the perpetrator for a number of years, which ended following a serious incident May 2024. Following the break-up the perpetrator left the shared home, however the abuse and harassment has continued.
Sara has five children: three under the age of 16 who live with her at home, and two who are over the age of 21 and have their own tenancies. None of the children are the perpetrator’s and he has no parental rights or responsibilities. Both Sara and her children are struggling with the impact of domestic abuse.
The perpetrator is in the UK on a spousal visa which includes a condition to reside with the Sara. Whilst there are no bail conditions in place from the police to keep the perpetrator away from the house, the visa conditions set out by the Home Office are in direct contradiction to the conditions of his sex offender registration whereby he is not allowed to reside with children under 16 due to an incident related to sexual assault on a minor.
Sara was referred to the Falkirk Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conference (Marac) in July 2024, and Equally Safe Falkirk were allocated to provide support. Throughout the support from Equally Safe Falkirk, Sara expressed how frightened she was of the perpetrator and the impact his ongoing threats and harassment was having on her, including on her mental health. Sara repeatedly felt let down by other services who were not fully recognising the risks posed by the perpetrator.
Throughout the case, Sara was in contact with a number of other agencies and services, including:
- Housing
- Police
- Home Office
- Social Work
- Primary Health Care (GP)
- Education
By taking a Safe & Together approach to the support offered, the Equally Safe worker was able to rebuild trust and advocate for Sara with other services.
Overview of the ongoing risks
Ongoing abuse, stalking and harassment
The perpetrator has continued to contact Sara via phone and text messages, including ongoing threats to kill or harm her if she does not comply with his demands. Sara is visibly fearful of the perpetrator carrying out these threats. She has taken repeated measures to protect herself from the perpetrator’s ongoing harassment, including reporting to the police, blocking his number and changing her own phone and number. This has been observed by professionals during home visits and reported to the police.
A Domestic Abuse Stalking & ‘Honour’ Based Abuse Risk Identification Checklist (Dash-RIC) identified Sara as being at high risk of harm, including an increase in the frequency and intensity of stalking behaviours. Appropriate safety planning was completed with Sara including changing her phone and phone number. Despite changing her phone number, Sara has continued to be subject to ongoing harassment, intimidation and abuse from the perpetrator, including 22 missed phone calls from an unknown number, believed to be the perpetrator, in one night. There are also concerns that the perpetrator has cloned Sara’s phone and is monitoring her phone calls and texts. In addition, the CCTV that Sara had had installed at the back door of the address was believed to be tampered with.
Coercive control and threats to harm
The perpetrator has made frequent and ongoing threats to harm and/or kill Sara if she does not comply with his demands. In particular, the perpetrator is expecting her to attend with him at the Falkirk Police Station every month to confirm she is still residing with him as per the conditions of his visa. Sara is fearful of her and her children’s safety if she does not do so. Abusive texts and calls increase around the time of the appointment every month and Sara is scared of what the perpetrator might do if she does not attend. The impact of the threats and coercive control is having a detrimental impact on Sara’s mental health.
Risk to children
The perpetrator has previous convictions of sexual assault towards a minor and is on the Sex Offenders register, with conditions not to reside children under 16, in direct conflict with the conditions of his UK spousal visa. These contradictions in conditions pose an increased risk to Sara and her children. Furthermore, Sara has also disclosed abusive and threatening texts and phone calls from the perpetrator and his parents towards her and her daughter.
Embedding the Safe & Together Principles
Keeping children safe and together with the non-offending parent
With support from the Equally Safe worker, Sara engaged with Education to develop a plan, including safety measures, for her daughter to return to school and mitigate the impact of the domestic abuse.
The Equally Safe worker provided ongoing support to Sara and her children, including appropriate safety planning for herself and her children. The Equally Safe worker recognised the impact that the abuse had on the children, particularly the eldest son, and recognised that Sara was protecting her children by not disclosing all the details of the abuse. Sara furthermore did not wish to attend the police station to provide statements as she was concerned that this would put her care of the children at risk. The Equally Safe worker supported Sara to identify her strengths and protective efforts in keeping her children safe from the perpetrator’s abuse and emphasised that it was the behaviour of the perpetrator that was putting the children at risk, not hers. Using a strengths-based approach, the Equally Safe worker was able to validate the impact of the abuse for the children and wider family functioning, and advocate with other agencies for keeping the children safe and together with Sara.
Partnering with the non-offending parent as the default position
The Equally Safe worker advocated for Sara in contact with the Home Office in relation to Sara previously supporting the perpetrator, emphasising her fearfulness in the presence of the perpetrator and that not saying anything that would contradict him was part of her safety planning for herself. The worker provided information regarding the incidents, harassment, intimidation and threats made towards Sara, highlighting the impact of abuse and level of control of the perpetrator.
The Equally Safe worker partnered with Sara, recognising the intersection between the ongoing domestic abuse and her mental health and alcohol use, often using alcohol as a coping mechanism in response to escalating abuse from the perpetrator. By recognising these intersections, the worker was able to provide support to Sara to safely navigate her different support needs, and advocate on her behalf with other agencies.
Following threats to kill from the perpetrator, Sara was supported to report the abuse to police and provided voicemails and texts and a statement speaking to the abuse, which she had previously been too frightened to do. By taking a person-centred approach to supporting Sara, the Equally Safe worker was able to support her to rebuild both her confidence in herself and her trust in other agencies, enabling more positive engagement with other agencies.
The Equally Safe Service effectively partnered with Sara and professionally challenged other agencies when they weren’t doing the same. During a police visit following Sara reporting an abusive call she had received from the perpetrator, two male police officers attended and used blaming and accusatory language towards her. This included asking ‘why she kept doing that [attending at the police station]’ and suggesting this indicated that she was ‘okay’ with the abuse, placing the responsibility on Sara as opposed to holding the perpetrator accountable. The Equally Safe worker, who was present during the visit, advocated for Sara and highlighted the level of control that the perpetrator has over her.
The Equally Safe worker supported Sara to recognise her own efforts to protect and keep her children safe during and after incidents of abuse. The Equally Safe worker also continued to advocate on behalf of Sara in engagements with other services and partner agencies. For example, in relation to being prescribed antidepressants and sleeping tablets by the GP, the Equally Safe worker was able to support Sara, and partner agencies, to frame this as a protective and proactive step in seeking help for her own mental health and to be viewed as a sign of strength, not failure. The Equally Safe worker also advocated for Sara in engagements with social work teams and highlighted that inconsistencies in contacting her was not enabling trust in services to be built.
Intervening with perpetrator(s) to reduce risk and harm to the child
Throughout this case, there were several incidents of other services and partners not implementing the Safe & Together principles in practice, in particular around intervening with perpetrators and taking a perpetrator pattern focused approach. As a result, blaming and accusatory language, inconsistencies in approach, lack of or inadequate responses, and unrealistic and/or unsafe expectations of Sara were often a feature in engagements with other services. For example, an incident where the perpetrator gained access to Sara’s property during the night, appearing in her bedroom and being aggressive and abusive towards her, was labelled as a ‘domestic argument’ in police reports, failing to hold the perpetrator accountable for his actions and for the impact on Sara. Furthermore, during this incident the police failed to respond appropriately within the time frames set by the storm marker that had been put on the address.
The perpetrator’s UK spousal visa included conditions to reside with Sara; however, this directly contradicted the conditions of his sex offender registration. There was a significant lack of intervening with the perpetrator to reduce the risk to Sara’s children in relation to these confiicting conditions. This was highlighted by the Equally Safe worker, however there was a lack of response and intervention from partner agencies and in turn, a likely increased risk to both Sara and her children.
The Home Office furthermore outlined an expectation for Sara to travel to an appointment on her own with the perpetrator, despite significant efforts on behalf of both Sara and other agencies to ensure the perpetrator had no means of contacting her. The Equally Safe worker, and Sara herself, had highlighted the ongoing abuse, harassment, intimidation and threats made by the perpetrator; however, Sara was still expected to travel alone with him. This expectation was in clear conflict with safety planning efforts by Sara and the Equally Safe Service to reduce the risk to Sara and her children and is in stark contrast with the Safe & Together approach.
The lack of response and recognition of the risk posed by the perpetrator, and unrealistic expectations placed on Sara demonstrates a tangible gap in awareness and understanding of domestic abuse and Safe & Together principles from partner agencies. The impact of this on Sara, and her children, was significant and highlights the importance of joint working and a perpetrator pattern approach to be taken across services, to provide a better response to survivors and their children who are experiencing domestic abuse.