Domestic abuse-informed practice can be defined as a perpetrator pattern, child-centred, survivor strengths-based approach to working with domestic abuse. It holds perpetrators to account whilst recognising the strengths of the non-offending partner to protect the safety and wellbeing of children aiming to keep children and non-offending partners together and ultimately improve outcomes for adult and child survivors of domestic abuse.
This project aims to support to local authority areas and partnerships that are working to embed domestic abuse-informed practice with high quality evaluation tools, resources and learning. It will provide opportunities for organisations to share learning, experience and work through any challenges, and will capture insights into key enablers and barriers to making progress while using available evidence to measure and demonstrate progress being made across Scotland.
The Improvement Service is working in partnership with the Safe & Together Institute to deliver this project and will work in close collaboration with local implementation leads.
Resources to support local evaluation
The Improvement Service and the Safe & Together Institute have developed the Domestic abuse-informed practice and systems: A Self-Assessment Tool and Evaluation Framework toolkit to support local areas to evaluate their work to embed domestic abuse-informed practice. Self-evaluation can provide a benchmark to show to what extent the organisation, partnership and associated services/systems are working in a domestic abuse-informed way, and where there may be opportunities to strengthen the approach. It can also provide a benchmark against which progress and impacts can be measured and demonstrated.
Please contact vaw@improvementservice.org.uk if you would like any further information on how to make best use of these tools locally.
Sharing learning and experience
Alongside the Safe & Together Institute, the Improvement Service organises and hosts the Scottish Safe & Together Implementation Forum, which aims to provide opportunities for local leads to connect to each other, share progress and provide coaching around key aspects of implementation of the Safe & Together Model. The group meets approximately every eight weeks throughout the year. Please contact vaw@improvementservice.org.uk if you would like to attend the forums.
There is dedicated Knowledge Hub Group for professionals that are involved in embedding the model within their local areas/organisation or partnership. You will need to sign up to Knowledge Hub and request access to the group.
Learning reports
In October 2021, the Scottish Government provided dedicated funding through the Delivering Equally Safe (DES) Fund to support 12 local authorities/partnerships to progress activities to embed the Safe & Together Model between October 2021 and March 2025. At the same time, the Scottish Government provided funding to the Improvement Service to work alongside these 12 local authorities/partnerships to support them in their improvement journey, with a particular focus on generating learning on the impact that this work is having on the long term ambition to ensure that the systems, services and workforces in place across Scotland support the best possible outcomes for children and families experiencing domestic abuse.
The Improvement Service has produced a series of annual learning reports to highlight the work that DES-funded organisations and partnerships have undertaken to embed Safe & Together and to share emerging learning and available evidence of the impact this is having on professionals that provide services to adult and child victims and survivors of domestic abuse. The reports have been co-produced with national and local stakeholders.
You can access all three learning reports here, or in the drop-down menu on the left.
Case studies
Over the course of the DES funding, the Improvement Service have been working closely with some of the local authorities and partnerships funded through DES to embed Safe & Together to develop a series of case studies showcasing good practice in relation to embedding domestic abuse-informed practice across systems, services and workforces. These case studies showcase a range of work undertaken across the organisations, local authorities and partnerships funded to embed Safe and Together, as well as the impact for staff, services and families experiencing domestic abuse.
You can access a number of case studies and examples of implementation approaches taken across Scotland here.
Additional information and resources
Safe & Together Institute’s website includes detailed information about the model and a wide range of learning resources and materials.
Other Improvement Service programmes of work you may be interested in:
- The National Violence Against Women and Girls Network supports local councils and their partners to improve outcomes for women, children and young people affected by violence against women and girls.
- The National Trauma Transformation Programme aims to provide a range of support and resources to local authorities and other key stakeholders to raise awareness of the benefits of a trauma-informed approach across systems, services and the workforce.
- The Authentic Voice project aims to work with local councils and partnerships that would like to embed lived experience into the (re) design and delivery of services.
Resources
- Domestic abuse and trauma-informed practice
- Tackling Inequalities Trauma and Adversity across the Lifespan
Please contact vaw@improvementservice.org.uk if you would like any further information.
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Improving outcomes for people and communities affected by poverty, inequality, trauma and adversity: Joining the dots across key policy agendas (briefing)
There are a number of key policy agendas that are part of a broader ambition to improve outcomes for people and communities across Scotland affected by poverty, inequality, trauma and adversity. This briefing highlights the links across these and explores opportunities for re-framing these multiple policy ambitions as opportunities to work together around the common goal of improving outcomes for people and communities.
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Improving outcomes for people and communities affected by poverty, inequality, trauma and adversity: joining the dots across key policy agendas (infographic)
This infographic provides an overview of a small number of key national policy agendas, approaches and commitments, all designed to support a cross-policy, person-centred approach to improving outcomes for people and communities across Scotland affected by poverty, inequality, trauma and adversity.