Southend, Essex and Thurrock Domestic Abuse Perpetrator Programmes Evaluation 

Task 

The Southend, Essex and Thurrock Domestic Abuse Board (SETDAB) launched their first Domestic Abuse Strategy for Greater Essex in 2015. The SETDAB partnership consists of representatives from multiple agencies and organisations, working together to ‘enable everyone to live a life free from all forms of domestic abuse’ and to ‘break the cycle of domestic abuse’. Among its intended outcomes, SETDAB aims to help children and young people recognise and form healthy relationships, support the safety of those experiencing or at risk of experiencing domestic abuse, and disrupt as well as support perpetrators to change their behaviour. 

TONIC were commissioned by the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner (PFCC) for Essex on behalf of the SETDAB to evaluate the existing Domestic Abuse Perpetrator Programmes commissioned in the local area to be delivered in the community, including: 

• The Change Hub 

• Specialist Intervention Service 

• Good Man 

• Sisters in Strength  

• Project PIPA  

Of these services, two target interventions for perpetrators (PIPA and The Change Hub), one supports people who are exhibiting stalking behaviours (Specialist Intervention Service), and two work preventatively as early interventions to children and young people, with particular focus in secondary education (Good Man and Sisters in Strength). 

The aim of the evaluation was the establish whether the programmes deliver their intended outputs, benefits and outcomes in order to build an evidence-base and inform future commissioning decisions. 

Our Approach 

This evaluation primarily utilised a mixed-methods process evaluation design and was conducted through a series of qualitative research activities focusing on the effectiveness of the individual elements that make up the programmes. TONIC adopted a co-production approach with providers in order to understand which qualitative methodologies were most suitable for service users. This was supplemented by analysis of the services’ engagement and outcome data, where available. 

In total, 100 individuals participated in the evaluation: 48 responses were received to the survey and 52 in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with service users and professionals. Of the participants, 48 were service users, 5 were victim/survivors of domestic abuse and 47 were professionals.          

Outcome 

TONIC produced a detailed, written report that presented the findings of the evaluation, alongside a literature summary, to the commissioners. The report was divided by service for readability and contained subsections detailing facilitators to delivery/strengths, challenges to delivery/opportunities for improvement and perceived impact. A visual timeline was created to document the challenges one of the services faced during it’s implementation and a case study was produced to showcase their work  

The qualitative findings indicated that the interventions were having a positive perceived impact on their service users – perpetrators or young people at risk of involvement in abusive relationships. For all interventions, the staff were praised as dedicated and passionate; with facilitators being viewed as engaging, compassionate and approachable. However, there was acknowledgement that the cohort of individuals targeted by all services is considered ‘hard to reach’ which can result in limited buy-in. There were also concerns raised about demand outstripping capacity and the workload placed on practitioners. 

TONIC produced a set of recommendations for each of the services that were grounded in the findings from both the qualitative and quantitative data analysis, alongside a series of recommendations for the commissioners to consider.