Step Up - Building the Evidence Base for Early Intervention Responses for Children Living With Domestic Abuse

This project aims to improve child protection responses for children and young people living with domestic violence by providing effective early help. It is based on a partnership between researchers at the University of Central Lancashire and lead professionals from children's services and domestic violence services in Blackpool. Domestic violence affects a large minority of children living in the UK. Between 12% to 24% of children and young people will be exposed to domestic violence during childhood and 3% will experience this within the last 12 months (Radford et al, 2013). Domestic violence is four times higher than the national rate in Blackpool and it is estimated that one in every eight children (12%) will have been exposed in the past year. Research has shown that living with domestic violence can have a harmful and lasting impact on children's health, mental health, development and life chances (Stanley, 2011). Children exposed to domestic violence are at greater risk of experiencing abuse or being abusive in their own relationships as adults (Kitzman et al, 2003). Domestic violence is commonly associated with the most complex child protection cases (Munro, 2011) and a recent report concluded that the police response towards victims of domestic violence is 'not good enough' (HMIC, 2014). There were 2,396 calls about domestic violence made to the Blackpool police in 2012-3 where there were children in the household. Domestic violence related calls to the police have reduced recently but referrals of high risk cases to the Multi Agency Risk Assessment Conferences (MARACs) have continued to increase. Currently over 782 children are involved in high risk cases referred to MARAC. Blackpool has three independent domestic violence advocates (CIDVA) dedicated to work with children and young people. Over 300 children are in contact with these services each year (CAADA, 2014). MARACs and advocates however work only with high level risk cases and the local authority has identified a need to provide earlier help to families before abuse escalates to this high risk stage or before children have problems with behaviour or health as result. A new early help service will be set up, led by new Early Help Coordinators (EHCs) based in Sure Start services in two different areas of Blackpool. The service will work with families with children under the age of 16 who are living with 'standard' (rather than 'high') risk domestic violence. The research project will build on and aim to improve existing evidence on early identification, assessment and intervention responses to children living with domestic violence in Blackpool. There will be two comparator sites, where standard risk cases will be responded to as 'business as usual', without the EHC services and their specialist follow up, assessment, referral and response pathways. The research is an ambitious project which depends on good collaboration between Blackpool's children's services and the university research team over a four year period. The researchers will work closely with the new service, providing evidence to inform the development of the project, assessing the process of implementation and, later when the project is established, bringing together evidence on the impact on children and their resilience, the impact on their families and the professionals who work with them. The research will include an evaluation of the costs of the early response model. Case studies will be produced to illustrate the impact of the early response on a child's journey towards safety and resilience. Young people, their families and professionals in Blackpool will be consulted about the design of the early response model and the design and conduct of the research. Findings will be promoted locally, nationally and internationally to share any information that can be used to help children and their families in the future.

Who will benefit from this research?
The following four groups will benefit from this research - children and their families; professionals who work with them, directly or indirectly, contributing to services in the statutory (police, education, early years, Sure Start, child protection, health, youth justice, probation) or voluntary sector (Women's Aid services, IDVAs, CIDVAs, NSPCC, Respect); policy makers with influence over children's services and responses to families living with domestic violence; academics.

How will they benefit from this research?
Children and their families: It is expected that providing earlier help will prevent the escalation of domestic violence and the subsequent harm that can result for children and their parents. The benefits for children in Blackpool would be substantial in light of the harm known to be caused by living with domestic violence and the currently growing numbers of high risk domestic violence cases involving children coming through to MARACs. Young people and parents may also benefit directly from participation in the research and the opportunity this will provide to have their views heard and to contribute to service development and dissemination of findings. As well as providing child friendly information resources the research team will work with the Blackpool Early Help Coordinators to promote the research findings via fun activities for children, young people and parents at Sure Start centres, community groups and schools.

Professionals: Benefits for professionals are expected from the new knowledge that will emerge from the project and its evaluation. It is hoped that this can be used to inform practice and future service delivery. The greatest benefit for professionals would be findings that indicated children and their families had better outcomes and that the program was efficient and well received by those involved in service delivery. However professionals (and families) would also benefit if the project discovers instead what responses are unhelpful. To ensure that findings are relevant and useable, professionals will also participate in the design, implementation and review of the project as well as contribute to the dissemination of the research findings. The research team will draw on established local fora and networks to promote the findings with professionals. UCLAN is one of the largest social work educators in Europe and the School of Social Work places great value on research informed teaching. We will promote the research findings in teaching of undergraduate, post graduate and post qualifying Social Workers and through training networks such as BASPCAN and Making Research Count. There will be at least two dissemination events targeted at professionals in Blackpool. Members of the research team will draw on national and international networks and organisations to promote the findings widely as set out in the Pathways to Impact attachment.

Policy makers: The findings are likely to be of interest to local and central government and policy makers in organisations such as the police, police and crime commissioners, education sector, health and children's services. If knowledge gained can be used to improve services then the benefits for policy makers will include more efficient services and increased public confidence in key agencies, such as the police or child protection, responses to domestic violence. Outputs from the research will include the case studies which will be helpful tools to present findings in an accessible and meaningful format for policy makers.

Academics: across the disciplines of Social Policy, Social Work and Criminology will benefit from the new knowledge about supporting and building resilience for children and their families and how to engage with vulnerable families. Findings will be disseminated via presentations at major academic conferences and publications in academic journals.