DAPHNE PROGRAMME II 2004-2008
TO PREVENT AND COMBAT VIOLENCE AGAINST CHILDREN, YOUNG PEOPLE AND WOMEN AND TO PROTECT VICTIMS AND GROUPS AT RISK
______
Final report
This report was commissioned by ADVA Partnership with funding from
DAPHNE programme ll 2004-2008
The analysis of the data was based on data provided by partners and participants in the project
Sue Penna Associates can take no responsibility for the accuracy of the
collection of the original data.
Any conclusions and recommendations are the results of our best
professional judgment and are based on the raw data we have been
provided with and information provided to us by a range of agencies.
Any use of this report by any third party, does not absolve them from
using due diligence in verifying the reports contents. Any use which a
third party makes of this document or any decisions they make based upon
it are the responsibility of the third party. Sue Penna Associates accepts no
duty of care or liability of any kind to any such third party and
accepts no responsibility for any damages suffered by any third party as
a result of action taken or decisions made based on this document.
1. Aims of project
1.1 What problem did the project aim to address
To shift the focus from, support of survivors to preventing the long-term continuation of violence by perpetrators by developing a coordinated programme. The two key strands to the coordinated work are; individual and group work for male perpetrators and individual and group support for women whose partners are on the programme.
Domestic abuse/violence is acknowledged in Devon’s Public Health Strategy (December 2006). However it would appear that while support is demonstrated by senior public health manager’s attendance at relevant strategic meetings the ADVA partnership is seen as the leader in coordinating all domestic abuse/violence work including all health related activity.
1.2 Who are the beneficiaries?
Men
By establishing a voluntary recovery model for father perpetrators with the subsequent diminution of criminal violence and associated costs to criminal justice agencies
By reducing the level of offending by perpetrators through intervention which changes the pattern of behaviour
By equipping male perpetrators with skills/tools to enable them to live lives free of violence
Women
By increasing the safety of mother victim through coordinated multi agency risk assessment and safety planning
By developing self-esteem and resistance to further victimization amongst survivors
To support women victims through the programme to enable them to develop tools/skills to enhance their current and future safety and to reduce repeat victimization and the scale of repeat victimization.
An additional element to the Daphne programme, not funded by Daphne, was to provide support to the children and young people in the families whose fathers are on the programme.
Children
By reducing the social, educational and emotional impact domestic violence has on children/young people
By lessoning the behavioural problems and educational underachievement in school age children and design methods for monitoring changes
1.3 What was the expected result?
That men would find alternative ways of understanding their abuse and violence and therefore reduce their level of offending and be equipped to live lives free of violence for them and their families.
That women would become more self aware of the situation in which they live/have lived and learn skills to increase their safety and their self-empowerment.
2. Implementation of project
2.1 Which activities that were planned were implemented?
MEN ACTIVITY
· Men were able to self refer to the project although many were informed about it by other statutory agencies in the area.
· Once men were assessed for suitability they were offered one to one session’s with the project manager. These sessions lasted between 8 and 12 weeks before the man entered the group. During these sessions the project manager was looking for indicators that the man was taking responsibility for his actions and had a willingness to change.
· At week 2-3 the man was asked to sign a contract agreeing that his partner/ex partner would be contacted and offered support and that his children from either current or ex partner would also be offered support. Failure to sign this contract resulted in the man not being offered the programme.
· Following the individual sessions the man was able to join the REPAIR ‘violent men’s community programme’ this lasted for 30 sessions. (Appendix 1)
· Workers attended fortnightly two hour supervision sessions with team and the supervisor
Evaluation of men activity
Quantitative data
Workers recorded quantitative monitoring information directly onto a web-hosted data base.
Qualitative data
1. Self –esteem scale (questionnaire given to clients at beginning and end of support).
2. ROPELOC, taken away by client to fill in before and after, factors such as self-efficacy, self confidence, sense of overall effectiveness, risk management and locus of control.
Men who engaged in the programme were asked to fill in the questionnaires as soon as possible after engaging with the project worker. They were interviewed by the evaluation team as soon as possible after engaging. Clearly, for collection of information and analysis of effectiveness of interventions it is desirable to see any participant as soon as support commences. However difficulties arose which delayed this process: men’s ambivalence about engagement, logistics for men already taking time from work and traveling distances in this rural setting.
Qualitative data was obtained from self-description (given by worker to client take away and complete) and repertory grids (obtained in structured interview with evaluator, from the men and women)
1. Self-description: participants were asked at the beginning and end of the programme to write a short character description of themselves. These were subjected to content analysis.
2. Repertory grids: a sample of participants undertook a structured interview with the researcher, at the beginning and end of the programme, to reveal their personal constructs. Repertory grids are designed to capture the dimensions and structure of personal meaning. They constitute a person-centered approach and constructivist assessment, rather than one that is based upon a pre-existing theory of personality. They describe the ways in which people give meaning to their experience in their own terms. Participants rate themselves and significant others on their own constructs; this information is fed into a principal components statistical analysis which shows the constructs in spatial form on a graph. The relationship between constructs can be demonstrated and tracked over time. This technique is often used in therapy to reveal changes in beliefs about self and others, and the way in which these constructs are organized.
There appeared to be at least seven distinct groups of men that were being referred to the project.
a. Men referred to the programme but were never seen or talked to
b. Men referred to the programme, or self refer, who were talked to (phone) but did not start one to one assessment work
c. Men who attended for one to one assessments but did not make it on to the programme
d. Men who went through assessment stage and started one to one individual sessions
e. Men who completed one to one individual work but did not make it onto the group
f. Men who made it on to the group but did not complete it
g. Men who completed all aspects of the programme (assessment; one to one individual sessions; group work).
Structured telephone exit interviews were conducted with a sample of men in group (f) to ascertain:
1. Length of time/number of sessions seen
2. Why they believe they did not progress to the group
3. Changes in behaviour that resulted following the one to one sessions
4. Whether they are still in the relationship that took them to Repair
5. Whether they are still in contact with their children of the relationship that took them to REPAIR
6. Open comments about their experience of the one to one process
7. Any comments about the future
The same research tools were used with the men as the women, as the intention was to make comparisons between partners.
WOMEN’S ACTIVITY
· Women partners and/or ex partners of the men on the programme were contacted by a women’s support worker as soon as possible once the man joined the programme.
· Women were offered one to one support in person/ over the phone and at a frequency dictated by the women.
· Women were also offered a place on a ‘pattern changing’ course if they wished
· Women were transferred from the programme to receive one to one support from Women’s Aid outreach worker once their partner left or finished the programme.
Evaluation of women’s activity
Workers recorded quantitative monitoring information directly onto the web-based data base.
To monitor the development of self-esteem through one to one support by the Women’s Safety Worker and through attendance on the pattern changing group (for women) the same questionnaires and interviews were used as for the men.
Women being supported were asked to fill in the questionnaires as soon as possible after engaging with the Women’s Safety Worker. However women being supported were at different stages of distress and the WSW are highly skilled and used their judgement about the suitability of administering the questionnaires. This also applied to the timing of interviews of the women with the evaluation team. Obviously for collection of information and analysis of effectiveness of interventions it was desirable to see any participant as soon as support commences, however realistically due to the highly emotional experience that women were still in this was not always practical or ethical.
CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE ACTIVITY
Once the mother has agreed to support, and agreed that the children can also be offered support, the children’s worker was able to get involved. Children and young people supported were between the ages of 5 to 18 years old. The children’s worker used a variety of activities, tools and resources with the children but their core aims were:
* To Form a Safe relationship* To validate the CYP’s experience by active listening
* To enable child to tell story so they may unpack difficult experiences and feelings
* To not judge
* To promote and advise on keeping safe
* To help the child develop positive Self Esteem
* To help the CYP explore positive and negative feelings
* To ensure that there is closure/summary when the sessions end
* To Liaise with the family/team
* To work with the CYP so they may set goals for themselves
* To use Pro-social modelling to achieve the above
Evaluation of Children and Young People activity
Workers recorded quantitative monitoring information directly onto the web-based data base.
Qualitative monitoring measured self-esteem, academic progress and behavioural changes at the start and end of the support programme with the children. Triangulation was achieved by
a) self-report b) evaluations from the school and c) from the mother.
The Children’s Workers obtained permission from the mothers for the children to take part in the research and for the schools to be approached.
Tools used to monitor children and young people
1. Self-descriptions. If the children were unable to write these, the group worker wrote down what the child said. It was appropriate to have young children draw a picture of themselves and describe it in words to the group worker. Content analysis was applied to the descriptions the children gave of themselves.
2. Richard Butler’s (2001)Self Image Profiles for children aged 7 and over, which provide a measure of self image and self esteem, and seven aspects of self (ten for adolescents). The children completed these on their own, with instruction from the group worker and neutral assistance if reading was a difficulty.
3. The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (Goodman 1997), also completed by the children, with instruction, and assistance from the group worker. This has five scales: emotional symptoms, conduct problems, hyperactivity, peer problems and prosocial (sociability).
4. A short questionnaire, designed specifically for this research, was used at the beginning and end of the programme, which asked the child’s teacher to state the most recent SATs[1] level or Teacher’s Assessment, and to rate the child on seven dimensions related linguistically to the categories on the Self Image Profiles (ten for the secondary school aged young person). In addition the teacher was asked to comment on progress, behaviour, attendance, health, interests and any difficulties.
5. A short questionnaire, was completed at the beginning and end of the programme, by the mother, containing the same questions as the teacher questionnaire, with the exception of the SATs information.
2.2 Which were not implemented and why not
They were all implemented
2.3 Any unforeseen activities implemented
· The process to undertake interviews with clients (men and women) took longer than anticipated and so interview times increased from 1 hour to 1.5 hours
· In order to keep the maximum number of men on a group (8) it was necessary to increase the number of hours worked by the project manager so he could increase the number of men seen on a one to one assessment and individual basis
· It was necessary to increase the number of hours worked by the Women’s Safety Worker due to the amount of time taken up supporting women face to face, and liaising with women to influence their take-up on the programme.
· There was a resistance of workers to collect data, due to lack of time and IT skills; this was solved by recruiting a person to input data.
2.4 Any revisions to timetable
None
2.5 Describe the role, the activities and the contributions of every partner
Worker / Role / Activities / ContributionProgramme Manager / Manage the project / · To liaise with the team
· To take the initial referral from the man
· To publicise REPAIR
· To liaise with linked agencies
· To run group work
· To complete data and submit
· To attend supervisions
· To attend adva meetings
· To manage area budget
Co-Worker / To support the manager in group work / · To work with Manager on Group work
· To attend supervisions
Womens Safety Worker / To support the Women / · To work with Women (phone and face to face) identified through manager
· Attend supervision
· Attend adva meetings
· Liaise with Women’s Aid outreach
· Deliver Pattern Changing
· To submit data
CYP Worker / To support the children and young people / · To work with CYP on one to one/ phone identified via man and women on programme
· To attend supervisions
· To submit data
· To attend adva meetings
Adva Project Manager / To oversee Daphne Project / · To liaise with workers/evaluator
· To organize meetings
· To liaise with Daphne partners
· To publicise Daphne on www.adva.org.uk
· To organize conference/visit to UK
Policy Officer / Contractual and budget responsibility / · To manage budget
· To manage contracts
· To attend adva meetings
· To interface with Daphne partners
Monitoring and evaluation / To establish the monitoring systems, collect and analyse data and write monitoring reports / · To establish methods and type of data to be collected
· To set up web-based data system
· To liaise with workers re data collection
· To analyse data
· To submit regular reports
· To attend adva meetings
· To write final report
· To attend final conference
Supervisor / Support REPAIR team / · To attend fortnightly meetings with team
· To provide support to team
Chaperone / Safety of Workers / · To ensure safety of workers during group
3. Results and impacts of project