The Women’s Support Service (WSS) was initiated against a background of concerns regarding consistently high levels of reported domestic violence in West Dunbartonshire and benefits from the support of the West Dunbartonshire Violence Against Women Partnership. It provides a service to female partners/ex-partners of domestic abuse perpetrators as an integrated criminal justice response and to female offenders experiencing domestic abuse and other forms of gender based violence (GBV).
PLANNING / · a clear rationale, defined processes and focus on stakeholder needs· contributes to organisation’s goals and addresses current or emerging challenges
The service developed from concerns for the safety of women and children within West Dunbartonshire. This area has been consistently recorded in Scotland as having one of the highest levels of violence against women and high levels of repeat victimisation.Through partnership working staff identified two specific issues in relation to gaps in service delivery. The first identified the need for adequate supports for women that prioritised their safety and wellbeing in order to address the needto hold perpetrators accountable for their abusive behaviour. National guidelines(Respect, National Association of Perpetrator Workers and Associated Services) state that work with partners is an essential element of any work with men who abuse. The second was the recognition of the relationship between female offending and experience of domestic abuse and other forms of gender based violence (Fawcett Society, 2007). Gendered violence affects women’s route into and out of offending differently to that of men and creates different needs which require gender specific interventions that targets the issues linked to women’s offending (Sheehan et al, 2007). The service has developed all work within the National Strategic Framework for Tackling Violence Against Women based on the foundation objectives of provision, prevention, protection and participation and also meets the aims of West Dunbartonshire Council’s Strategic Plans and other National Strategies.
Single Outcome Agreement /- Reduce domestic abuse and violence against women
West Dunbartonshire Council Corporate Plan /
- Health and Well being- Target Vulnerable Groups
- Safe and Strong Communities-Improve Community Safety
Social Work and Health Departmental Plan /
- Improve Community Safety
-Sustain services to meet the needs of women within the criminal justice system who have been affected by domestic abuse or other forms of violence against women
- Reduce Crime and Violent Crime in Particular
Safer Scotland’s National Strategy for the Management of Offenders /
- Appropriate care of victims including appropriate and timely information
National Domestic Abuse Prevention Strategy /
- The protection of women and children
- The provision of meaningful, effective services
Aims of WSS /
- Increase the safety of women and children experiencing domestic violence within a criminal justice context
- To achieve better outcomes for women and children experiencing domestic abuse
- To provide a service to female offenders which recognises the impact of gender based violence in relation to routes into and out of offending
- To raise the profile of the effects of gender based violence on the women who receive the service
DELIVERING / · implemented in all relevant areas and across all the required stakeholders
· carried out in a structured and logical way , using robust and sustainable methods
The WSS provides a new model of intervention and is the first of its kind within Scotland. This innovative method provides a holistic response by combining a systematic multi-agency approach in early intervention to those women and children at highest risk, a direct service to women within an integrated criminal justice social work response to domestic abuse, a gendered response to female offending and improved generic services for women through awareness raising and good practice training based on gender equality.
The WSS is unique because we intervene earlier than any other criminal justice team in Scotland delivering a service to women where reported domestic abuse incidents are deemed criminal. Early intervention and routine sensitiveenquiry regarding female offender’s experiences of abuse is made possible by the integration of the WSS into criminal justice team processes and through partnership working within GIRFEC Pathfinder Pilot. Early intervention has been crucial to provide an effective and efficient servicefor women and has enabled targeting of the most vulnerable women and children.Referrals are automatically made to the WSS for women with children following a reported incident to police and for all other women when the court requests a social work report on the perpetrator. The WSS thereafter contact the victim and information and advice is provided.Support with safety planning is provided for all women who engage with the service with longer-term support being offered to women with complex needs resulting from their experience of domestic abuse and other forms of GBV.The WSS is the only women’s service within West Dunbartonshire who proactively contacts victims which has enabled women, who would not have initiated service contact for themselves, to be supported.Over a three year period 245 referrals have been received 89 of which have been early intervention high risk referrals from police, the remaining being criminal justice team referrals including female offenders. The effectiveness of our response to female offenders is increased by the inclusion of WSS as a non-conviction community alternative for women requiring welfare support to reduce the risk of further offending.Further improvements will be informed by the views of service users which have been gained through focus groups and service user evaluations.The involvement of women within the service planning has been crucial to ongoing development in the creation of a dynamic and responsive service. Our ongoing partnership work identified unmet needs of young vulnerable women affected by commercial sexual exploitation from which the WSS developed and disseminated a good practice resource and developed and delivered training.
INNOVATION + LEADING PRACTICE / ·Demonstrates leading practice, and is capable of replication elsewhere·Achieves genuine innovation or new ways of working
The service receives £77,404 per year in annual funding. £38,702 (approx) per year provides a direct service to women. 82 women (on average) per year directly benefit from the service costing £472 per woman per year. An immeasurable number of women experiencing GBV benefit further from remaining funding through indirect service provision. This includes partnership work aimed at prevention, awareness raising of GBV and development and delivery of training. The impact of which is demonstrated within results section. The WSS is an innovative criminal justice service due to early intervention and sustainability.Intervening early provides a new approach and sustainable service. Without early intervention the cost of the long term abuse of women and increasing numbers of female offenders would require services that are much more expensive to deliver. This makes our approach easy to replicate elsewhere and sustainable in the future.
Increase the safety of women and children experiencing domestic violence within a criminal justice context
To achieve better outcomes for women and children experiencing domestic abuse
The systematic multi-agency approach to early intervention originated as a GIRFEC Pathfinder Pilot within Clydebankwhich due to positive evaluations rolled out throughout the Local Authority. This increased demand required new streamlined processes governing the WSS involvement includinginformation sharing and research and weekly reports being submitted to the multi-agency meeting which prioritisescriminal justice cases that are very/high risk in which WSS is offered. This has increased efficiency in identifying the most vulnerable and offering early intervention enabling the increase in demand to be cost neutral.
In direct service provision with women the WSS initiates contact. This increases accessibility of services to women who have been systematically isolated by abuse and who feel stigmatised and blamed for being abused. This form of contact removes the onus from women and sets the WSS apart from other women’s services in the area. In particular this facilitates the earliest intervention which enables women to better protect themselves and their children increasing their immediate safety.The benefits women experience is illustrated below.
The multi-agency approach enables flexibility. The WSS routinely works with Children and Families Social Work, Health Visitors and other services already involved with the woman to provide joint visits to introduce our service. The venue of appointments is flexible acknowledging safety and childcare issues which is often a barrier for women accessing services. Systematic information sharing is crucial to effective delivery of the service. Benefits to women are illustrated below.
The WSS is unique and distinct from other safety services that offer proactive contact within Scotlandbecause we offer longer-term support for women with complex needs resulting from GBV including domestic abuse. We have adopted the Trauma Model (Herman, 2001)because it is shown to be an effective practice model in working with women who have experienced violence and abuse. It provides a framework for interventions with women based on safety, trauma recovery and moving on principles, acknowledging the far reaching impact of women’s experiences of violence. Emotional safety is a key element in protection from re-victimisation contributing to prevention of further abuse reducing long-term reliance on service provision. Women have additional support through group work which was written and developed through service user evaluation.
To provide a service to female offenders which recognises the impact of gender based violence in relation to routes into and out of offending
Our work with female offenders is ground-breaking in that we are the first integrated community based criminal justice service that deliversseamless interventions with female offenders that acknowledge the direct and indirect impact of GBV as a contributory factor in female offending.
Recognising the vulnerabilities of female offenders who serve repeated short term prison sentences and to promote our understanding of the needs of female offenders generally, 3 focus groups have been held 2 within prisons and 1 within the community criminal justice service.This has been achieved in partnership with the Homeless Housing Service. The responses that women have offered will lead the ongoing WSSdevelopment as a commitment to service user involvement.
To raise the profile of the effects of gender based violence on the women who receive the service
Good practice is shared throughout the locality by the publication of the Good Practice Resource for Organisations Working with Women Vulnerable to or Involved in Prostitution which was endorsed and funded for printing by the Violence Against Women Partnership. The Resource has also been published on the CHCP link of the WD Councils intranet and number of downloads are monitored. To date 8 additional copies have been downloaded.
Presentations have already taken place to promote the approach of the WSS at network meetings, child protection joint training events and to local counsellors. Further presentations are planned.
It is hoped that in the long term the WSS will be mainstreamed within the criminal justice team and that this can further influence the challenge of perpetrators of violence against women and promote their change process to reduce the risk they pose to women and children. In looking forward, in combination with other evidence and a gendered analysis of female offending it is hoped to influence service innovation and the setting of new standards in work with female offenders. The goal would be to replicate throughout the Criminal Justice Partnership.
RESULTS + IMPACT / · a convincing mix of customer and internal performance measures· clear line of sight to the delivery of better outcomes for communities
· a full range of relevant results– either already achieved or with potential to deliverover time
Increase the safety of women and children experiencing domestic violence within a criminal justice context
To achieve better outcomes for women and children experiencing domestic abuse
The service received funding with intention of offering a service to 77 women. The funding was proposed to benefit families, those experiencing domestic abuse, women on low incomes, offenders and ex-offenders, women affected by homelessness, with addictions, experience of rape/sexual assault and sexual abuse and commercial sexual exploitation. The total number of women offered a service is more than 3 times initial targets.
Domestic Abuse / Target77 / Actual
243 / Offender/Ex offender / Target
33 / Actual
58 / Affected by CSE / Target
10 / Actual
3 / Mental health difficulties / Target
None / Actual
31 Since Oct 09
Families
/parent / 77 / 148 / Affected by homeless-ness / 15 / 33 / Experience of rape/sexual abuse/assault / 77 / 29 / History of Serious Assaults / None / 18
Since Oct 10
On low income / 77 / 127 / Addiction issues / 40 / 63 / Poor Social Supports / None / 19
Oct 10
Increasing Safety, Improving Lives: Women’s Support Service Outcomes Evaluation
The evaluation included a service user evaluation and evaluation by criminal justice team workers. The Outcomes Evaluation is available on request and summarised below. Women were asked to rate the difference that working with the WSS had made to their life across: 19 indicators relating to physical and emotional safety, and recovery from the impact of domestic abuse and/or other forms of violence, 22 indicators measuring the extent that support met needs and categories relating to supports for children and the unique approach by the WSS.
Sharing of Information: 71% of women who completed service evaluation stated that this aspect of the service made a lot of difference to them. One woman stated “It makes other services aware of what’s going on. Explaining to one worker meant that my worker could explain things which helped me at meetings. I wouldn’t have shared the information myself because I got confused and overwhelmed. It helped me to know it would be shared and that I didn’t have to keep explaining myself”. Another stated “It made me feel safer just knowing that others were aware of the situation between myself and my ex-partner”
Proactive Contact: 86% of women who answered this question stated it made a lot of difference to them because they would have found it very difficult to make contact with services themselves and would more than likely not have done so.
78 % of women rated the service as excellent, the remaining 22 % rated the service as very good.
Increase the Safety of Women and Children / A lot of change / Some change / No changeI have more ways to keep myself safer / 67% / 22% / 11 %
I understand more about the causes of domestic abuse / 100%
I understand more about how domestic abuse affects me / 89% / 11%
I have more information that will help me / 78% / 22%
I understand better how domestic abuse has affected my children / 75% / 25%
I have more information about services that can support my children with the effects of domestic abuse / 75% / 12.5% / 12.5%
Improving Outcomes for Women and Children
My situation overall has improved / 78% / 22%
I am more able to get what I need for myself / 56% / 44%
I am better able to support my children with the effects of domestic abuse / 63% / 37%
I feel my children’s future is more positive / 75% / 25%
When asked to comment on the objectives of the WSS 5/6 criminal Justice workers stated that the WSS made a lot of difference to their work with perpetrators. This related to an ability to work more effectively, increased understanding, increased confidence, increased ability to provide meaningful interventions and increased focus on women’s safety as the priority of work undertaken.
To provide a service to female offenders which recognises the impact of gender based violence in relation to routes into and out of offending
Focus groups were held within prison and community criminal justice setting. Women contributed their views in relation to unmet need and experiences of violence. Women expressed positive responses to the approach of the WSS. In particular they stated consistently that building a relationship with one worker was a significant contributor to their engagement with a service and their ability to commit to change. Flexibility to respond to women’s complex difficulties and consistency of worker between prison and community inherent within WSS approach was viewed as effective. In response, service provision with women in prison utilising this valued approach will continue to develop.
In our service outcomes evaluation 6/6 criminal justice workers stated that the WSSmade a lot of difference to work with female offenders. This related to more appropriate interventions being offered to women in engaging and sustaining women’s pathways out of crime, increased awareness of systematic gender inequality, improved risk management, greater understanding of the impact of GBV and as a useful resource offering expertise for female victims of abuse.
To raise the profile of the effects of gender based violence on the women who receive the service
47 participants benefitted from training, 98% stating they would recommend it to a colleague. 87% of the total number of participants stated that their understanding of prostitution as violence against women increased as a result of the training. 73% of which, stated that their understanding had improved greatly.93% of the total number of participants stated that their understanding of the issue for women and how to support themhad increased due to the training. 50 % of which stated that their understanding had increased significantly.45% of participants stated that their attitudes had been challenged and had changed as a result of the training.Encouraging given that attitudes, generally speaking, are usually firmly established and that attitudes relating to prostitution are informed many sources which glamorise and normalise commercial sexual exploitation as part of a multi-billion pounds global sex industry. The increase in knowledge informing practice is likely to have a significant impact on the outcomes for young people and women who are vulnerable to involvement or currently involved in prostitution. “I have found the training informative and it has reinforced to me how much power men have over women and highlighted the level of abuse that exists in society between men and women”. This training is being further developed as a direct result of participant evaluations and is anticipated to be a source of future revenue from selling the training pack to other local authorities.