Between April 2016 and March 2017 an estimated 1.9 million adults aged 16 to 59 years experienced domestic abuse. During this time the police recorded 1.1 million domestic abuse related incidents and crimes.

Many services exist to change the behaviour and beliefs of individuals committing domestic abuse, however there is little evidence to show how effective these services are or whether they provide good value for money.

This project evaluated an existing service in Doncaster called ‘Foundation for Change’ to assess its effectiveness and value for money.

The research team spoke to a wide range of people (individually and in groups) who have an interest in this service. Researchers also watched one-to-one sessions and videos of group sessions. Researchers also looked at records of service users and requested them to complete surveys about their behaviour.

Researchers found good relationships and trust between key workers and service users improved service users’ engagement with the programme and key workers ability to continually assess how the service users were benefitting from the programme. Service users valued being treated with respect by key workers and valued the fact that they were able to choose how and when to be involved in the service.

Group work allowed programme staff to create opportunities to facilitate supportive relationships between service users and provide opportunities to learn from peers. Evidence suggests that the group work environment facilitated service users’ willingness to reflect on their behaviour and disclose their feelings, helped build confidence to participate fully in the sessions, and provided opportunities to learn from others with differing experiences and histories.

Services users also began to report changes in their actions as they began to understand how they affected others.

To run this particular programme for 281 service users over the course of two and a half years costs £382,500, costing £1,361 per person. Some of the benefits that were counted accumulated over time and were therefore calculated over five years. Although there were some important things that the research team could not count, they found that for every £1 spent the benefits were worth between £2.05 and £0.95.

If we compare the service to other services, it is slightly more expensive. However, as this services joins up all of the services and supports service users in a holistic manner it is less expensive than expected and could be considered to offer good value for money.

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