A Long and Winding Road: an evaluation of the Safe & Together London Partnership 2021-2026

The Safe & Together London Partnership was funded through the Home Office and the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC). From 2021-2026, it included eight London Boroughs, who worked alongside Respect to implement the Safe & Together model; Waltham Forest, Hackney, Hammersmith & Fulham, Barnet, Barking & Dagenham, Redbridge, Tower Hamlets and Newham.  

This landmark systems change project was designed to improve the way children's services and partner agencies respond to domestic abuse. It supports professionals to engage with and move the focus towards perpetrators, providing better support for survivors. 

Professor Liz Kelly and Dr Maria Garner of the Child and Woman Abuse Studies Unit (CWASU) at London Metropolitan University have been evaluating the partnership since 2021. In their new report, A Long and Winding Road: An evaluation of the Safe & Together London Partnership 2021-2026, they reflect on the last five years of the Safe & Together London Partnership.  

One of the key aims of the partnership was to support social care professionals to move away from the 'failure to protect approach,' where survivors are held responsible for abuse, and instead ensure that perpetrators are held accountable for their behaviour and the impact of it on their children.  

Training was a key foundation in implementing this approach and in the last five years over 100 training courses were delivered by Respect's Safe & Together team. Courses were attended by over 3000 people, resulting in increased knowledge and confidence, a shift in focus towards perpetrators and a recognition of survivors' strengths.  

Respect's Safe & Together Implementation Leads delivered 1808 individual case consultations with social workers which led to changes in documentation, namely, evidence of partnering with survivors and moving to a focus on perpetrators becoming clearer.   

Key achievements over the last five years include: 

• Integrating Safe & Together into quality assurance processes  
• Production of a practice checklist  
• Building a shared Safe & Together framework that can lead to consistent and more effective responses to intimate partner violence, which keeps children safe and together with their non-abusive parent  
• Increasing understanding and differentiation between survivors and perpetrators.  
• Frontline social care workers increasing their confidence when working with perpetrators  
• Language use and approach towards survivors significantly changing   

A Consultant Social Worker shared that ''using the Safe & Together Model meant we were able to reflect that the mother’s parenting was more than good enough. Despite the abuse she was enduring, she was doing an excellent job of keeping her child’s development on track and maintaining as much normalcy as possible, as well as doing things that protected the child from the abuse. This approach allowed us to focus our safeguarding efforts where they were most needed – on the perpetrator.''  

Take a look at the report to find out more about how Respect's Safe & Together delivery has supported families and children in the London boroughs and what some of the key recommendations are moving forward.   

Read the report: A Long and Winding Road

Respect would like to thank Professor Liz Kelly and Dr Maria Garner for their longstanding collaboration on the London Partnership, the project has benefitted greatly from their commitment, expertise and insight.