CHANGE 1995-1996 Annual Report
Convenor’s Report
On behalf of the Management Committee I welcome the opportunity
to introduce the sixth Annual Report of the CHANGE Project.
The Project has undergone significant changes during the last
year, as it approaches the end of its Urban Programme funding in
September 1996. Local government re-organisation will have an
effect on the future operation of the Project and we are
grateful to our sponsoring agency for the last six and a half
years, Central Regional Council Social Work Services and
particularly to Margaret Anderson for her continued advice and
support.
The Management Committee has recognised that the future of
CHANGE lies primarily in the areas of consultancy and training.
To enable the co-ordinators to complete the CHANGE training
manual, it was decided to stop delivery of the men’s programme
from October 1995. In addition to working on the manual, staff
have continued to undertake some training for Probation
Departments in England and to fulfil teaching commitments within
Universities. There has also been continued involvement in
various conferences; with the Multi-Agency Domestic Violence
Project which is working to develop a strategy in Central
Scotland; with the local Zero Tolerance Campaign and also with
the Practitioners’ Network, a national forum for agencies and
individuals working with violent men. CHANGE has also been
consulted by "Justice", the all party group for legal reform.
CHANGE’s work within prisons has also progressed during last
year, with the development of a training package for prison
officers. In January CHANGE co-ordinators spent a week at
Dungavel Prison, running a pilot training programme for prison
officers as part of the planned development of groupwork
programmes for prisoners on issues concerning relationship
problems and male abuse of women within relationships.
During the past year the Management Committee has been sorry to
lose two members of the CHANGE Project’s staff. Dorothy
Anderson, our administrator left in August 1995 and David Morran,
joint co-ordinator left in January 1996. We thank them for their
valued contributions to CHANGE over the last six years and wish
them every success in their new careers.
In May 1995, we were fortunate to be joined by our new
administrator, Gaynor Davenport, who will remain with us until
September. In view of the changing remit of the Project, the
Management Committee have decided that CHANGE should continue
with one co-ordinator, Monica Wilson. We would like to extend
our sincere thanks to Monica and Gaynor, especially for their
commitment and hard work during the last few months.
Sue McLaughlin
Convenor
CHANGE Project
The CHANGE Project
The CHANGE Project was established in September 1989 following
the committed work of a number of individuals from Women’s Aid
and the legal, academic and social work professions, whose
efforts had been successful in securing Urban Aid Funding
through the sponsorship of Central Regional Council Social Work
Department.
The main aims of the Project are to deliver a criminal justice
based re-education programme for men who have been violent to
their wives or female partners, to encourage collaborative
interagency practice over domestic violence, to offer training
and consultancy to other professionals working in this area and,
through publications, the holding of conferences and
contributions to other conferences, to raise general public
awareness of the issue of men’s violence to women.
Staffing and Management
CHANGE has been staffed by two co-ordinators and an
administrator throughout the life of the Project. From January
1996 the staffing compliment has been reduced by one
co-ordinator and in view of the changing remit of the project,
management committee decided that only one co-ordinator was
necessary for the foreseeable future. Staff are responsible to a
management committee comprising individuals who are concerned to
achieve the goals of CHANGE. A Constitution lays down the
objectives and functions of the organisation. Management
committee meetings are held on a six-weekly cycle.
In addition, an Advisory Group comprising representatives of
local statutory and voluntary agencies is available to provide
advice and information to the management committee.
The CHANGE Perspective on Men’s Violence
CHANGE’s position is that men's violence towards their female
partners stems from a fundamental inequality in the male/female
relationship which is rooted in patriarchy, and engenders men's
need to secure and maintain power and control in relationships.
From this perspective men's abuse of, and violence towards,
women is seen as learned and intentional behaviour rather than
the consequence of individual pathology, stress, alcohol abuse
or the fact that he lives in a 'dysfunctional relationship'.
Traditionally, men have been assumed to have the right to
exercise power and control over women and children, both in
general terms as well as in personal relationships. Ultimately,
the wider responsibility for solving the problems of family
violence relies upon a change in social attitudes and in the way
in which our institutions respond to these manifestations of
male power. Within this context, programmes for men who abuse
women are viewed only as one aspect of a wider responsibility
for society to change.
Independent Research Report
In addition to our own monitoring of men's progress and reports
to social workers and sentencers CHANGE has been subject to
independent research which has been jointly funded by the Home
and Scottish Offices. We had expected the report to be published
last autumn but this has been postponed until later this year,
so the findings are not available for comment in this year’s
Annual Report.
The Men’s Programme and the Training Manual
The men’s programme continued to be available as a service for
most of the year. However, as in August 1995 CHANGE would be
about to enter its final year of funding under the Urban
Programme, and as part of agreed procedure, in July the
Project’s work to date was the subject of an evaluation study.
An officer of the sponsoring authority produced a ten page
report which noted, among other things:
‘The Project has been successful in establishing a Probation
based programme for violent men, which appears to have the
confidence of most sentencers and of referring social workers.
Project staff have obviously worked hard to gain this
credibility with other agencies and have now reached a point
where a steady, if not overwhelming flow of referrals comes to
the Project.
‘Having developed and delivered the programme over a six year
period, staff have undoubtedly built up a high level of
knowledge and expertise in groupwork with violent men which has
to some extent been disseminated to other professionals through
training events. A major piece of work outstanding, however, is
the production of the training manual which, when complete, is
expected to be a significant tool for dissemination of the work
of the Project’.
Following discussions with the Project’s sponsors, it was agreed
therefore that the task of completing the programme training
manual be the main priority for the co-ordinators for the final
year of Urban funding. The service of the men’s programme was
therefore suspended at the end of October 1995, although staff
were still involved in working with some men on an individual
basis until the end of November. Once the manual is completed,
it was agreed that staff from the sponsoring authority will
receive training based on it before the end of the current
funding period. Under the supervision of Professor Sally Brown,
the task of drafting and refining the manual has therefore
occupied the majority of the co-ordinators’ time since October.
At the end of January one of the co-ordinators left to take up a
new post. However, he was still able to continue to contribute
to the development of the manual. This work will continue into
the next year and form the basis of the future of CHANGE as an
organisation.
Prison-based work
Following last year’s pilot programme in Glenochil Prison,
CHANGE was approached by the Training Programme Manager of the
Scottish Prison Service (SPS) to develop a training package for
prison officers. The purpose would be to enable officers to run
groupwork programmes for prisoners focusing on issues concerning
relationship problems and male abuse of women within
relationships.
CHANGE subsequently developed a practice handbook entitled ‘A
Guide to Improved Relationships’. One week’s training was
arranged to initiate its use and this was undertaken in January
with officers from HM Prisons Dungavel and Greenock. From the
outset it was acknowledged that the week’s training would
constitute the start of what would probably need to be a longer
process.
This was a very demanding five day course which, as anticipated,
meant that the officers concerned found themselves for the first
time in their professional lives having to examine many of their
own attitudes in terms of gender relations. The officers’ own
evaluations of the training reflected the need for further input
in the forms of more training and supervison before beginning to
work with prisoners in this way. A report to this effect was
prepared for the SPS.
Teaching Training and Conferences
Teaching commitments for social work and psychology students at
Stirling University continued this year, and in addition
contributions were made to courses at Glasgow University and to
the MSc course in Criminal Justice Studies run jointly by
Edinburgh and Stirling Universities.
Once again, despite a decision not to actively seek outside
training engagements this year, two training engagements were
fulfilled; a two-day course for North Wales Probation Service
and a one-day awareness-raising workshop for the Swindon over-21
Probation Team.
Conference involvement this last year included addressing a
conference on interventions in domestic violence in Loughborough
(April 1995); speaking at a multi-disciplinary seminar at
Edinburgh Sick Children’s Hospital (April 1995); attending the
first Scottish ‘What Works?’ conference in Erskine (September
1995); undertaking a workshop at a conference on ‘Working with
Men’ in Edinburgh (January 1996); and addressing a conference on
domestic violence ‘Partners in Prevention’ in Swindon (March
1996).
National Practitioners’ Network
CHANGE’s participation in the Practitioners’ Network forums
continued this year with attendance at meetings in London (May
1995) and Liverpool (November 1995). At the Liverpool meeting it
was decided that the developing Statement of Principles, which
the Network has been working on for some time now, be given
wider publicity. The purpose in doing this is both to inform a
wider audience about the existence of the Network and to seek
further dialogue in developing good practice guidelines for
working with violent men. The Network continues to work on
developing the Statement, but it is reprinted here in the form
it was in November 1995 to invite comment from others.
Future Plans
CHANGE’s Urban Programme funding expires in September 1996. The
Project plans to utilise the time between now and September to
complete the training manual, fulfil its training commitments to
the new local authorities and to solicit training contracts from
other agencies which will permit the organisation to continue
beyond this year.
