CHANGE 2004-2005 ANNUAL REPORT
 

 

Background

Since 1999, CHANGE has been funded to deliver a National Training Initiative (NTI) to promote effective practice by local authority Criminal Justice Services in their work with male domestic violence offenders.

Aims

The Initiative comprises training and consultancy to Criminal Justice Service staff and partner agencies. It aims to promote effective practice in implementing and managing criminal justice based re-education programmes for men convicted of violence towards their wives or female partners. This crucially includes training in implementing related services for women partners.

 

Objectives

The programme of consultancy and training takes the following format:

Ø      Initial planning meetings with Criminal Justice Managers and relevant partner agencies (e.g. Domestic Abuse Forum members; Women’s Aid).

Ø      The provision of one-day awareness-raising workshops for relevant staff for 20+ participants at a time in tandem with women’s aid one day workshops.

Ø      One day courses in assessment for staff undertaking Social Enquiry Reports (SERs) with domestic violence offenders, including training in the use of the Spousal Assault Risk Assessment Guide (SARA).

Ø      Intensive five-day courses on skills acquisition including the delivery of a men’s programme and the provision of services to women partners

Ø      Two day courses for women’s services staff which they undertake in addition to the above training covering advocacy, safety planning and risk management.

Ø      One day ‘refresher’ courses for staff who have completed the men’s programme training in the past and are now ready to put the work into practice.

 

In accordance with the six-phase development described above, to date:

 

Ø      Forty-nine (49) regional planning meetings/seminars have been held covering twenty-eight (28 or 90%) of the participating local authority areas

Ø      Thirty-six (36) awareness-raising days have been undertaken covering twenty-three (23 or 74%) of the participating local authority areas

Ø      Six (6) assessment training days (including SARA training) have been held covering seven (7 or 23%) of the participating local authority areas

Ø      Twenty-one (21) five-day intensive skills training courses have been run, for fourteen (14 or 50%) of the participating local authority areas

Ø      Three (3) Women’s Services  training courses have been held covering five (5 or 18%) of the participating local authority areas

Ø      One (1) refresher day has been held for  one (1) of the participating local authority areas

 

Table 1 shows the developing involvement of local authorities in the Initiative.

 

Table 1 Local Authority involvement*

(Red LAs = existing men’s programme and therefore do not require some training courses)

Local Authority	Planning Meetings	Awareness Days	Assessment Plus SARA (New Course 2005)	Men’s Programme	Women’s Services (New Course 2005 )	Refresher Days (New Course 2005)
Shetland	1	1	None	None	None	none
Orkney	1	2	None	1	None	None
Western Isles	1 (by phone)	None	None	1	None	None
Highland	1	3	None	None	None	None
Moray	1	3	None	None	None	None
Aberdeenshire	1	4	None	None	None	None
Aberdeen City	1	3	None	None	None	None
Angus	1	2	None	None	None	None
Dundee	2	4	3	2	None	None
Perth&Kinross	1	2	None	1	None	None
Argyll	2	2	None	2	None	None
West Dum’ton	2	2	None	2	None	None
East Dum’ton	1	None	None	1	None	None
Fife	4	2	1	4	1	1
Falkirk	1	1	1	N/A	N/A	N/A
Stirling	1	1	1	N/A	N/A	N/A
Clackmannan	1	1	1	N/A	N/A	N/A
Edinburgh	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Midlothian	None	None	None	None	None	None
West Lothian	2	1	1	3	None	None
East Lothian	1	None	None	None	None	None
Borders	None	None	None	None	None	None
Dumfries & G	4	Planned 05	None	Planned 05	None	None
S’th Ayrshire	2	2	None	1	None	None
East Ayrshire	1	None	None	None	None	None
N’th Ayrshire	None	None	None	1	None	None
Inverclyde	2	2	1	2	1	None
Renfrewshire	2	1	None	1	1	None
East Ren’shire	1	2	None	1	None	None
Glasgow	7	2	1	7	1	None
S’th Lanarks	6	2	None	3	None	None
N’th Lanarks	5	2	1	4	1	None

 

*Numbers do not equal days as some meetings and training courses were undertaken with more than one authority at a time

 

Chart 1 - Activities for 2004/05
 

*                        Submitted Progress Report for 2003/04

*                        Delivered consultancy to local authorities – 3 local meetings plus numerous phone calls and emails

*                        Presentations to local domestic violence forums - 1 held.

*                        Delivered awareness-raising days for multi-agency participation – 4 held (one under the auspices of Forth Valley Domestic Abuse partnership)

*                        Delivered five-day programme delivery courses  – 3 held

*                        Delivered two-day Women’s Services training  - 2 held

*                        Devised one day assessment training, including the use of the SARA guide

*                        Delivered assessment training – 6 held

*                        Participated in the working group implementing the National Strategy to Address Domestic Abuse in Scotland: Training Strategy

*                        Attended and ran workshops at two National Practitioners’ Network meetings

*                        Chaired four quarterly Executive Committee meetings of Respect

*                        Participated in Respect working groups on research, and developing standards for practice

*                        Attended a focus group for a feasibility study on Respect’s becoming the accrediting body for non-criminal justice based intervention projects

*                        Assisted in planning, and undertook workshops at two meetings of the Scottish Forum for staff involved in delivering  men’s programmes and women’s services

*                        Undertook two four day training courses for the Men’s Development Network, Waterford, Republic of Ireland

*                        Gave a presentation on work with men who abuse at the Scottish Men’s Health Forum in Hamilton

*                        Keynote speaker & undertook half day workshop at MOVE Ireland, AGM. Galway.

*                        Attended meetings of the Cross Party Group in the Scottish Parliament on Men’s Violence to Women and Children

*                        Attended meetings of the Action for Change Forum in Stirling

*                        Attended meetings in Clackmannanshire to further the development of a non-court mandated programme

*                        Attended seminar on the OSCR developments

*                        Participated in the development of the CDS Intervention System for the Community Justice Accreditation Panel

 

 

Other Activities

 

Developing the CDS for the Community Justice Accreditation Panel

Together with Edinburgh’s DVPP, the SACRO Forth Valley Partnership and a number of interested local authorities CHANGE was successful in securing six months’ initial funding to develop a joint intervention system for submission to the Community Justice Accreditation Panel. Provisionally named the CDS (after Change, DVPP & SACRO) the system is designed to build on the experience of the three main agencies involved in distilling best practice from fifteen years’ of working with abusing men and their partners as well as the developing knowledge about ‘what works’ in this area of work. With the consent of SWSI, from October 2004 the Director devoted two days a week to this venture and first drafts of the theory, men’s work and women’s workers manuals were submitted to the panel on 3^rd February. Depending on the feedback from the Panel, a further funding bid will be submitted to allow the work to continue through 2005 -6.

The funding implications of this development for the Initiative were discussed with SWSI and it has been agreed that funding can be rescheduled to cover the Initiative to March 2007.

 

National Practitioners’ Network

CHANGE continues active involvement in the National Practitioners’ Network (NPN), which grew out of a conference we held in 1992 and has been meeting every six months since. The Network is an informal forum for individuals and agencies working with perpetrators of domestic abuse and related women’s services. It has no formal membership and no one is in charge. Agencies take turns to host meetings around the country and meetings provide opportunities to discuss common issues, to subject practice to peer scrutiny, to offer guidance to newcomers and for practitioners to give each other support. The two Network meetings this year have been hosted by Sheffield Probation and The Dove Project in Essex.

 

Scottish Forum

The fourth meeting of the Scottish Forum, a spin-off from the long-running National Practitioners' Network took place in Hamilton in September and was hosted by South Lanarkshire Criminal Justice Services. CHANGE’s Director took part in a question time panel, and facilitated a workshop session.

 

RESPECT

CHANGE is a founder member of RESPECT, the National Association for Domestic Violence Perpetrator Programmes and Associated Support Services. The CHANGE Director was re-elected Chair at the AGM in May 2004 and has chaired four Executive Committee meetings of Respect this year. She also participated in Respect working groups on accreditation for the non-statutory sector. 

RESPECT aims to work alongside all interested groups - Projects, Government Departments, Women's Aid, NPN participants, Social Work Services, etc - to create a system of intervention work with perpetrators which works in the best interests of women and children who have experienced domestic violence.

Further information about RESPECT can be found on the CHANGE website, or on www.respect.net.uk

 

Other Training

Following CHANGE’s earlier involvement with developments in the Republic of Ireland, this year two four-day training courses were undertaken under the auspices of the Men’s Development Network in Waterford in July and October. The Director was also invited to speak at MOVE Ireland’s AGM in Galway in November and to undertake a workshop for them.

 

Cross Party Group

The CHANGE Director continues to attend the Cross-Party Group in the Scottish Parliament on Men’s Violence against Women and Children.
 

Action for Change 

The CHANGE Director attends the Action for Change forum in Stirling. This is the multi-agency body charged with implementing the Domestic Abuse Strategy for Stirling council.
 

CHANGE Exit Strategy 

Should the CDS be successful in achieving accreditation and begin to roll out sometime in the future, CHANGE anticipates a demand for training in its implementation as well as ‘Training for Trainers’ courses covering a range of aspects of our work. Work on planning these courses has begun.

The implementation of the Scottish Executive's Training Strategy, - part of The National Strategy to Address Domestic Abuse – is already eliciting increased demand for awareness training on working with perpetrators. CHANGE’s participation in the working group focuses on advising how that element of the Strategy is incorporated in the development.

We are also looking at opportunities to develop work for use in prison, in through-care and in developing non-criminal justice based routes for working with men. Consultation is ongoing with Clackmannanshire with a view to CHANGE involvement in the development of a non-court mandated intervention project
 

Staff 

During 2004-5, staff comprised a 4/5^th time Director until October, a half time Administrator and a sessional Women’s Services Development Worker until July (see Appendix 1). In addition, individual expert input is incorporated into some training courses. From October, the Director worked two days a week undertaking the NTI, and two days developing the CDS Intervention System for submission to the Scottish Community Justice Accreditation Panel (see above, page 4).

The Director undertakes consultation and training activities based on her experience of the research and academic literature, developing and implementing the original CHANGE programme, and related training experience over sixteen years.

The Administrator maintains the day-to-day functioning of the organisation and is also responsible for updating the various spreadsheets being used to monitor progress, collating training materials for each training session and analysing the evaluation sheets.

The Women’s Services Development Worker offered consultancy, devised the training course and undertook training in this area until July 2004

 

Management

CHANGE is a charitable company limited by guarantee. Staff are responsible to a management board comprising individuals from a variety of professional and other backgrounds who are concerned to achieve the goals of CHANGE. The board meets every six weeks and both the Director and the Administrator present written reports. A minute book is maintained as a record of the meetings, and copies of the minutes are forwarded to SWSI. A list of board members is appended.

 

 

               A charitable company limited by guarantee registered in Scotland No 183989
            Scottish Charity No SCO18322
         CHANGE acknowledges funding from the Scottish Executive