CHANGE 1992-1993 Annual Report   Foreword by Central Regional Council Social Work Department The CHANGE Project is now firmly established as a service provider to the Courts. Their men’s programme is increasingly viewed by Sentencers as a credible disposal when dealing with the perpetrators of domestic violence. As well as providing a specific programme Project staff have also worked to encourage an inter-agency approach within the Region through direct liaison with other agencies, their Advisory Group meetings and their training and consultancy work.   Men who participate in the CHANGE men’s programme do so as a condition of a Probation Order and it is especially important that liaison between CHANGE staff and the CRC Social Work Department Offenders Teams is frequent and open. It is therefore pleasing to note that these relationships continue to develop - for example in early 1993 the staff from three Regional Offenders Teams met together for a day with CHANGE staff to exchange ideas, knowledge and skills. At this time agreements were also reached on certain working practices with the aim of improving the sharing of information, and thus the service provided to the man, his partner and the Courts.   Much has been done by the Project to raise public awareness of the issues involved in domestic violence and the project continues to work towards providing effective and lasting solutions to this problem. Jim Crawford Acting Director of Social Work   FACING UP TO THE CHALLENGE While there can be no doubt that the use of violence within any relationship is unacceptable and by definition criminal in its nature, the use of the Criminal Justice System as the sole solution to such a complex issue very rarely provides the desired result for the victim. The development of a positive response by agencies such as the Police Service demands considerable understanding of the issues, complemented by a willingness to share, listen and learn from those who, through experience, can contribute to that greater understanding.   One of the aims of Central Scotland Police is, through Partnership Working, to develop the best quality support and service to those who become victims of crime. An objective of all my officers is: "To endeavour to protect people and property from consequences of crime by effective investigation and detection. Informing them of the progress of enquiries, paying particular regard to the vulnerable, who will be supported and encouraged to make use of the assistance of other caring organisations."   Action is often greater than words and I am pleased to say that our relationship with the three Women’s Aid Groups in the Region has been strengthened considerably during the past year. Their involvement in a number of areas, from the training of police officers, to assisting in the preparation of new publicity material at both local and national levels, is most welcome. The appointment of a nominated Women’s Aid Liaison Officer within my Force contributes to the speedy resolve of problems relating to policy and practice as soon as they arise.   In the course of the year new monitoring procedures have been put into effect which, for the first time, provide a much clearer picture of the nature and extent of police intervention in domestic violence incidents across the Region. The aim of this new initiative is to attempt to identify vulnerable women throughout the Region who are the subject of domestic violence and to implement a package of procedures to support and assist the victims and their families. I am hopeful that through these measures the quality of service provided to this particular group of people will be greatly enhanced.   The CHANGE Project continues to serve the Courts in Central Region and play its part in the joint approach to the issue of domestic violence. They have welcomed the new initiative and view it as a valuable, additional source of statistical data. No single agency holds the key to the development of a solution to the problem of domestic violence. However, through dialogue, shared experiences and close working relationships we can strive to work towards that goal. W Wilson Chief Constable     CONVENOR’S REPORT On behalf of the Management Committee I welcome this opportunity to introduce the CHANGE Project’s Third Annual Report. The Project is now well into its fourth year and nearing the end of its initial funding period under the Urban Programme. During the last year the Management Committee and the Project staff have undertaken several important tasks - our application for further Urban Aid funding and accommodation, a general assessment of the Project and an evaluation of areas of work which CHANGE should pursue and develop in the future. On the basis of their three years’ experience of running the men’s programme the co-ordinators are presently compiling a manual relating to their work. Liaison with statutory and voluntary agencies continues to play an important role with CHANGE and a good relationship continues with Central Regional Council Social Work Department Offenders Teams, involving regular meetings throughout the course of the programme. Issues which have been identified as important for the future development of the Project and which will be expanded upon later in this report include the setting up of a prison-based programme, continuing training and consultancy work, and contact with other men’s programmes. A critical issue, that of women’s safety and support while their partners are on the programme, is presently being re-examined by a working group involving CHANGE, Women's Aid and Social Work. The Management Committee should like to thank members of the Advisory Group for their continuing support and informative contributions. We should also like to thank Alice Ann Jackson and Ann Dixon for their stimulating talk on the Matrimonial Homes Act, and Ruth Lewis and Kate Cavanagh who gave an interesting report of the progress of their evaluative research on men’s programmes. The Management Committee note the recent departure of Ian Ross as Director of Social Work. We should like to express our appreciation of his assistance and consistent support of the Project since its inception. Finally, we should like to thank the staff, Dorothy Anderson (Administrator), Monica Wilson and David Morran (joint Co-ordinators) for all their hard work and success in establishing CHANGE as a professional, well respected Project. Sue McLaughlin Convenor   CONSOLIDATING THE WORK OF THE CHANGE PROJECT 1992-1993   The men’s programme Last year the Annual Report indicated that referrals to the programme were consistently being made by local courts, and that a total of seventy men had been referred for assessment. Our current referral figure stands at ninety-six. As before there is a discrepancy between the rate of referrals and whether or not the programme agrees to work with these men. The main reasons for non-acceptance by the programme continue to be the men's denial of responsibility for their use of violence and an unwillingness to address this as an issue in their lives. So far the programme has worked with approximately forty men, or just under half the total referred. As in the past we have tried to give very clear messages to sentencers and social workers about the circumstances and particulars of men with whom we can or cannot work. However over this past year there has been even closer consultation between CHANGE and the Offender Services section of the Social Work Department and CHANGE has been regularly present at Probation reviews. CHANGE has also selected and adapted particular themes or issues which social workers can address with men who are otherwise unsuitable or unable to participate regularly in the group setting thus making the programme a more flexible resource than before. CHANGE has been working with groups of men now for almost three years. During this process the various methods and exercises used in group sessions have been refined and adapted to the extent that each weekly session can rely on optional themes being addressed according to the nature of the group and the individuals involved. The co-ordinators have also been busy (and well aware of the widespread interest in obtaining more details about the practicalities of undertaking work with men in groups) setting down how these themes and exercises have been established and refined, and are currently working on developing a fuller account of their practice and experiences within the programme itself. We hope to produce this manual on accountable practice later this year.   Support work for women partners One of this year's main developments has been in response to the recognition that the needs of the women partners of men on the programme were not being sufficiently met. Our practice has been that CHANGE makes contact with individual women where possible, by phone or by letter. All women for whom we have a postal address receive an information leaflet which describes what the programme broadly consists of and what it aims to achieve. Emphasis is placed, both in a covering letter and in the leaflet itself, on the fact that CHANGE offers no guarantees that men will change and that women should consider their own safety first. The phone numbers of local Women's Aid groups are prominently displayed and women are advised to contact them. Those women who agree to a meeting with CHANGE are told about the programme in greater depth and their questions can be more easily answered. In such cases we have found that women are likely to want further contact with CHANGE and some will make use of the support services of their local Women's Aid group. However, the numbers involved have been small and in most cases our contact with partners has been minimal until this year. CHANGE made a deliberate effort to establish and maintain contact with women partners during this last year and we currently have regular contact with all the partners of the men we are working with. Our closer working relationship with Social Work Offender Teams has facilitated this. Social workers supervising probation orders which require men to attend the CHANGE programme have agreed to keep in close contact with women partners and to invite their attendance at certain meetings and reviews. Thus the woman's right to information and contact with agencies is established from the outset and in this way we have hoped to encourage contact from women who may formerly have feared reprisals if they were seen to take up our invitation to make contact with us. However, contact with CHANGE and involvement with probation work generally are unlikely by themselves to meet women's own support needs. The original plan had been that women would be referred to local women's aid groups for this. Experience has shown that for a variety of reasons few women take up this option. Therefore in order to increase the range and quality of support available for women partners CHANGE, Women's Aid and representatives of Social Work Offender Services are now meeting regularly to take this issue forward. Currently a joint leaflet is under preparation and an information pack about the programme is planned.   Prison - based work We recommend the establishment, and wide dissemination, of programmes in prison which first encourage men to recognise their violent behaviour towards women and then to change it (para 74) DOMESTIC VIOLENCE. VOL. 1 : Third Report, Home Affairs Committee, February 1993. From the early days of CHANGE, staff have been aware of the widespread interest among prison-based professionals in developing or adapting aspects of a programme for male domestic violence offenders to a prison setting. Numerous informal discussions with governors, prison-based social workers and teachers, and occasionally with serving offenders themselves have considered some of the possibilities and problems in undertaking this kind of activity. Following a recent series of more formal and detailed discussions, it now seems possible that CHANGE will work closely with one adult institution over the next year in developing a suitable prison-based programme for men. Many men in prison express and display a confusing double standard towards the issue of violence against women. On the one hand men who are known to have been sentenced for acts of violence against women are often ostracised and under pressure to conceal this as it is considered 'unmanly' behaviour. On the other hand most prisoners are daily influenced by and conform to a set of beliefs in which it is held to be right and proper to keep women in line by a variety of coercive and abusive techniques and behaviour. Letters from wives or girlfriends are scrutinised obsessively for any signs of perceived 'lack of loyalty'. Frequently there are friends of the man on the outside who will report back on what the woman is 'up to'. Women are also placed under considerable overt and covert pressure by men not to raise or discuss problems that they and their families are experiencing as the man 'cannot handle that' while he is inside. Women's anger at men is rarely heard as men will be released one day and likely to call this anger to account. The establishment of any programme 'which encourages men to recognise their violent behaviour towards women and then to change it' calls for caution and an awareness of the prison environment. Care needs to be taken as to whether this work is aimed at a particular group of offenders or, given the level of misogyny apparent among the male prison environment generally, whether it is more appropriate to adapt programmes for a wider range of men in prison addressing issues such as intimidation and coercion of partners and women in general. Work with prisoners must acknowledge the limits the environment imposes and the fact that what men say while they are inside, while often honestly expressed, is not what they might actually do upon release. Staff and prisoner alike therefore need to be fully aware that participation in such programmes is part of a process and not a 'cure'. Partners must not be encouraged to think otherwise. The opportunity to become involved in working with men in prison in examining their behaviour, attitudes toward and abuse of women is clearly work which requires to be undertaken carefully and systematically. It is work however which the Home Affairs Committee has recently recommended needs to be carried out within prisons in England and Wales. CHANGE has been recognised locally as being able to play a valuable practical and consultative role in developing this work, and staff hope in the course of the following year to be able to document and report more fully on our experiences in this area.   Liaison with other agencies During the last year we have continued to liaise locally with other statutory and voluntary agencies in line with our policy of encouraging a co-ordinated response to domestic violence. Our contact with Central Scotland Police has expanded so that, along with Social Work, we now have a closer working relationship with the Child Protection Unit who hold the responsibility for collating information on and monitoring the police response to domestic incidents. We have continued our input into police in-service courses at Randolphfield. Our contact with team staff of the Offender Services Section of the Social Work Department has also increased over this year and we have worked to consolidate agreed practice. We found the in-service day we were asked to undertake in January very constructive. We are pleased that we are one of the bodies being consulted over the development of material on women and violence to be used in secondary schools in Central Region. This is an area CHANGE believes to be of particular importance and we look forward to seeing the outcome of developments. CHANGE continues to contribute to the direct work with offenders undertaken by SACRO Intensive Probation Project in Central Region, presenting a workshop on the theme of 'men and violence to women’ to groups of young offenders.   Networking Following the third CHANGE conference which was reported in last year's annual report, this year has seen the formation of a practitioners' network for those of us working with men on domestic violence programmes in the UK. Two practioners' forums have been held to date: one in Keighley in May 1992 and a second in Wolverhampton in November. A third meeting takes place in London in May this year. For this meeting CHANGE has circulated members with a short questionnaire about the work they do and what they offer, and this information will form the basis of a directory of men's programmes. An extended version of the questionnaire is being trawled more widely to locate others who may be undertaking this or similar work the results of which will be published as a reference work which can then be updated on a regular basis.   Training for outside agencies In response to the continued high rate of requests for information about our work from Probation Departments outside Scotland CHANGE held an Information Day at the University in December last year. The day was designed to give Probation Departments an idea of the work we do and what sorts of training and consultancy work we might be able to offer. This has led so far to our undertaking a training course for the Inner London Probation Service for which we developed a four day training package which we can now offer elsewhere. In addition, we also undertook another two day in-service course for social workers in Fife Region in December and discussions are now in hand for further input later this year.   Jordanhill College/Glasgow University In March 1993 CHANGE was invited to undertake a half day seminar for a joint group of final year students from the West of Scotland consortium Diploma in Social Work course, comprising Glasgow University, Caledonian University and Jordanhill College. This seminar on an 'area of particular practice' focused on issues and implications of working with perpetrators of male violence in the home. It was well received and CHANGE anticipates undertaking similar seminars in the future.   Student placements CHANGE is consistently receiving enquiries from social workers in training, requesting information for their research or practice. CHANGE has also been approached by the Universities of Dundee and Stirling requesting that we provide practice placements for student social workers. While we are enthusiastic about doing so and feel that CHANGE could offer an innovative and exciting placement, difficulties of time, resources and the type of placements sought (i.e. prolonged block placements) have so far resulted in us having to turn down these requests. The Management Committee and staff, however, are currently looking at ways in which CHANGE could offer placement opportunities to students in the future.   Conferences As part of the Project's remit to raise general awareness of issues of domestic violence, CHANGE continues to be active in accepting invitations to contribute presentations and workshops to a wide range of professional conferences and meetings. Such invitations reflect the growing awareness and recognition among other professional bodies of the work being piloted by the Project. This year contributions have been made to the following events: In June CHANGE was invited to give a keynote speech and workshop at the Annual Conference of the Confederation of Scottish Counselling Agencies (COSCA) held in Stirling. Monica undertook this and felt the contribution was well received. Following this event CHANGE took up membership of COSCA. David and Monica jointly presented a paper at a Fulbright Colloquium on Penal Theory and Penal Practice; a forum attracting international participation, held at the University of Stirling in September. The collected papers are shortly to be published as a book. Also in September we contributed two workshop sessions to the "What Works?" conference of probation officers, social work professionals, researchers and academics held at Salford University. The workshops were well attended, reflecting the increasing interest of the Probation Service in developing this kind of intervention. In November David presented a paper on ‘Developing an Integrated Criminal Justice Response to Domestic Violence in Scotland’ at the Annual Conference of the American Society of Criminology, New Orleans.   Comments from men During this year we took the opportunity to ask some of the men we have worked with what it was like to be a man on the CHANGE Men's Programme. Here are some of their answers.   What is it like at being on the CHANGE Men's programme? "A bit daunting at first, you didn't know each other or what you're going to face. I felt a bit stupid, a bit embarrassed at first." "Initially you're wondering what you're going to face." "I didn't expect it to be like this: I thought we'd be hammered, I thought you would treat us hard, like criminals, and tell us what to do all the time" "It's stressful, especially at first" What is it like working in a group?  "I wasn't keen on being in a group at first, but now I see it differently. I think working in a one-to-one situation would be more intimidating: you'd feel more 'got at'." "I think we started to work as a group after about two or three weeks, but it's not a case of 'us' men against 'them', the group leaders." "You open up more in a group situation than if you were just yourself; then you'd keep things back more. When someone opens up about something it encourages you to do the same. You can relate to what other men are saying, see yourself in it." "We've got to know a lot about each other, we've all got the same problems, more or less. Having the coffee break helps to get to know each other better: we talk about each others' problems." How would you describe the sorts of things do you do on the programme ?  "You learn a lot about yourself, try to make sense of past situations." "We have discussions, talk our problems over, learn our warning signals. It helps you to take responsibility for your actions and to reason things out more, to think and have empathy with other people." "The work is hard, for example, take that homework you gave us about what it's like being a man. I'd never thought about that at all. At first I tried to think what were the answers you wanted to hear." "The work is hard; it's not as easy as I thought it would be. You really have to think about things you've never thought about before. You look at past situations so as to help you work to be different in the future."  What do you think you're getting out of it ?  "Learning how to behave differently. Learning from past actions, the pros and cons, gains and losses." "I think I look at my partner a bit better, I can understand her more." "I've learned I was violent to get my own way in things, but it cost me my self respect and my partner's trust." "My attitude is different now, and I can control my temper better." What do you think your partner thinks about it ? "I think she's seen a change in me. I am more understanding, we sit and discuss things more." "We do a lot more as a couple." "She's prepared to help me too. She helps with my homework." "She's seen a change in my reactions. When a potentially dangerous situation comes up I'll try to work it out. Maybe walk away from it till the time's right to talk it over. Normally I'd have faced it out, carried right on without even thinking." What advice would you give to a man who was about to start on the programme ? "To be open, to tell the truth." "It is quite difficult, but not as bad as you think it's going to be: relax." "Express your own point of view, don't try to guess the 'right' answers. Take the questions as they come." "It is difficult at first, but you do learn a lot about yourself."     WOMEN’S AID IN CENTRAL REGION Women’s Aid in Central Region has had a long relationship with the CHANGE Project which dates back to the early days of the Steering Group. Currently there are two Women’s Aid workers on the CHANGE Management Committee, one representing Scottish Women’s Aid and one representing the three Women’s Aid groups in Central. Women’s Aid in Central Region consists of three local groups working within Central Region. These are Clackmannan Women’s Aid, Falkirk & Grangemouth Women’s Aid and Stirling Women’s Aid. This representation is primarily to ensure that the needs of those women are generally addressed and safeguarded. Through the Management Committee CHANGE and Women’s Aid have drawn up a policy statement, included in this is CHANGE’S commitment to abused Women. Over the past year the three local groups have shown their commitment to CHANGE via the following input: Representation on the Management Committee Input to a seminar for probation officers Introduction of a new leaflet specifically for women whose partners are on the CHANGE programme detailing the services Women’s Aid provides. Monthly meetings with CHANGE and Social Work to endeavour to provide the best possible options and services available to abused women. We have, however, been disappointed in the referrals from the CHANGE programme; this year Women’s Aid in Central Region has only had one referral. We look forward to the next year, when due to increased co-operation between all the involved agencies abused women in Central Region should have more, better and safer options. Central Region Women’s Aid       CHANGE Management Committee Sally Brown Shona Campbell (Secretary) Lesley Irving (from 28.07.92) Elizabeth Kennedy Doris Littlejohn (Treasurer) James McCormick Sue McLaughlin (Convenor) Graeme McRoberts Vicki Roth (to 1.11.92) Joan Russell (from 1.11.92) Margaret Taylor (to 28.07.92) Helen Whincup (to 1.11.92)     Advisory Group Mr Peter Crow, Sheriff Clerk Cllr Moira Fitzpatrick, Central Regional Council Ms Felicity McClelland, Women’s Officer Mr Anthony McNulty, Manager Offender Services Ms Anne Morrison, Scottish Women’s Aid Chief Inspector Sam Muir, Central Scotland Police Sheriff A J Murphy Sheriff A V Sheehan Ms Sharon Stirrat, Victim Support Scheme Ms Senga Turner, Education Department Mr Keith Valentine, Procurator Fiscal Cllr Anne Wallace, Central Regional Council Mrs Muriel Young, Forth Valley Health Board Sheriff R E G Younger                A charitable company limited by guarantee registered in Scotland No 183989             Scottish Charity No SCO18322          CHANGE acknowledges funding from the Scottish Executive