Children and families at risk
Whether focused on education interventions or home-visits, our services have helped support parents experiencing mental ill health or drug and alcohol problems as well as families living with domestic abuse.
Caring Dads: Safer Children
This programme was designed to use a man's role as a father to motivate them to change their behaviour and reduce the risk of further harm to their children because of their abusive or violent behaviour.
Few studies of programmes aimed at violent fathers or male perpetrators or domestic abuse have examined whether outcomes for children improve when their violent father attends a programme. The evaluation of Caring Dads: Safer Children aimed to fill this gap in knowledge.
> Read the full evaluation report
We also created a service delivery report. This report shares our learning from process evaluation and delivering the Caring Dads: Safer Children programme.
> Read the service delivery report
Domestic Abuse Recovering Together (DART)
A group work programme to support mothers and children who have experienced domestic abuse. The service is recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guideline on Domestic violence and abuse: multi-agency working (NICE, 2014)1.
We are currently delivering this service in local areas. We evaluated our delivery of DART looking at the outcomes for children and mothers who attended the service.
> Read the evaluation report
> Find out more about how we deliver DART
Deliver DART in your local area
We also support organisations to deliver DART themselves through our scale-up service. We have published evaluations on how effectively we support other organisations to implement DART and how successful the service can be when delivered by other organisations.
> Read the implementation evaluation
> Read the impact evaluation
> Find out how we can help you to deliver DART
Face to Face
A confidential service that offered support to all children and young people aged 5 to 18-years-old who are in care or on the edge of care. Face to Face aimed to identify and find solutions to issues that affect the young person’s life, impact on their emotional wellbeing or place them at risk.
The evaluation of Face to Face measured the change in wellbeing for children and young people from the beginning to the end of the service, as well as three months after finishing.
> Read the evaluation report
Using this approach in your area
We have produced a solution-focused practice toolkit of resources for practitioners who want to use this approach to improve outcomes for vulnerable children and young people.
> Find out more about the Solution-focused practice toolkit
We have also produced an implementation guide for those who are interested in setting up a service like Face to Face.
> Read the implementation guide
Family SMILES and Young SMILES
Family SMILES was developed to help children whose parents or carers faced mental health problems to build self-esteem, resilience and life skills. It worked with children aged 8 to 14-years-old with the aim of giving them the confidence to talk about their experiences with other young people who faced similar situations.
Using what we learnt from the evaluation of Family SMILES, we developed Young SMILES.
Young SMILES aimed to help families affected by mental health problems to understand their mental health and improve their wellbeing.
> Read the evaluation report in the library catalogue
Family Environment: Drug Using Parents (FEDUP)
An intensive intervention that supported children whose parents misuse drugs or alcohol. Designed for children aged 5 to 12-years-old, this service aimed to reduce the negative impact of parental alcohol and drug misuse on children and ensure they were kept safe.
The evaluation of FEDUP looked at the changes experienced by children and parents who took part, the importance of parental engagement and whether change was sustained.
> Read the evaluation report in the library catalogue
Parents Under Pressure
A home-visit service that supported parents on a drug or alcohol treatment programme. Designed for parents of children under 8-years-old, Parents Under Pressure taught parenting skills and helped mums and dads improve their relationship with their children.
We carried out two evaluations to find out more about the needs of families who took part in Parents Under Pressure and the impact the programme had. Our findings suggest that with the right support, parents facing challenges including substance misuse can make positive changes.
> Read the evaluation report in the library catalogue
Steps to Safety
An early-intervention programme that helped families living with domestic abuse. Steps to Safety aimed to help parents with young children reduce stress, react calmly to conflict and respond sensitively to their children.
We piloted this service to see if it could help parents create a safer and more stable future for their children. We also undertook a feasibility study. Our findings highlight the complexity of balancing safe assessments with parental engagement.
> Read the feasibility study report in the library catalogue
> Listen to our podcast episode detailing further outcomes from the study
Together for Childhood
A place-based approach that brings local partners and families together to make our communities safer for children. Together for Childhood aims to prevent child abuse and neglect in families facing adversity, and to prevent child sexual abuse and support children and their families.
This services is currently being delivered with local partners in four areas. We have developed a multi-stranded evaluation which covers process, outcomes and local evaluation.
> Read our implementation evaluation report
> Read the design principles evaluation
> Read the Transformative Evaluation
> Find out more about Together for Childhood