Review of domestic abuse and sexual violence support services

The project sought to explore key questions relating to the sufficiency and suitability of existing services and partnership arrangements to meet the needs of a changing population of people who use the services. Key new areas of challenge included:

• Growing complexity of individuals and families requiring support (for example domestic abuse combined with substance misuse and mental health issues)
• Child to adult or adult child to older parent abuse
• How best to support children as well as their parents
• How to respond to overall increases in demand for specialist services including by triaging people effectively into one to one or group-based support or making better use of the whole system of support

We delivered a successful project including:

• A comprehensive rapid research review
• Secondary analysis of existing management information
• In-depth case sampling of 100 recent cases
• Interviews with people who use the service, staff and managers
• Facilitation of workshops to explore the implications of findings and to find solutions to complex scenarios
• A comprehensive report including an options appraisal

The project will support effective re-commissioning of specialist services for an extension year and into the future. It will also assist with strategic planning of a broader whole system of supports across the community safety partnership.

What our client said:

“The work undertaken by Oxford Brookes has provided an independent review into our current commissioning arrangements. It has enabled Wiltshire Commissioners to understand what is working well and potential improvements to enhance the current service offer and inform future commissioning intentions.

A huge thank you to Katy and her team, for a concise and informative report, which will support our work on the Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence agenda in Wiltshire”

Close working with project commissioners, to ensure that the product(s) of the review will assist with recommissioning and strategic planning. Being an existing Academic Partner helped.

A resilient approach by the project team – including to find and safety check new ways to deliver project activities during the Covid period, such as remote case sampling and interviewing techniques for the people who use the service.

Effective triangulation of a complex web of information to enable the emergence of clear findings and options.