Domestic Abuse

We deliver accredited short duration and early help programmes and mentoring that deliver behaviour change that is meaningful and lasting, ensuring that people understand the consequences of their behaviour and able to live free from harm

Many of our staff have direct experience of Domestic Abuse and have used our desistance skills-sets to address their ongoing issues with the abuse they had experienced.

As is our speciality, we fostered these life skills, creating two new courses to address gaps in current provisions. Most notably a SHORT duration Offender Course which seeks to engage with offenders in the early stages of the cycle of abuse, as well as an Affected Other Course which provides tools to enable learners to move on from their abuser, or where appropriate, be able to impose a balanced new relationship that is positive for the whole family.

Intuitive Thinking Skills have over 4 years’ experience working with people affected by domestic abuse within Local Authority Partnerships, Tier 3 Drug and Alcohol Services, HMP Women’s Prisons and Domestic Abuse Charities.

Our alternative approach to working with Offenders and Affected Others of Domestic Abuse was piloted and then integrated within Wigan Tier 3 Drug and Alcohol Services in 2019, referrals being made by Case Workers, Social Services and Police.

Additionally, funded by the Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG), our valuable partnership with Derbyshire County Council, Social Services and Police provided us the opportunity for our Domestic Abuse Interventions to be evaluated and has shown some remarkable outcomes.  We look forward to hopefully extending this work and replicating with other interested commissioners.

We take referrals from a range of partner agencies, most typically, Police, Safeguarding Boards, Social Services, and Drug and Alcohol Tier 3 services and work closely with these agencies to agree what a positive outcome looks like for the family, prior to a full RIC assessment of both parties.

At these assessments, we agree on a set of desired outcomes with the participants prior to allocating them to the appropriate course. This whole family approach means that we get to look at the WHOLE family and create a bespoke plan of action for each member, utilising our impressive array of local partnerships to get the best for the family.

All our work is gender-informed, and we are proud of the fact that our services are available to participants regardless of their gender or sexual orientation.

Courses:

Funded through the Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Home Office funding, we undertook a focused assessment on our whole family model in Derbyshire, working closely with Adult Social Services, in order to evaluate the effectiveness of our This End’s Here DA Offender programme.

The purpose of the evaluation was to assess the impact on re-offending of the selected participants of the This Ends Here course.

A small but significant cohort was identified for the programme, with both programmes being made accessible to the families involved.

The pilot was evaluated by Dr Jamie Bird of Derby University and identifies:

“Incident reporting data provided by Derbyshire Constabulary suggests that there is a significant change to the level of reported incidents for those who participated in the This Ends Here course. There was a 59% drop in overall reported incidents, including a 73% drop in incidents where the participant was a suspect.”

We are able to be flexible in the design and implementation of our services to ensure they support the improvement and achievement of outcomes of our Partners, Commissioners, and most importantly meet the needs of the learners. Read more about our Bespoke and Tailored Services Here.