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The Evaluation of an Integrated Programme to Address Family Violence in the United Kingdom

Colin Holt
Lawrence Weston Family Centre

I firstly intend to describe the work of the Barnardo's Family Centre where the integrated programme developed. Then I will provide a brief description of the programme, followed by the key factors of the integrated components. Finally I will share the main findings of the evaluation of the programme.

1. Home spun - I am a practitioner and work directly with the men at the Centre; my female colleagues work with the women and children.

2. The project is the only known child protection agency specializing in work with violent men.

Description of Family Centre

The Family Centre is a resource for pre-school children and their 'parents'. We are primarily a child protection project with 70% of the children that we work with on the Child Protection Register. Our aim is to promote the development and potential of young children and their families in the community and to prevent the need for children to be looked after by the local authority.

The focus of our work is on 'parenting problems'. We address a wide variety of parenting issues in a variety of ways combining individual work, groupwork and family work according to assessed and expressed need.

Violence in the Family

Being specifically a child-focused project determines how we work with women and men because primarily we work with them as 'mothers and fathers'.

From our work with families over the past twelve years, domestic violence and its clear implications for children led us to design a specific approach to this problem that is both in context with the Family Centre's general aims and runs alongside the range of family work that we are required to offer.

We work with violent men towards change because their violence affects children and women. We work simultaneously with children and women who are the victims of violence in order to support and protect them.

The project, along with other agencies, consistently assesses the safety of the man's partner and children, keeping choices and safeguards for them as a priority.

Some of the families we work with remain together and the violence ceases; some families need help to successfully separate. In all cases, we hope to have an impact on the men's violent behaviour, his personal relationships and his approach to fathering in this, or a subsequent family.

Integrated Programme

The programme is divided into four clear components and services which interconnect..

• Behavioral component, where we offer individual counselling, focusing on changing violent behaviour.

• Cognitive component where we offer single-sex discussion groups to challenge and change the men's thoughts and belief systems towards violence.

• Emotional component where we offer fathers' and children's groups focusing on changing the emotional defence systems of men.

• Relationship component where we offer couple and family therapy focusing on changing relationship patterns.

It is important to state that each component incorporates a range of methodologies and approaches used by many of us working with men who are violent. However, the success of this programme is due to the way in which each component intertwines and interconnects with each other.

Behavioral Component

The aim of this component is to offer clear strategies to enable the man to change and control his violent behavior.

Individual counselling is the central component as it offers continuity and support to the individual male and female partner throughout the programme.

The emphasis on judging the behaviour not the person, and developing a therapeutic alliance, is crucial to enable the man to explore and change his violence.

Cognitive Component

We have found that groupwork is the most successful method in reframing the male socialization process of power and control, competitiveness and independence. The avoidance of vulnerability, showing feelings and intimacy in relationships can also be best explored in an all-male environment.

A women's group runs in tandem to the men's group, to offer support and self protection work.

Emotional Component

This component enables the man to become more emotionally expressive and articulate in his relationship with his children.

Education of the emotional and physical development of children, assertive discipline and parenting skills, coupled with individual definition and role of a father is explored at this stage.

A fathers' and children's group enables the man to practice these new-found skills in a supportive environment with other fathers.

A mother's' and children's group provides a similar exchange of educative and supportive skills. The children also enjoy the opportunity to play alongside other children.

The children attend the Centre up to three times a week and are assigned a specialist worker to focus on their particular needs.

Relationship Component

The aim of this component is to explore conflict resolution and problem-solving techniques within the couple's relationship.
Couple and family work enables the female partner and children to share their pain and often unresolved anger towards the man's violence.

This often final stage is used to consolidate the man's new behaviour and draws connections with the other components.

Reason for integrating the different components

We have found that each individual component appears only to change violent behaviour while the men are attending the programme. The integration of the four components offers a higher success rate one year after the programme. The key reasons for this are: 1) Each component works as a building block to offering a more flexible response to the individual and family needs.

The range of services enables the parents to have some choice and control in engaging in the programme. It therefore encourages a cooperation and partnership with the Family Centre and helps to reduce the stigma and defensiveness felt by some men when initially accepting help.

2) The integration of services reduces the risk of colluding or taking a persecutory stance with the man, which we find often happens in individual and family work.

The parent and children's group and couple and family work, enables workers to support the parent in practical ways and to directly observe behavioral changes, to monitor change and to fully assess the needs of the children.

The integrative approach enables all individual family members to receive appropriate services in their own right.

The main disadvantage to providing a range of services is that workers can lose sight of the main objective, and can become embroiled in resident behaviour.

Evaluation of the programme, January 1003 to February 1995

- 20 men referred to the programme.

- 16 men completed the programme.

- 14 female partners reported no physical violence from their partners one year after the completion of the programme.

The men's violence was evaluated through family meetings at the beginning, middle and end of the programme and four follow-up family meetings at three-monthly intervals after the programme. These meetings were based on individual contracts at the outset of the programme.

The men's violence was also monitored through Health and Social Services Department, through six-monthly multi-agency meetings.

The evaluation is divided into reported information from the men, their female partners and outside agencies.

Reported information from 14 female partners

1.	14 women reported that all physical violence had stopped, one year after the programme.
2.	6 women who had experienced violence over a two-year period said they were still afraid of their male partner. There may be a correlation between the length of time violence is experienced and the length of time required for trust to develop within an adult relationship.
3.	6 women stated that their male partners had been verbally abusive and threatening since the programme finished.
4.	10 women stated that they were able to be more assertive within the adult relationship and felt emotionally closer to their partners.
5.	12 women said that their partners had taken on more responsibility for day to day child care.

Reported information from interviews with 16 men involved in the programme

1.	16 men reported developing more confidence in controlling their violence by continuing to use a range of techniques taught in the programme.
2.	14 men stated that they felt less isolated and continued to develop supportive networks.
3.	12 fathers stated that they had developed a clear parenting role, and were enjoying being involved with their children on a day to day basis.
4.	10 men said they were learning to accept support and felt a closer bond with their partners.

Outside Agencies

Education and health agencies reported a significant improvement in the children's overall development and behaviour, i.e. regular school attendance, improved concentration and social skills.

Health visitors and community children's groups reported more fathers attending parent drop-in groups and baby clinics.

Social Services reported that they had not received information regarding violence about the 16 fathers attending the programme, one year after the programme had finished.

We acknowledge that this evaluation of an integrative programme to address family violence is a small, qualitative study with an absence of a control group.

However, we feel that the clear success in physical violence continuing to be absent in 14 out of 16 families, one year after the programme, is mainly due to the integrated approach outlined.

For more information, contact the author at:

Lawrence Weston Family Centre
Barnardos, Home Farm, Kingweston Lane
Lawrence Weston, Bristol BS11 0JE
UNITED KINGDOM