Daphne project: 2000-012

Daphne Programme – Year 2002

Final Report – Multiannual Project

Project Nr.:2000/DAP/012/WC

Title: Domestic Abuse Strategy Initiative (European Partnership)

Start Date: 01/01/2001End Date: 31/12/2002

Co-ordinating Organisation’s name: Voluntary Action West Lothian

Contact person:

Name: Sharon Houstoun

Address: 19 Jarvey Street

Postal code:EH48 4EZ

City:Bathgate

Country:United Kingdom

Tel. N°.:0044 1506 634115

Fax N°.:0044 1506 633495

e-mail:

Partner Organisations’ names and countries:

Co-operativa Nuova Sintesi / Italy
Eskilstuna Kommun / Sweden
Lothian NHS Board (formerly Lothian Health) / United Kingdom
Voluntary Action West Lothian / United Kingdom
West Lothian Council / United Kingdom
West Lothian Healthcare NHS Trust / United Kingdom
West Lothian Women’s Aid / United Kingdom

1. Aims of the project

The aim of this project was to promote multi-agency working in the field of domestic abuse by encouraging and facilitating communication between voluntary organisations, professionals and public authorities.

The project set out to address the problems caused by a lack of communication between agencies working to combat domestic abuse. This gap in communication can lead to inconsistent information or referrals between services and may mean that those affected by domestic abuse do not benefit from an integrated, seamless service.

The beneficiaries of the project are the women, young people and children using the services in each of the partner areas who are now being offered a more consistent and co-ordinated service.

The expected results of the project were that multi-agency groups would be established in the partner regions of Eskilstuna in Sweden and Castelfranco Veneto/Asolo in Italy. These regions would benefit from the knowledge and experience already gathered in West Lothian where a multi-agency network has been working to combat domestic abuse since 1998. Once these multi-agency groups were fully operational, they would start working on joint strategies to combat domestic abuse in their own areas. Ultimately, service provision to victims of domestic abuse in the three partner areas would be improved by being consistent and co-ordinated, no matter which agency a woman, young person or child first approached.

In West Lothian, where the multi-agency group was already fully operational and working from a strategy document, monitoring and evaluation of the work in progress would take place to establish the effectiveness of multi-agency working in domestic abuse.

Other expected results of the project included:

The production of a website

A guide to multi-agency working

A report on domestic abuse in each of the partner areas

A major international conference at the end of the project to promote multi-agency working.

2. Implementation of the project

Planned activities that were implemented.

A multi-agency group was established in Italy.

This group has been meeting since March 2001 and has a wide representation from agencies working on domestic abuse. This group has agreed on a common definition of domestic abuse which now guides all work. The group has also undertaken research into the level of domestic abuse in their region in an attempt to determine the extent of the problem. The Italian multi-agency group has also started to work on a joint strategy document.

A multi-agency group was established in Sweden.

This group had more difficulties becoming established due to rigorous bureaucratic procedures, the fact that a large project working with the victims and perpetrators of domestic abuse was already seen to be adequate and historical mistrust between agencies.

A report was produced into the extent of domestic abuse, services available to those affected by the problem and legislation in each of the partner areas.

Research was undertaken by each multi-agency group and a high-quality report produced in English, Swedish and Italian. This report was widely circulated and will be made available on the DASI website.

In West Lothian, the multi-agency group agreed on a workplan to implement the strategy to combat domestic abuse.

This workplan was agreed by the multi-agency group and indicators were established to monitor the progress of the group. A group of women who have been abused was established in West Lothian to monitor the development of the workplan.

A website was produced.

A website, address was set up and contains information on the DASI project, links to the report on domestic abuse and the guide to multi-agency working.

Visits by the project co-ordinator to the partners took place, along with group meetings in West Lothian, Castelfranco Veneto/Asolo, Italy and in Eskilstuna, Sweden.

A Guide to Multi-Agency Working was produced.

A reference guide with hints and tips for successful multi-agency working in domestic abuse was produced. This is a high quality document produced in the three project languages and has been widely distributed. The document is also available on the project website.

Planned activities that were not implemented.

The original project application stated that the multi-agency groups in Sweden and Italy would produce strategy documents to combat domestic abuse. In practice, this was found to be unrealistic as it took a great deal of effort, time and goodwill to encourage people who had not worked together in the past to collaborate. The project partners in Italy and Sweden have worked extremely hard to bring together a wide range of people and organisations in their multi-agency groups. Initially, it has been more important for the groups to work on common definitions of domestic abuse and determining the extent of the problem. The writing of strategy documents will be undertaken once solid foundations have been established.

Unforeseen activities that were implemented.

A public conference was held in Italy.

This conference took place during the group visit to Italy in June 2002. The conference was organised on the initiative of the Italian partners and was well organised. Posters were displayed throughout the region and the event was well attended.

A conference was held in Sweden.

This conference took place during the group visit to Sweden in September 2001. The conference was organised on the initiative of the Swedish partners and brought together the many agencies working against domestic abuse along with the project partners for a wide-ranging discussion on best practice.

Changes to timetable

Some changes to the original timetable were made by the project steering group at the first project meeting. These changes related to the dates of visits and were agreed by all partners. The changes were made to allow for more equal spacing of project meetings.

Partner contributions.

Voluntary Action West Lothian

Lead partner in the project. Responsible for co-ordination and hosting of the project. Liaison between project partners, monitoring of West Lothian workplan to combat domestic abuse, supervision of project co-ordinator, drafting of materials produced, co-ordination of final conference.

West Lothian Council

Provision of project assistant, lead role in West Lothian multi-agency working group, role in design of website. Crucial support with final conference (including provision of technical staff, co-ordinating promotion/media work and venue arrangements.)

Lothian NHS Board (formerly Lothian Health)

Lead role on evaluation of project, input and advice on health promotion.

West Lothian Women’s Aid

Direct service provider to women and children who have been abused. Lead role in participation of women who have been abused in evaluation of project. Provision of statistics.

West Lothian Healthcare NHS Trust

Chair West Lothian Multi-Agency Group and also took lead role in participation of women who have been abused in the evaluation of the project.

Co-operativa Nuova Sintesi

Co-ordinated establishment and operation of multi-agency group in Castelfranco Veneto/Asolo in Italy. Organised public conference in June 2002.

Eskilstuna Kommun

Co-ordinated establishment and operation of multi-agency group in Eskilstuna in Sweden. Organised conference in September 2001.

3. Results and impacts of the project

The results of the project are that groups have been formed in Sweden and Italy to co-operate and exchange information, experience and best practice on domestic abuse. However, it is too early for these groups to have made any real impact on the women, children and young people using the individual services. The benefits of this joint working will be demonstrated in the future with enhanced co-operation and joint working between agencies.

The project partners monitored the project throughout the two years. Regular updates were provided and regular meetings took place. The mid-term evaluation of the project was finalised in December 2001. This evaluation focused on the success to date of multi-agency working in West Lothian. An external consultant who has worked with abused women, children and young people in the past undertook the evaluation. The consultant was also responsible for carrying out the final evaluation in 2002.

In the mid-term and final evaluations, the consultant interviewed members of the West Lothian multi-agency group and training participants. Separate local focus groups of women who have been abused were also established to discuss services available and to monitor the work of the multi-agency group. These focus groups are still at a very early stage but some women who had been abused did attend the final conference and participate in workshops. However, most of the women interviewed did comment that multi-agency working had improved the level of service provision in West Lothian.

The midterm and final evaluations concluded that the project had been instrumental in focusing the work of the West Lothian Multi-Agency Group and driving forward its action plan.

Evaluation of the conference was undertaken in an evaluation form, which was sent out to all conference delegates.

4. Dissemination and follow-up

The results of the project, including the report on domestic abuse and the guide to multi-agency working are available on the project website. These documents have also been distributed to agencies working on domestic abuse throughout Scotland, Italy and Sweden.

A major international conference was organised in West Lothian in November 2002 to disseminate the results of the project. This conference attracted around 100 delegates, with almost half of that number paying to attend. The majority of conference delegates were from agencies in Scotland, but there were also 9 delegates from Sweden, 5 from Italy and 3 women who had been abused in the past. The conference raised public awareness of domestic abuse as national television featured the conference as their headline news and it was also featured in local newspapers. All speeches were interpreted into Swedish and Italian, and there were presentations from the Swedish and Italian partners about domestic abuse in their country. Other conference speakers included the Assistant Chief Constable of Lothian and Borders Police Force and the National Children’s Worker at Scottish Women’s Aid.

The DASI website will continue to operate and disseminate the results of the project. Copies of the documents produced are still available to agencies on request.

The visibility of the European Commission was ensured on all documents, the website and in all press releases with the presence of the EU logo and a statement confirming that the project was part-funded by the European Commission. The EU logo was also included on the headed paper and annual report of Voluntary Action West Lothian and on the project headed paper and compliment slips.

5. Conclusions

The Domestic Abuse Strategy Initiative Project (D.A.S.I.), has been very successful in bringing together agencies in Castelfranco, Italy and Eskilstuna, Sweden to work collectively to combat domestic abuse. Although there are a number of agencies working in each region to provide services to the victims of domestic abuse, in the past they have worked on an individual basis with little contact between agencies. This has resulted in service provision being offered on an inconsistent basis. The project has enabled the two regions to develop multi-agency groups meeting on a regular basis to ensure those services are consistent and co-ordinated in their approach. In West Lothian, Scotland, where a multi-agency group has been operational since 1999, the project has enabled the group to formulate and drive forward an action plan to progress the aims of the strategy. For the first time, groups of abused women have been involved in the development of the work plan and in monitoring the services available to them. The exchange of information and good practice between the three regions has been instrumental to the success of the project and has been a three-way process despite the differences in service provision.

ANNEX 1: KEYWORDS

The main purposes of the Daphne Programme are to create networks and to encourage the exchange of information and best practices. The Commission has therefore set up a database containing the details of all completed Daphne projects. This database is accessible via the Daphne page on the EC web site:

(

Beneficiaries / Daphne Objectives / Areas
 Children / Support to the collaboration of organisations /  Sexual violence
 Young people /  Support to multidisciplinary networks /  Gender violence
 Women /  Exchange of good practices /  Violence in family
 Studies /  Violence in domestic context
Specific groups / Support to public awareness /  Violence in schools
 Homosexuals /  Information campaign /  Violence in institutions
 Migrants /  Information sources /  Violence in urban areas
 Refugee /  Recognition and reporting /  Violence in rural areas
 Asylum seekers /  Violence in the work place
 Trafficked persons /  Trafficking in human beings
 Ethnic minorities / Specific Objectives /  Commercial sexual exploitation
 Handicapped /  Prevention of violence /  Internet
 Domestic workers /  Protection from violence /  Child Pornography
 People in prostitution /  Treatment of victims /  Racism
 Elderly /  Reintegration of victims /  Self-harm
 Prisoners /  Counselling victims /  Physical punishment
 Support to families /  Female genital mutilation
Targeted Audience /  Legislative measures /  Health impacts
 Violent men /  Treatment of offenders
 Perpetrators / offenders /  Reintegration of offenders / Instruments
 Public Authorities /  Network with NGOs
 General Public /  Multisector network
 Medical staff /  Awareness-raising
 Educational staff /  Dissemination of good practice
 Police staff /  Guidelines / Counselling
 Judicial staff /  Models (analysis / development)
 Media / Journalists /  Training
 Production of materials
 Conference / seminar
 Telephone / Internet Helpline
 Field work

ANNEX 2: LIST OF MATERIALS PRODUCED

  1. Reference Guide to Multi-Agency Working
  2. Report into Domestic Abuse in the Three Partner Areas
  3. DASI website –
  4. Poster promoting Italian public conference
  5. Quarterly project reports
  6. Group visit reports

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