Evaluation of Growing Futures: Research Report

Report by Katie McCracken et al, Department for Education (2017)

Growing Futures was established in Doncaster to improve the outcomes of families, and particularly children and young people, who have experienced domestic violence and abuse, by improving the services that work with them. Growing Futures was designed to address significant historic difficulties with multi-agency working and poor levels of trust between service users and services. It was led by Doncaster Children's Services Trust.

Programme key components

Key components of the Growing Futures include:

Findings

Direct work and outreach work with families and communities has improved. The evaluation found that, in some cases, a new and more trusting type of relationship between professionals and victims and families could be forged. This was because of the introduction of a new model of working, and particularly the DAN role. Using action research with young people also raised awareness of the issue among that group, and encouraged them to challenge cultural acceptance of domestic abuse in Doncaster. This programme produced new insights into views among young people in the area, and resulted in several young people launching their own campaign to address the local education gap over domestic abuse.