Safe & Together Model Featured as Best Practice in Landmark UK Government Report on Children as Victims of Domestic Abuse
By David Mandel, CEO and Founder, Safe & Together Institute
In April 2025, the Domestic Abuse Commissioner for England and Wales released “Victims in their own right? Babies, children & young people’s experience of domestic abuse”—a landmark report that marks a pivotal moment in how children are recognised and supported in domestic abuse contexts. Published on the fourth anniversary of the Domestic Abuse Act 2021—which, for the first time, gave children legal status as victims in their own right—the report calls for a step change in how services respond to the lived realities of babies, children, and young people impacted by domestic abuse.
This comprehensive review draws on engagement with children and over 860 professionals across health, education, social care, policing, and the voluntary sector. It makes a clear case for models and approaches that move beyond incident-based, adult-centric systems to deliver trauma-informed, child-focused, and perpetrator-accountable practice. Among the highlighted approaches, the Safe & Together Model is featured as an exemplar of the type of whole-systems reform that can support local authorities and multi-agency partnerships to meet these new expectations.
Supporting Local Authorities to Deliver on Children’s Rights
Local authorities across the UK are increasingly expected to embed a rights-based approach in their safeguarding work—one that recognises children not just as witnesses to abuse, but as active holders of rights to safety, recovery, voice, and participation. The Safe & Together Model aligns closely with this shift, offering practical tools and principles that help professionals keep children safe and together with the protective parent while holding the perpetrator accountable.
“The Safe & Together Model has brought about fundamental systems change in how social care cases are viewed and then responded to through a domestic abuse lens. Children’s social care staff across all levels of management and practice complete Safe & Together training. Tools have been adapted to incorporate the components and principles of the Safe & Together model and there is consultation on a case-by-case basis by the VAWG Team that is well integrated within the social care response, with keen oversight and facilitation from the VAWG team. Practitioners have shared insights that there has been a shift in language around coercive control and perpetrator accountability.” (pp. 163–165)
In Waltham Forest, Safe & Together is embedded throughout children’s social care, influencing practice from frontline decision-making to senior leadership. The model has improved the identification of coercive control, changed professional language, and enhanced collaboration across services—contributing directly to more child-centred and risk-aware interventions.
Alignment with the Department for Education’s Strategic Priorities
The report’s findings and recommendations also align with the Department for Education’s (DfE) evolving priorities around early help, family safeguarding, and a more integrated children’s social care system. The Stable Homes, Built on Love strategy (2023) calls for multi-disciplinary responses that are proactive, trauma-responsive, and grounded in the lived experiences of children. The Safe & Together Model offers a ready-made, evidence-informed framework that supports this strategic direction by equipping professionals to assess risk through a perpetrator pattern lens, partner with non-abusing parents, and build systems that respond to coercive control and cumulative harm.
Driving Whole-System Change Across Nations
In Scotland, the Model has been adopted across agencies in the Highlands, creating shared language and consistent responses that reflect both child protection and domestic abuse best practice:
“Within the wider context of the Scottish GIRFEC (Getting It Right for Every Child) approach, the Safe & Together Model has brought in a cohesive, systemic approach to the domestic abuse response in the Highlands, Scotland. Backed by a robust partnership and governance arrangement between the Highland Violence Against Women Partnership and the Highland Child Protection committee, the model has strategic and operational buy-in from statutory partners beyond social care, including Marac chairs, criminal justice, health, and other multi-agency partners.” (p. 158)
This whole-area implementation illustrates how Safe & Together can support wider policy goals, such as those set out in the Scottish Government’s Equally Safe strategy, the National Guidance for Child Protection, and ongoing work on a Child Rights Approach.
Building Workforce Confidence and Consistency
Since 2019, the London Partnership for Safe & Together Implementation—coordinated with Respect UK—has worked with boroughs to embed the Model through workforce development, case consultation, and leadership engagement. Practitioners report that the Model has enhanced their ability to focus on the source of harm: the perpetrator.
“In London, Respect has partnered with Safe & Together since 2019, when the project was first established in Hackney and Waltham Forest. Since then, Respect has been awarded MOPAC funding via the Home Office to continue implementation and expand the London Partnership into four further boroughs: Newham, Hammersmith & Fulham, Barnet, Barking & Dagenham. Respect Implementation Leads work in 5 other London boroughs through the Restart partnership; Camden, Croydon, Havering, Westminster, and Sutton.
A key element of the S&T approach is mapping patterns of abuse and coercion, rather than treating incidents in isolation. This perpetrator pattern-based approach prioritises direct interventions with perpetrators, setting high standards for the abusive parent, and ensuring that responsibility for harm remains with them. The approach also focuses on partnering with the victim-survivor through a strengths-based lens. A core principle reinforced in their case consultations is avoiding victim-blaming and mutualising language – for example, rather than stating that a “mother keeps letting the father back into the home”, practitioners are encouraged to explore the father’s actions that enable him to regain access. This could include withholding child maintenance, making threats, or damaging the mother’s reputation within her community.” (pp. 158-159)
Policy Recommendation and Future Direction
Critically, the report includes a formal policy recommendation for wider implementation of the Safe & Together Model. Recommendation 63 urges the Department for Education to “Implement learning into the new Child Protection and Family Help Offer, including models that partner with the non-abusive parent and hold the perpetrator to account, such as Safe & Together.” (p. 115-116)
This is not just an endorsement of one model—it is a recognition of the need for structured, values-based practice frameworks that align with the UK’s legislative and policy context. As Local Authorities navigate increasing expectations to deliver more joined-up, trauma-informed services for children experiencing domestic abuse, the Safe & Together Model offers a scalable, evidence-informed foundation to support this work.
A Roadmap for National and International Reform
The inclusion of Safe & Together in “Victims in their own right?” affirms its value as a model that bridges the gap between policy aspiration and frontline practice. It positions the Model as an essential tool for delivering on the Domestic Abuse Act, meeting the ambitions of the DfE’s strategy, and aligning with the UK’s commitment to children’s rights under the UNCRC.
For international audiences, the report offers a timely and compelling example of how the Safe & Together Model can drive system-wide change in keeping children safe, holding perpetrators accountable, and supporting non-offending parents. As countries around the world seek to strengthen their domestic abuse responses, this UK Government endorsement signals both a mandate and a method for reform.
