Implementing Safe & Together in Scotland: Creating Domestic Abuse–Informed Systems, Services & Workforces Year Three Learning Report 2023/24

The Improvement Service’s Year Three Learning Report is the third in a series tracking the same 12 Scottish local authorities and partnerships funded by the Scottish Government’s Delivering Equally Safe Fund to embed the Safe & Together™ Model, covering activity through March 2025. Where the Year Two report established baseline measures of practice change, this report focuses on the evidence of impact that has emerged since, drawing on a survey of the 12 funded areas, focus groups and interviews with practitioners in one funded area, and training evaluation feedback.

Practitioner skill in partnering with adult survivors and identifying their strengths and protective efforts rose from 67% to 100% of the 12 funded areas reporting signs of change. Effectiveness in assessing perpetrators’ patterns of coercive control rose from 55% to 92%, and the likelihood of practitioners creating interventions and plans focused on perpetrator behaviours rose from 50% to 75%. 83% of areas now report practitioners are more likely to create documentation outlining both perpetrator patterns and survivor strengths. Local areas also described a shift in language and practice, including improved confidence in holding perpetrators accountable, while noting that most areas remain at a relatively early stage of full implementation.

The report identifies what a sustainable Scottish Safe & Together Model needs going forward: continued, dedicated funding for roll-out, resources for local implementation leads, national coordination and oversight of training, and integration of Safe & Together into local and national policy to support a joined-up approach across systems.